What is pop music these days?

Related Artists: The Beatles , The Knack , Luis Fonsi , Daddy Yankee , Justin Bieber

The term 'pop music' often causes confusion, and it seems to have become a term that is so overused that it now tends to cover a range of different music types. So when you say pop music, do you know what it includes? Let us enlighten you.

To start with, pop music is not a shorthand for popular music. The term was first coined to describe music that eventuated from the rock 'n' roll revolution of the mid-1950s. And maybe to your surprise, there is a structure to how a pop song is written. It isn’t generally recorded as a symphony, suite or concerto. Rather, a pop song usually contains verses and a repeated chorus with a length between 2 ½ minutes and 5 ½ minutes. Although, there have been exceptions like Hey Jude from The Beatles, which was an epic seven minutes in length, in the 1950s and 1960s, the songs actually clocked below two minutes.

The confusion with the definition of pop music may also be attributed to the fact that the genre tends to be an assimilation of a range of different styles. Combine a bit of rock and R&B, you get pop. Or maybe some disco with a bit of hip-hop - pop! Recently, Latin music has also entered the pop genre - have a listen to Despacito (although hard to miss, after how overplayed the song was and still is). Electronic music remixed digitally is another one that has joined the pop music bandwagon.

So, we can see why there may be confusion with finding a definition for pop music. There are still tunes today that profess to be pop in its purest form. These generally take the form of songs that are about 3 1/2 minutes, containing vocals with a catchy chorus accompanied by an electric guitar, bass and drums.

To conclude, let us leave you with the biggest pop chart hit in history My Sharona from The Knacks, see what you think.