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Frank Sinatra becomes the first real "pop star"
Frank Sinatra opened his show in New York at Paramount Theatre, his fame had been steadily building but this show was significant as it demonstrated to the rest of the world the power of music. The scene at the Paramount Theatre was descirbed as hystrerical - thousands screamed and pinned pictures of him to their chests, it was at this moment that the whole idea of "pop music" and "pop stars" was born. -
The pop charts begin
The pop charts begin in Britain after Percy Dickins (from The New Musical Express) phoned several shops asking them for a list of their bestsellers. This became what we know as the pop charts today - it was a list of the most popular songs at the time. The first number one was Here In My Heart by Al Martino. -
The first British woman hits Number 1
Lita Roza reaches number 1 in the UK with a version of Bob Merrill's song, How Much is That Doggie in the Window. She is the first British woman to reach number 1. -
The birth of the Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest began in 1956 and gave a new influence to the genre of pop. This was because it allowed all countries to hear each others best pop songs in order to compete and find the country with the best pop song. This helped pop to become an ever-growing genre of music. -
Elvis the Pelvis
With huge influence from the genre of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley hits the stage on The Milton Berle Show where he becomes "Elvis the Pelvis". This was a major turning point within the pop genre as the influence from the rock 'n' roll genre of music became clear and through Elvis Presley the pop genre changed as people started to copy these dance moves. -
Family-friendly pop
After huge influence from the rock genre, pop music started to become more family-friendly as Cliff Richard moved away from being a rock star and was joined by the Drifters. They recorded Living Doll and this was the beginning of a softer and friendlier image which influenced the way the pop genre developed. -
The Beatles arrive
The Beatles emerged as a pop group first in October 1960 - but not as we see them now. They started out with a leather and street-gang kind of look after a photoshoot with a German student. Soon enough The Beatles developed their own kind of style, which inspired bands today in the pop genre. The Beatles were a massive influence in the way the pop genre is shaped today. -
Battle of the record labels: Motown
As the pop genre became more influential in everyday life record labels began to emerge and were trying to compete against each other. In 1961 this became very clear as the The Marvelette's released Please Mr Postman with Mowtown. This became Mowtown's first number one, and began a great time for the record label as they scored many top 10 hits and started to become one of the major record labels within the industry. -
Soul music and the pop genre
After pop music and dancing was a major hit on television and on the stylish show Ready Steady Go!, the singer Dusty springfield managed to persuade one of the show's producers to do a Mowtown special. On this night, soul music was launched into the ever-changing genre of pop music. This changed pop music and allowed the public to hear songs about the pressing event of the time, black civil rights. -
Ready Steady Go! vs. Top of the Pops
After the huge success of Ready Steady Go! BBC producers decided they needed to create a show similar that they could aire in an attempt to compete with the tough competition of ITV's Ready Steady Go! Top of the Pops followed a similar idea as it showed new acts perfoming. However, it was clear that ITV already had a god reputation & had a particular style which viewers were attracted too. It had also launched new artists into the pop genre, which the BBC had only just begun to do. -
Top of the Pops grabs the top spot
Although Ready STeady Go! already had a huge fanbase and iconic style with someone picking out the prettiest girls from Carnaby Street to appear in the audience of the show, the BBC managed to make Top of the Pops the more popular show as the Top 20 was released on a Thursday, giving the BBC the upper hand as their show aired on Wednesday's, giving them an advantage over the ITV show/ This allowed them to gradually recieve the bigger audience and take over Ready Steady Go! -
Manufactured pop acts: The Monkees
Although it had been done before The Monkees made it famous; The Monkees became hugely popular and created what we know of today as the basic guidelines for a manufactured pop act. They did this through their immense popularity and the fact that they didn't actually play on the earlier releases of their music. The Monkees managed to create the perfect style for a manufactured pop act which is so oftenly seen in today's pop music, thus influencing it greatly. -
The popularity of soul and Marvin Gaye
The 1970's was a difficult time socially as things didn't seem tobe changing quick enough for the common man; Marvin Gaye seemed to understand this, Gaye understood the angry feelings of the common man in the early 1970's, he was working on the song What's Going On when it leaked and became such a huge success. This & the following album helped to give way to a golden era of sophisticated and emotional soul within the pop genre which widened the genre further, influencing the pop genre majorly. -
The Bay City Rollers
After the huge success of bands like the Jackson 5 in the early 1970's bands and the mania surrounding them The Bay City Rollers emerged from Edinburgh and rose through the charts and soon created a huge fandom with their mass popularity. This mass popularity shaped the view of the general public in terms of the pop genre and gave way to the emergence of obsessive fan bases which are still around today. -
Europop
the birth of Europop - a sub genre of the wider pop genre - can be pinned down to Boney M's performance on Musikbladet (Germany's version of Top of the Pops), the band gyrated and wore revealing costumes. This certainly got them noticed and became this style became the look of Europop. -
Michael Jackson comes back
Michael Jackson's point of transformation into the King of Pop was seen to be his album Off The Wall. This is so important within the pop genre as it has helped to influence major stars today, such as Justin Timberlake and his album Justified. This album became very popular and influenced many young artists who developed the pop genre in their own ways. -
Tainted Love and synthetic pop
Soft Cell managed to fly to Number 1 with their song Tainted Love in 1981 and this began the influence of synthetic pop which was so evident in the music of the 1980's and sparked the rule of synthetic pop acts taking over the charts. -
Madonna
Madonna releases Like A Virgin which started the more obvious use of sexual references and women's sexuality within music. The song influenced the way women viewd sex and relationships - this song even ended up inspiring some universities to begin teaching Madonna studies. -
Girl power and the Spice Girls
The Spice Girls formed in February 1993 and became a worldwide phenomenon, inspiring girls everywhere with "Girl Power". At this time it was boybands who were very popular and many believed that a girl group wouldn't recieve the same popularity. This influenced the nature of pop in later years and allowed more girl bands to spring up and take charge of the music scene. -
Britney
Britney Spears takes to the scene on the Disney channel, Britney begins work on ...Baby One More Time, which inspires the modern teenpop and innfluences the modern generation massively as new artists are inspired by Britney and take on her teenpop style. -
Reality TV Pop
The talent show scene is reinvented with the emergence of Pop Idol. Pop becomes a major part of the culture, reality TV like this is constantly talked about and this gives way to many different shows similar to Pop Idol which showcase talent and separate the best and the worst - all in the public eye. -
iTunes is launched
Apple launches iTunes which gave fans instant access to all the music they wanted, shaping pop music forever. It has it's very own top 100 list which is updated regularly, this instant-access ensures that fans are recieving the music all at the same time and pop music can form around this as any genre can be in the top 100 list. This allows fans to branch out and develop their own music tastes, not necessarily just pop.
