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CRASH COURSE
ON EXISTING MUSIC GENRES :: POP
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 DANCE-POP
An outgrowth of disco over
a pounding, dance-club beat with simple, catchy melodies, dance-pop has more
fully-formed songs than pure dance music. Primarily a producer’s medium, in
dance-pop, it is the producer who writes the songs and constructs the tracks,
picking an appropriate vocalist to sing the song who, in turn become stars,
though frequently the artistic vision is the producer's. Madonna, Michael
Jackson and Janet Jackson who have had control over the sound and direction of
their records are, of course among the major exceptions, though dance-pop is
music that focuses more on image, not substance. Other dance pop artists include
George Michael, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Ricky Martin, Prince, Selena, Simply
Red, Britney Spears and Lisa Stansfield.
EURO-POP
True to its name, much
(though not all) of Euro-Pop originated on the European continent, although
there were occasional British or American acts influenced by the sound and style
including the '90s dance-pop revival spearheaded by groups like Take That, the
Spice Girls, and the Backstreet Boys for its incessant catchiness. Associated
with a style of pop music that was deliberately lightweight, silly, and slickly
produced, effortless, compulsively catchy songs with bouncy dance beats and
frothy lyrics defined Euro-Pop. Although ABBA, the definitive Euro-Pop band
became worldwide superstars during the '70s, much of Euro-Pop remained confined
to continental Europe. In the decades that followed, Sweden produced the vast
majority of the Euro-Pop acts that made a splash in the English-speaking world,
including Army of Lovers and Roxette in the '80s and Ace of Base and Robyn in
the '90s.
© Valerie
V. Mayuga, 2005
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