Rock, pop, soul, rap: the electric age

Before 1950 American popular song was above all an industry of sheet music and melodies: in New York the publishers of Tin Pan Alley commissioned songs that everyone played on the piano, and crooners such as Bing Crosby sang them softly, close to the microphone. After the war three new things turned everything upside down: electricity (guitars and amplifiers), cheap records (the 45 rpm single) and a new audience, teenagers, with pocket money and transistor radios.

Rock and roll (1954–1960)

African American rhythm and blues (blues progressions, a powerful beat, wailing saxophones) met the country music of white Southerners. Around 1954–1956 rock and roll exploded: Chuck Berry and his guitar riffs, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis pounding the piano, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley. The ingredients are simple: the 12-bar blues progression, a backbeat (the snare drum hits beats 2 and 4) and, in the pianist's left hand or on the guitar, a boogie pattern that came straight from the 1930s. Here is that generic pattern, in fifth chords (power chords):

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=160
K:A clef=bass
"A5" [A,,E,]2 [A,,E,]2 [A,,F,]2 [A,,F,]2 | [A,,E,]2 [A,,E,]2 [A,,F,]2 [A,,F,]2 | "D5" [D,A,]2 [D,A,]2 [D,B,]2 [D,B,]2 | "A5" [A,,E,]2 [A,,E,]2 [A,,F,]2 [A,,F,]2 |]

The solid-body electric guitar (Fender Telecaster in 1950–1951, Gibson Les Paul in 1952, Fender Stratocaster in 1954) and the electric bass made it possible to play loud without feedback; an amplifier pushed hard gives distortion, the rough sound that would become rock's signature.

The 1960s: the studio becomes an instrument

British bands, raised on American blues and rock and roll, took over: the Beatles (1962–1970), the Rolling Stones, the Who. Then Jimi Hendrix reinvented the electric guitar. Albums replaced singles: the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966) and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) were built in the studio, track by track, with orchestras, tapes played backwards and Indian instruments. The Woodstock festival (1969) became the symbol of the era.

Meanwhile African American music invented soul by marrying church gospel to rhythm and blues: Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding. In Detroit the Motown label (founded in 1959) turned out hit after hit (the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye); in Memphis, Stax gave soul a grittier sound. James Brown pushed rhythm to the front: this was funk, where every instrument becomes percussion.

From the 1970s to today: fragmentation

• Hard rock and metal: heavier, more distorted guitars.
• Progressive rock: long suites inspired by classical music, keyboards and synthesizers.
• Reggae: in Jamaica in the late 1960s, a slow beat with chords on the off-beats; Bob Marley made it known worldwide.
• Punk (1976–1977): short, fast songs, three chords, raw energy against rock's excesses.
• Disco and electronic pop: the steady pulse of dance music, synthesizers and drum machines.
• Hip-hop and rap: in the Bronx, New York, in the early 1970s, DJs such as Kool Herc used two turntables to string together the instrumental passages (breaks) of funk records; MCs spoke in rhythm over them. Rapper's Delight (1979) was rap's first big hit; with the sampler, hip-hop composes from fragments of existing records.
• House and techno (Chicago and Detroit, 1980s): machine-made music for dancing that conquered the world.

Pop: the art of the song

The word pop means music made to please as many people as possible: short songs (around three minutes, a format inherited from 78 rpm records), a verse–chorus form, a chorus you remember after one hearing. Many songs rest on four-chord sequences repeated in a loop. Here is a very common one (a generic example you will recognise in countless songs):

M:4/4
L:1/4
Q:1/4=100
K:C
"C" [CEG]4 | "G" [B,DG]4 | "Am" [CEA]4 | "F" [CFA]4 |]

What to listen for

• Electric, amplified instruments: guitar, bass, keyboards, drums.
• The backbeat: snare drum on beats 2 and 4.
• A voice in the foreground, recorded close up, often reworked in the studio.
• Short forms, verse–chorus, and repeated riffs.

Listening list

• Chuck Berry, Little Richard (1950s); the Beatles, Abbey Road; Aretha Franklin; Stevie Wonder.
• Bob Marley; early rap; an electronic music album of your choice.