Pop rock (also typeset aspop/rock[4]) isrock music with greater emphasis on professionalsongwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock music.[5][1][6] Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normalrock and roll, early pop rock was influenced by thebeat, arrangements, and original style of rock and roll (and sometimesdoo-wop).[1] It is categorized both as a distinctmusic genre and as continuous categories of pop and rock.[4] The detractors of pop rock often deride it as a slick, commercial product and lessauthentic than rock music.[7]
Muchpop and rock music has been very similar in sound, instrumentation and even lyrical content. The terms "pop rock" and "power pop" have been used to describe more commercially successful music that uses elements from, or the form of, rock music.[8] Writer Johan Fornas views pop rock as "one single, continuous genre field", rather than distinct categories.[4] To the authors Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman, it is defined as an "upbeat variety of rock music" represented by artists and bands such asAndy Kim,the Bells,Paul McCartney,Lighthouse, andPeter Frampton.[9]
The term "pop" has been used since the early 1940s to refer to popular music in general, but in the mid-1950s, it began to be used for a distinct genre, aimed at a youth market, often characterized as a softer alternative to rock and roll.[10][1] In the aftermath of theBritish Invasion, from about 1967, it was increasingly used in opposition to the term rock, to describe a form that was more commercial, ephemeral and accessible.[11]
As of the 2010s, "guitar pop rock" and "indie rock" are roughly synonymous terms.[12] "Jangle" is a noun-adjective that music critics often use in reference toguitar pop with a bright mood.[13]
Critic Philip Auslander argues that the distinction between pop and rock is more pronounced in the US than in the UK. He claims that in the US, pop has roots in whitecrooners such asPerry Como, whereas rock is rooted inAfrican-American music influenced by forms such asrock and roll. Auslander points out that the concept of pop rock, which blends pop and rock, is at odds with the typical conception of pop and rock as opposites. Auslander and several other scholars, such asSimon Frith and Grossberg, argue that pop music is often depicted as an inauthentic, cynical, "slickly commercial", and formulaic form of entertainment. In contrast, rock music is often heralded as an authentic, sincere, and anti-commercial form of music, which emphasizes songwriting by the singers and bands and instrumental virtuosity.[14]
Frith's analysis of the history of popular music from the 1950s to the 1980s has been criticized by B. J. Moore-Gilbert, who argues that Frith and other scholars have overemphasized the role of rock in the history of popular music by naming every new genre using the "rock" suffix. Thus, when afolk-oriented style of music developed in the 1960s, Frith termed it "folk rock", and the pop-infused styles of the 1970s were called "pop rock". Moore-Gilbert claims that this approach unfairly puts rock at the apex and makes every other influence become an add-on to the central core of rock.[15]
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