1

1 What is pop?
, ln 1956, a young man from the fun, it can be dangerous. For the
---.:.
south of the United States made a people who work in the pop
record called Heartbreak Hotel. business, it is usually about
The young man was Elvis Presley. making money. For most people,
Eight million people bought his it is about having a good time.
record and it went straight to Pop is for now.
number one in the US charts.
lt was the first of many hits for
Elvis and it was also one of the
first modem pop records.
'Pop' is popular m usic: the
music of the people. There has
always been popular music, but
pop was born around the time
that Elvis began singing - more
than forty years ago . Pop songs
are about girls and boys, going
out, dancing, having a good time, Pop can be fun : Roy Wood
being in love and being out of
love. Pop is for the young. lt is Most pop doesn't mean very
about growing up and about not much. And yet, now and then,
growing up. lt is about feeling pop says something importam in
different. Pop tells you a beautiful way. There are some
it is OK to feel the songs and sounds which speak to
way you do. Pop everyone. This book tells you
can be happy or about some of the great stars and
sad. It can be the great sounds of pop during
strange, it can be the last forty years.

Pop ca n be strange: Alice Cooper

2

2 The fifties
So how did it all begin ? was a boy. Presley was bom in
Forty years ago in the United 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi: He
States, there were already many carne from a poor white family.
different kinds of popular music: When he was a boy, he heard
bla,ck music, white music, and gospel music in his parems'
gospel, the music of the church. church and he heard black people
America was rich. Young playi~g R and B. H e made his
people had jobs. They had money . first record in 1954 and in 1956
to buy radios and to listen to the he had his first number one hit:
new records. They had money to Heartbreak Hotel. Sudden ly he
buy electric guitars. They began was famou s and he was rich. H e
to play the new music: R and B - looked good, he was a great
rhythm and blues, and rock and singer and he was differcnt. Girls
roll. liked him . Boys wanted to be like
him.
Elvis
Before Elvis, most young
Elvis Presley listened to these
people were like their mothers
different kinds of music when he

Black music: John Lee Hooker White music: Hank Williams

'.
 Forty Years of Pop - - 3

and fathers. They wore the sarne

clothes, they did the sarne things.
After Elvis, everything changed.
Young people wanted to be
different. They wanted different
clothes. They had different music.
Elvis was the first star of rock
and roll, the first pop s'tar.
Presley's later life was not so
ha ppy. He ma de some bad
records and bad films. ln the
seventies he sang in Las Vegas,
but he had problems with drugs Girls liked E/vis
and died in 1977. Today, millions
have been many stars of pop and
still remember him and still call
many different kinds of music.
him the King - the King of Rock
But in the 1950s, one man more
and Roll. Since the 1950s, there
than any other changed pop
music: Elvis. He was the man
who, more than any other, started
the story of pop.
Sounds of the fifties
Listen to singles from Elvis like:
Heartbreak Hotel, jailhouse
Rock, Hound Dog, Lave Me
Tender. And to the .ecords o.f
other great names from the
1 950s~ Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly,
Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard,
Eddie Cochran.
Gosp el music
4

3 The sixties (1): the USA

Some people call the sixties a group of (older!) British pop
golden time for pop. Pop became music writers to name the best
a voice for millions of young pop album of all time: their
people and it, became big number one? - Brian Wilson's Pet
business. And many different Sounds.
kinds of pop carne from the rock Ih Detroit (Motown, the city of
and roll of the fifties. the motor car), there was the
black sou! music of Marvin Gaye
and Otis Redding; here too, the
record producer, Phil Spector, was
building something he called the
Wall of Sound with mainly black
singers, like Ike and Tina Turner
(River Deep, Mountain High) and
girl groups like The Ronettes.

