Pop music hits over the generations has really changed immensely and no more so than in the last five years. Throughout the evolution of popular music up until the last 20 years pop music usually encompassed only one genre of music. Take into consideration Baroque, Renaissance, and Classical music. The music was by different composers but stayed well within the same type of musical category. When recorded music came onto the scene and began being broadcasted over radio waves the transmission of pop music hits became different but not it overall mandate which was that it still retained its origin in one type of music.
Think about the advent of jazz during the early part of the 20th century. Jazz was prevalent for a while as the main type of pop music. Anything you heard would have a jazz feel to it. We’re talking pop jazz here not the blues, the blues although popular amongst musicians themselves were more of an influential genre than a popular one. Then of course there was rock and roll which really dominated the pop music hit culture until the advent of Motown and R&B music.
Rock and roll and R&B dominated pop music until Disco came along and then to a small extent country music gained some popularity as a main stream genre. The 70’s was a mixed bag of rock, R&B, ballads and country music, mixed in with a little kitsch. Remember, CW McCall? Rock and R&B still dominated though showing its resilience right up until the late 1980’s when Rap came onto the scene. The mix of pop music hits began to change a bit. Rock and roll was being knocked out a bit by Rap and R&B and was no longer the dominant force in pop.
Today, pop music hits has become an amalgamation of all the music genres. You can have a country song, R&B song, and Rap songs all on one pop chart. Indeed, even radio stations have changed around their formats to be more ubiquitous and less focused on only one kind of music. The influences are all still there thanks to rock and roll but the cadence and tunes themselves have changed and transmogrified into the mix of pop music we have adopted in the last five years. Like everything pop music has progressed and expanded exponentially in the 21st century most of which has occurred just in the last five years.
