1.

1 Assess the profile of a chosen music style in relation

to ...
a) Cultural Influences
Early pop music gained its form from sentimental ballads
- gained its use of vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music,
- Instrumentation from jazz, country, and rock music,
- Orchestration from classical music,
- Tempo from dance music,
- backing from electronic music,
- Rhythmic elements from hip-hop music,
- And has recently when appropriated spoken passages from
rap.

B) Audience perceptions
- Pop music has been dominated by the American and British
music industries, whose influence has made pop music
something of an international mono culture.
- Most regions and countries have their own form of pop music.
- Some of these trends (for example Euro pop) have had a
significant impact of the development of the genre.
- There are many themes to pop music one of the most common
being love

c) Technological developments
- In the 1940s improved microphone design allowed a more intimate
singing style, and ten or twenty years later inexpensive and more durable
45 r.p.m mic as available. Due to this records for singles "revolutionized
the manner of pop music.
- Another technological change was the widespread availability
of television in the 1950s; with televised performances, to
appear on television pop stars had to have a visual presence.
- Multi-track recording (from the 1960s); and digital sampling
(from the 1980s) have also been utilized as methods for the
creation and of pop music.

D) Media representation
-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august
/24/newsid_2512000/2512077.stm
- The media were very interested in music artists life's as I was
hitting the scene any scoop they could get would be on the
newspapers
- Around the 1950s and 60s TV channels like MTV were just
coming about so this was a good for artists to get there new
music out there however to appear on one of these shows you
had to have the perfect look thus was no issue for Michael
Jackson.

1.2 Describe the main musical elements of the style

identified in 1.1, illustrating the relevance of the
following, where appropriate

A) Instrumentation
There are multiple instrumentations in pop music the main ones
are

-Vocals: Most pop songs tend to have lead vocals and backing
vocals. It is important to have good vocals as it helps to make the
song catchy. The vocals must be strong weather that means
singing or rapping.
-Guitar: Guitars are probably the most popular instrument of
pop music, there are multiple types of guitar such as:
Bass guitar: the bass plays an octave lower than an acoustic
guitar. The base creates the pulse of the music
Acoustic guitar: this is the most common guitar, it can be
used as the lead guitar.
Electric guitar: the electric guitar amplifies the music. This
guitar is usually used to set the beat or as a lead guitar,
which performs a melody line or solos.
-Drums: drums help keep the beat, but they also enhance the
rhythm and mood of the music
-Piano: piano can be a main part of slower pop songs for
example Adeles music contains multiple piano interludes.
-synthesizer: is an electronic musical instrument that generates
electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument
amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may
either imitate instruments like piano, Hammond organ, flute,
vocals.

Man in the mirror Michael Say you wont let go James Arthur
Jackson
Vocals Acoustic guitar
Guitar Piano
Keyboard percussion
Synthesizer(imitating bass) drums
vocals

B) Structure
There are multiple ways to structure a pop song. They typically
include

An intro which usually contains another part of the song,

Two different verses which usually tell the story of the song and
help to move the song along,
A chorus that is usually repeated twice and brings across the
main message of the story
A bridge witch usually contains a key change and brings across a
new perspective of the song.
All of these units are placed in different orders to create a song.
there are multiple different orders that these can be arranged in
one of the most popular being; Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus
/ Bridge / Chorus

Michael Jacksons man in the mirror uses the structure;

Verse/ Pre-chorus/ Chorus/ Verse/ Pre-chorus/ Chorus/
Bridge/ Chorus.
James Arthurs say you wont let go uses the structure; Verse/
Chorus/ Verse/ Chorus/ Chorus/ Bridge.
C) Rhythm
Syncopation occurs when a rhythmic pattern that typically
occurs on strong beats or strong parts or strong parts of the beat
occurs instead on weak beats or weak parts of the beat. Most
pop songs have a mixture of syncopated and straight rhythms.
The syncopated rhythms are usually easy to sing. Since they
often match speech better than straight rhythms.
Straight rhythm is where the beat is split into equal subdivisions
(a ratio of 1:1) for playing notes.

Both say you wont let go and man it the mirror use a steady
beat.