The Beach Boys go surfing

One new kind, from California,

was the surfing sound of the
Beach Boys: the most successful
American group of the sixties.
Brian Wilson wrote most of their
songs (God Only Knows, Sloop
John B, Good Vibrations). H e
was always trying to do new
things with his music. ln 1995, a
British pop magazine asked a
Motown: The Supremes
'
- - - - -- - - - - Forty Years of Pop 5

And there was also the completely Hendrix, one of the great
different voice of Bob Dylan, who guitarists of rock. More than
started as a folk singer, then 300,000 people went to the
changed to an electric guitar in Woodstock Festival in 1969 to
1966. He wrote some of the best listen to this kind of music. But
songs in modem music like Ali this was the year that Brian Jones
along the Watchtower, Mr of the Rolling Stones died because
Tambourine Man and A Hard of drugs. One year later, Hendrix
Rain's A-Gonna Fali. Dylan also died from drugs. And a
showed that pop music can be young man was killed while The
exciting and serious. Rolling Stones played at a concert
The 1960s was a time when in Altamont, Cal ifornja. lt was
many young people believed that the end of the dream.
sex and drugs and rock music
Sounds of the sixties (USA)
(the kind of music which carne
Listen to the Beach Boys' Pet
straight from the rock and rll
Sounds; Bob Dylan's Highway 61
and rhythm and blues of the
Revisited; Jimi Hendrix's Are You
fifties) would give love and peace
Experienced?; Marvin Gaye's
to the world. They listened to the
What's Going On; The Velvet
psychedelic music of groups like
Underground ard Nico's The
The Grateful Dead and of Jimi
Velvet Underground.

Otis Redding Bob Dylan

6

4 The sixties (2): the U K

In the 1950s, many pop stars H arrison, and Ringo Starr. They
tried to be like Elvis. But the were from Liverpool. Two years
1960s was a time of big changes after their first record in 1962,
for the young people of the rich they were the most famous group
world. They had more money and in the world: in M arch 1964,'
they were freer. Pop music Beatles' records had the top five
changed too. M ost of the new places in the US charts. The
music carne from the USA, but whole world seemed to go crazy
the sixties was also a golden time about the Beatles: not just about
for pop in the UK. Two of the their music, but about their
groups which changed pop music clothes, their ha ir, the way they
most were English: the Beatles talked. Their music was fu ll of a
and The Rolling Stones. new kind of energy and Lennon
and McCartney wrote great
The Beatles
songs, always trying to do new
The Beatles were John Lennon,
things.
Paul M cCartney, George
Between 1963 and 1969, The
Beatles had eighteen number one
The Beatles. Their c/othes, their hair
w ere different hits in the UK. But they stopped
playing in front of people in
1966. After that they only made
records. Then they started to
disagree, and they stopped
working together campletely in
1970. ln 198 0, a man killed John
. Lenno:p in a street in New York,
so the Beatles can never play a
concert together again. But the
 Forty Years of Pop - -- -- -- - - .___7_

Beatles' music will always live.

The Beatles gave something new
and exciting to pop.
The Rolling Ston~s
Young people and old liked the
Beatles, but the Rolling Stones,
from London, were the bad boys
of rock. They didn't smile, they
looked angry. They had problems
with the police because of drugs.
The music of tbe Stones was
angry too. Their singer, Mick
Their songs will last
Jagger, and guirarist, Keith
Richard, wrote some of the great and they are still playing today.
songs of rock: songs like I Can't Now they are very rich. Their
Get No Satisfaction and music is not as strong as it was
Sympathy for the D evi!. They thirty years ago. But millions -
made their first record in 1962 young and old - still go to see
them. They call themselves 'the
grearest rock and roll band in tbe
world'.
Sounds of the sixties {UK)
Listen to The Beatles' Sergeant
Pepper and R evolver; The Rolling
Stones' Beggar's Bapquet and Let
It Bleed; The Who's Who is
Better, Who is Best; The Kinks'
Collection; Cream's Disraeli
Gears.
The Rolling Stones: the bad boys of rock
8

