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What
Pop music originally meant popular music--basically whatever the majority of people were listening to at any given moment, and music made for mass consumption. When raw rock 'n' roll hit the radio in the 1950s and began to encroach on the "wholesome" sounds of mainstream music, the idea of "pop" became strongly defined against rock's rough and urgent sounds--it was melodic, bright, uncomplicated and non-confrontational. Today, pop music is still stuck between those two descriptions. Is it whatever is popular, or does it have particular stylistic characteristics? If it were just mainstream music, then everything in the Top 40 would be pop. But is hip-hop pop? Sum 41? How about Marilyn Manson?
Who
Of course, there are today's teen pop (and popular) stars like Britney Spears and the golden oldies of the '50s and '60s. But a host of non-mainstream, brightly melodic styles fall under pop as well: pop punk (Blink 182), indie tween pop (Wolfie), Japanese pop (Puffy Amiyumi), Brit pop (Elastica), electro pop (Saint Etienne), alternative pop (Bjork). And who can forget the Queen of Pop, Madonna?
When
In the '20s and '30s, before the days of record players and radios in every home, a song achieved pop status when it sold enough sheet music. These songs were written mostly by pianist-composers like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and other artists of Tin Pan Alley. Then record players changed the indicator of popularity to copies of records sold, and later, radio airplay added another measuring stick. The teen pop sound of today--boy bands and pop princesses--have roots in the harmonies of the girl and boy groups of the '60s, in particular Motown groups like the Supremes and the Temptations, as well as in the rhythms of R&B and hip-hop from the '80s and '90s.