D) Lyrical content
Most common themes found in pop tend to be emotions that
affect us all. Things we can all relate to which gives the song
added emotional connection to the audience. People who
recently went through a break-up will probably listen to Adele.
People who are getting ready to go out for the night might listen
to dance/EDM.

Music is a great way to tap into the minds of listeners and affect
people on a personal level. The best songs have lyrics that can
speak to people quite directly.

If you want to go even further, some people like to hide

meanings in their songs.
Pop song can follow multiple different themes such as love and
relationships or rebellion and inspiration etc.
Man in the mirror is about Michaels growing contributions to
social change, and his impressive life as a brake through black
artist who had lived through the huge transformation of the civil
rights movement to become a global star. The most memorable
line of the song Im starting with the man in the mirror
suggests that to make a change you need to change yourself first.
Say you wont let gos tender lyrics talk about falling in love with
someone at first sight, and wanting to grow old with them. He
talks about enjoying and loving her when she is young, and still
wanting to be with her when she is old and grey, just as long as
she wont let go.
To show how serious he is about his love for her, he even
expresses the desire to be with her after they both die.

E) Use of technology
Music technology is connected to both artistic and technological
creativity. Musicians and music technology experts are
constantly striving to devise new forms of expression through
music, and they are physically creating new devices and
software to enable them to do so.
There are multiple different uses of technology in pop music
such as synthesizers and drum machines.

A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates

electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument
amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may
either imitate existing sounds (instruments, vocal, natural
sounds, etc.), or generate new electronic timbres or sounds that
did not exist before. They are often played with an electronic
musical keyboard, but they can be controlled via a variety of
other input devices, including music sequencers, instrument
controllers, fingerboards, guitar synthesizers, wind controllers,
and electronic drums. Synthesizers without built-in controllers
are often called sound modules, and are controlled using a
controller device.

A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to

imitate the sound of drums, cymbals, other percussion
instruments, and often basslines. Drum machines either play
back prerecorded samples of drums and cymbals or synthesized
re-creations of drum/cymbal sounds in a rhythm and tempo that
is programmed by a musician.
Digital sampling technology, introduced in the 1980s, has
become a staple of music production in the 2000s. Devices that
use sampling, record a sound digitally (often a musical
instrument, such as a piano or flute being played), and replay it
when a key or pad on a controller device (e.g., an electronic
keyboard, electronic drum pad, etc.) is pressed or triggered.
Samplers can alter the sound using various audio effects and
audio processing.

F) Production making reference to two recorded examples

by two prominent artists in the style.
When producing pop music theres not just the commercial
aspect to consider - to a large extent, pop music is where the
money is - but also the satisfaction that comes from knowing
that you've been able to tap into the musical desires of a large
cross-section of the public.

1.3 Describe personal response to the style

identified in 1.1 in terms of ,where
applicable:

A) Relationship to own musical output;

In relation to my music I enjoy playing and taking inspiration
from pop music. I enjoy mimicking the upbeat pop songs on my
guitar however I also enjoy the slower more meaning full songs
using fingerpicking and my guitar as although they are slower
they can be more interesting to play rather than just strumming
the strings.
I also prefer to have vocals accompanied by another instrument
such as piano or guitar.

B) Relation to own image/lifestyle;

What considering my image as a performer I would like to be a
performer who can interact with their audience and have an
effect of them ne way of interacting with an audience when
performing live would be to move around a lot and address the
audience and leave time to in a way talk to them although it
would be hard to get a clear response it would still make to
audience feel a part of the performance/show.
However in some of my music I would like people to listen to the
lyrics more that pay attention to the performance I would
achieve this by maybe having a piano in the middle of the stage
so instead of the audience focusing on the performance they are
focusing on the music.

C) Relationship to other personal musical likes and dislikes;

When listening to music I enjoy listening to pop music as there
are a lot of different types of pop music to listen to. I enjoy
artists like demi Lovato and Adele who create raw music usually
contain very little amounts instruments and very strong vocals
as well as artists such as DJ Snake and Justin Bieber who tend to
create more upbeat and electronic sounding music.