5 The seventies
Progressive rock and
heavy metal
ln the early seventies, pop music
started to get boring. There were
not so many new and interesting
sounds. Two of the more
interesting kinds of pop were
progressive rock and heavy metal.
, , Progressive rock, played by
groups like Pink Floyd and Progressive: Pink F/oyd
Genesis, carne from the
psychedelic music of the sixties. hard rock or heavy metal group.
Pink Floyd played long concerts Heavy metal is very loud rock
wit4 big light shows. Le mus1c.
Zeppelin, started in 1968 with
Punk and the Sex Pistols
singer Jimmy Page and guitarist
Things were different in the USA.
Robert Plant, was both a
ln New York, bands like The
progressive group and the first
Stooges and The New York Dolls
were making a new, stronger kind
of music. T hey wore strange new
clothes: it was called the glam
look. T hey wanted to wake
people up. This was the start of
punk - the music Cf the seventies.
ln the US, punk was just
another kind of music. But in
Britain, when John Lydon
changed his name to Johnny

Heavy metal: Led Zeppelin

- - - - - - - -- - Forty Years of Pop - - - - - -- - - - 9
L------1

Rotten and joined The Sex Pistols

in 1975 (John Beverley - Sid
Vicious - joined in 1976), young
people immediately knew that
this was differ~nt, the most
different thing since .the Beatles.
Their music was loud and
unmusical. But that didn't matter.
Punk music was ugly because life
was ugly. It was angry because
there was a lot to be angry about: Johnny Rotten
many young people were poor,
.many did not have jobs. Punk dancing, with music from the Bee
was very different from the !ove Gees, made disco tl-}e most
and peace of the sixties. For the popular music of the time. While
punks, there was No Future. many young people were still
But the Pistols were stars for listening to punk bands like The
only three years. ln 1978, Sid Clash, the new international
Vicious killed his girlfriend. A few sound was the music of groups
months later, he too was dead like The Bee Gees and the
from drugs. lt was not the end of Swedish group, Abba.
punk, but it was the end for the Sounds of the seventies
Pistols.
Listen to Abba's Gold - Greatest
Di sco Hits; David Bowie's The Rise and
And yet, as so often in pop, Fali of Ziggy Stardust; Led
another completely different kind Zeppelin's Led Zeptfelin IV; Pink
of music was also popular at the Floyd's The Dark Side of the
sarne time: disco. ln 1977, a film Mo on; The Sex Pistols' Here's the
called Saturday Night Fever, Sex ?istols; Stevie Wonder's
about disco life and disco I nnervisions.
10

6 The eighties computers and synthesizers (see

pages 14-15). Pop was bec,oming
more and more international:
young people in Japan were now
spending more money on records
than in any country outside the
USA. And the new superstars of
the eighties were also different.
Before, most stars were white
men. ln the eighties, one of the
Culture Club biggest stars was black. The other
was a woman .
New pop
Michael Jackson
The new pop of the early eighties
The biggest superstar of the
was 'new' mainly because it was
eighties was Michael Jackson.
not like punk. Some New Wave
Michael Jackson was already a
music had a punk sound, but it
star when he was six, making hit
was not the angry sound of the
records with his brothers in The
Sex Pistols. A lot of it was like
old pop, with bands like Blondie
Michael Jackson
singing simple three-minute songs
again. And New Romantics like
Duran Duran and Culture Club
were not angry either. Pop was
big business, and pop stars were
business people as well as
musicians, interested in selling
records and making money.
But there were differences.
There were new sounds made by
 Forty Years of Pop - - -- - - - - - __
.____11 _

Jackson Five. When he was older,

he made more hits. H e was a
wonderful dancer: he had a new
dance called the Moonwalk. Pop
videos were becoming almost as
important as pop records and
Jackson's videos were new and
exciting. He was also a dever
businessman. H e was already rich
when he bought the Beatles' songs
and these made him even richer. Madonna in contrai
By the end of the eighties,
Jackson was the richest ~tar in an important way for women to
pop. His life was very different be free. And in her videos, which
from the life of most people. H e helped the songs to do well,
lived alone in a big house, with Madonna often showed herself in
animais and children as his contrai of men. Thousands of
friends. M ichael Jackson is still people went to see her; she made
making hit records, but it is now films; she was always on TV.
more difficult for him to be as Madonna showed the way to
popular as he was in the eighties. other women in pop .and many
are now following.
Madonna
The other eighties superstar was Sounds of the eighties
Madonna. Madonna, morethan Listen to Michael Jackson's
any woman singer before, decided Thriller; Prince's Purple Rain;
what she did and controlled what Madonna 's The Im'maculate
she did. She, too, was a very good Collection; Public Enemy's It
dancer and, like Michael Jackson, Takes A Nation Of Millions To
her music was loud, fast, exciting H old Us Back; U2's The ]oshua
disco music. She said that sex was Tree.
12

7 The nineties
Rap
The most important new music of
the nineties was rap. Black music
has always been important to the
story of pop. The rock and roll of
the fifties carne from black music.
ln the sixties, American blacks
made sou! music and Motown. ln
the seventies, Bob Marley and the
Rap: Pub/ic Enemy
Wailers from Jamaica gave reggae
to the world and became
in the seventies, was the music of
international stars. ln the eighties,
the city streets, and the words
funk was the black bridge
were about life on the city streets.
between rock and disco.
Rap changed pop in the nineties
Rap was not new in the
as much as punk did in the
nineties: it started in New York
seventies.
twenty years before. But by the
early nineties, one in five records World music
bought in the US was rap. lt was By the nineties, music was
the most important kind of new international big business. Groups
music since punk. were now playing and selling
Rap is different because records all over the world. And
rappers talk more than they sing. new styles of music were coming
They speak their words fast over from all over the w9rld - Salsa
music, which can come from live from Latin America, Highlife and
musicians or from a DJ (disc Afrobeat from West Africa,
jockey) taking sounds from Township Pop from South Africa
different records. Rap, like punk and many more.
 13

and the danger of AIDS. Grunge

music, from Seattle in the United
States, wanted to go back to the
music of rock and roll, and to
talk about these feelings. This is
perhaps why the death of Kurt
Cobain of N irvana was so
important to young people at this
time. These were the things he
sang about and which he seemed
to understand before he killed
himself.
Sounds of the nineties
Listen to N irvana's Nevermind;
R.E.M. 's Automatic for the
People; Soul to Soul's Club
Classics Volume 2; Ice Cube's The
Predator.

Many kinds of pop

Grunge
The feeling of danger is not just
in rap. There is a dark feeling to
other kinds of music of the
nineties, a feelng which comes
from the danger in the streets,

Kurt Cobain, died 1994

14

8 The changing sound of pop

songs on it. Because albums were

bigger, the covers had pictures
and photos on them. So the
sixties was a golden time, not just
for pop, but for pop pictures.
The sound was changing too .
ln the fifties making a recor d was
simple. But as the technology
The a/bum covers were in teresting, too
changed, it got longer, and more
expensive. ln the sixties,
ln the fifties, records like Elvis's musicians st arted to use a
H eartbreak H otel were singles: machine called a synthesizer, a
they had just one song on the A kind of electronic piano which
side (and another on the B side). made many different sounds.
T he record itself was made of Today, computers are very
vinyl. ln the sixties, records were important. Sequencers can make
still made of vinyl, but the album the sounds of other musical
or LP (long playing record) instruments. And samplers can
became more important. An take any sound or any part of any
album usually had ten to fifteen other record and make it into
part of a new sound or a new
song. M any of the best -selling
sounds of the nineties are not
made by pop groups,.. but by DJs
(disc jockeys) and samplers
working with all the sounds from
forty years of pop. ln the early
eighties, the CD (compact disc)

DJ Killerm an Jaro: t he music of the

nineties
- - - -- - - - - - Forty Years of Pop - -- - - - - -- 15
'------

pop. The old records of the sixties

are now in the shops again, this
time as CDs, so the young people
of today can buy and listen to the
pop from any time.
The guitar
Pop music is made in many
different ways but the musical
instrument of pop is still the
From the single to the LP to the CD
electric guitar. There have been
many great guita,r players since
started to become more important pop was bom. Three of the best
than the LP, and now record are Jimi Hendrix: the great
companies do not make LPs. CDs guitarist of rock; Eric Clapton:
give a very clean sound and the the great guitarist of the blues;
sound stays good for longer. Jerry Garcia: guitarist with the
Because of the CD, there is also a Grateful Dead, for thirty years the
new interest in the early years of most popular live band in the US.

Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jerry Garcia

_;~ 16

9 Listening to pop

You're standing in the dark. and across the crowd. Now

You've been waiting a long time. everyone is dancing.
You can't see anything. lt's hot. You feel very happy, you feel
The place is full of people. You outside yourself. But then the
need air. But it's exciting. And mu sic stops, the place is dark
then a loud voice says: 'lt's time, again. The people call for more
everybody - they're here!' but the band has gone. They are
tired. People start to leave. You
see your friends.
'They were good tonight.'
'They were great.'
'Let's go home.'
'They were really great.'
This is the pop concert: one of
the best ways to get the real
feeling of pop music is going to a
And the band b egins to play ... live concert. Many smaller
concerts now are not so very
Suddenly the lights are on and the
place is full of sound. There are
four people on the stage - three
with guitars and one behind the
drums. And the band begins to
play. The noise is very loud.
Some people in the crowd are
jumping up and down. The music
gets louder and louder. Coloured
lights move fast round the stage
~ave: music you can dance to
- - - - - - - - - - Forty Years of Pop - - - - - - - - - 17
~--

different to the ones of twenty or to pop. For most of the time,

thirty years ago. There have also singers and musicians have been
been some very big concerts. Two the most important people in pop.
of the biggest and the most But today, DJs, samplers and the
important pop concerts were: machines they work with to make
The Woodstock Festival in new sounds, are justas
New York State in 1969, a important. Raves, which began in
three-day concert with more than England in the early nineties, are
300,000 people and the best like big parties where thousands
American bands of the time. of young people go to dance all
The Live Aid concert of night to different kinds of non-
1985, which happened at the stop house music like techno and
sarne time in London and jungle. This music is made by
Philadelphia, and was watched on computer, it is very fast - 180
television by millions of people all beats a minute - and usually has
over the world. They gave more no words. For many young
than f40 million to help the poor people today, the best kind of
of Africa. Live Aid changed the music is rave music, music which
way many older people feel about makes you feel happy, music you
pop. can dance to.
But just as the sound of pop is
changing, so is the way we listen Great pop happenings:
Live Aid 1985 and Woodstock 7969
18

1O Pop today - and tomorrow

Today, pop is for everyone. When watching pop videos of ali kinds
Elvis made Heartbreak Hotel and of music. But MTV has not made
]ailhouse Rock, pop did not have pop the sarne everywhere. MTV
a past and pop was for the young. Asia is not the sarne as MTV in
Forty years later, the grandfathers Latin America. Today, more than
of pop - the Rolling Stones, Bob ever, you can choose your own
Dylan, Eric Clapton, Elton John - kind of music from many
are now the first old people to different kinds.
make pop music: and old people Today pop is big business.
as well as young listen to it. People spend 35 billion dollars on
Today, pop is everywhere. It is records every year. Two in every
in the street, in the big shops, at three records in the world come
the airport. You can get pop from just five companies. These
twenty-four hours a day on your companies are very rich. They
radio, from your Walkman, from help the bands whose records
the TV. MTV (Music Television) they can sell, but not always the
goes to more than 250 million bands whose music is good. They
homes in 60 countries, all can decide who will be a star.

Peter Gabriel: now he's on computer Read about your favourite band on the Internet
4l rue Ull Ulew &o ootm.,'ks OpUon Dlr9c:lo Holp
Nohu o: DHlt : Wbot th SI 1

~d-J...::~........
~~,.,....,~
~~~ _J ,~~
. .
o.. .............. c......,
.... -:.:-~:::~-=:.=.:n
- -- -- -- - - Forty Years of Pop - - - - - - - -- 19
~---

Techno: The Orb Enjoy some of the great sounds of pop

Today you can get pop from music through the Internet into
your computer. You can buy a your computer.
CD-ROM which gives you the And next time you go dancing,
words of 550 of Bob Dylan's not just the music, but the
songs; you can see him play and pictures on the walls, moving in
hear him sing - on your computer. time with the music, could come
On pop CD-ROMs, you can from computers. The technoartist
listen to the music and you can works at the side of the music D].
change it: make it faster or slower, These are some of the new
happier or sadder, use the sounds things in pop. But many things
of different musical instruments. stay the sarne. Reading about pop
Today you can get pop through is fine, but now, why-'don't you
your computer on the Internet. put on a record or go to a concert
You can read the latest news and listen to some of the great
about some bands, ask for and sounds of pop for yourself. Or
pay for a new record, and get the pick up a guitar and make some.
20

Exerci ses

A Checking your understanding

The Fifties How much can you remember? Check your answers.
1 When was Elvis bom?
2 What was the name of his fi.r st hit?
3 Where did he sing in the seventies?
The Sixties (1): The USA Are these sentences true (T) or fa lse (F)?
1 Brian Wilson wrote songs for The Beach Boys.
2 Bob Dylan changed to an electric guitar in 1963.
3 Brian Wilson died of drugs in 1969.
The Sixties (2): The UK Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)?
1 The Beatles' first record was in 1962.
2 The Beatles were from London.
3 The Beatles had eighteen number one hits between 1963 and 1969.
The Seventies Find answers to these questions.
1 What kind of music did Pink Floyd play?
2 What kind of music did Led Zeppelin play?
3 What kind of music did The Sex Pistols pl ay?
The Eighties How much can you remember? Check your answers.
1 Who was the biggest superstar of the eighties?
2 What was the name of his new dance?
3 How old was he when he was first a star?
The Nineties Find answers to these questions.
1 Where does Highlife come from?
2 What is the most important music of the nineties?
3 Which American city did Nirvana come from?
- - - - - - - - - - Forty Years of Pop - -- - - -- - - - 21
~---

B Working with language

1 Put together the beginnings and endings of these sentences. Check
your answers on pages 14 and 15.
1 ln the sixties, records were still made of vinyl ...
2 Because albums were bigger, the covers had pictures on them ...
3 The CD started to become more important than the LP ...
4 Many sounds of the nineties are not made by pop groups at ali ...
5 ... and now record companies do not make LPs.
6 ... but the album or LP became more important.
7 .. . but by DJs and samplers working with all the sounds from the
last forty years of pop.
8 ... and so the sixties was a golden time for pop pictures.
2 Complete these sentences. Check your answers on pages 18 and 19.
1 MTV (Music Television) goes to ...
2 People spend ...
3 Two in every three records in the world ...
4 Next time you go dancing, not just the music ...

C Activities
1 Write a short report on why you like (or don't like) pop music.
2 Write a story about a boy or girl who becomes a famous pop star.

D Project work
Write a short history of a singer or a band that you like a lot.
,
22

Glossary

AIDS a killer illness which people fun having funis having a good
get through sex or blood time
band a pop group hit a record which a lot of people
beat the sound in a piece of buy
music which you move your feet. instrument something you use to
or your body to when you listen; make musical sounds: the guitar
you can count three or four main is an instrument
beats in most pieces of music live live music is made ata concert
bought past tense of 'to buy' or on TV with people watching,
chart a list of the best-selling not music made just for a record
records of the week psychedelic psychedelic music
concert when a singer or a group tries to make people see colours
make music in front of a lot of and hear sounds in the same way
people that psychedelic drugs do
company a business which sells record a thin, round piece of
something to make money plastic with music recorded on it
crazy if you are crazy about serious something important
something, you like it a lot and whih you need to think about
you think about it a lot more carefully. Serious things are
not just for fun
drugs drugs are dangerous things
which people eat or smoke or put single a record with only one
into their bodies song on each side
energy we need energy to make sound the sound,,is what you
1
cars and lights work. We also say hear when you listen to music
that people who a~e full of life ugly not beautiful
have lots of energy wore past tense of 'to wear'