Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock ) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock music . Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll , early pop rock was influenced by the beat , arrangements, and original style of rock and roll (and sometimes doo-wop ). It may be viewed as a distinct genre field rather than music that overlaps with pop and rock. The detractors of pop rock often deride it as a slick, commercial product and less authentic than rock music.
23-504: Pratts & Pain is the debut studio album by Australian guitar-pop duo Royel Otis . It was released on 16 February 2024 via Ourness, and debuted at number 10 on the ARIA Albums Chart . The album's release was supported by five singles, starting with "Adored" and "Fried Rice", as well as tour dates around Australia, North America and Europe. It received positive acclaim from critics. An extended edition, with two bonus tracks,
46-465: A New York City night club, he stood like a statue, surrounded by clean-cut collegiate band musicians and cradling a saxophone in his arms. His first film, The Vagabond Lover , was promoted with the line, "Men Hate Him! Women Love Him!" while his success brought press warnings of the "Vallee Peril": this "punk from Maine" with the "dripping voice" required mounted police to "beat back crowds of screaming and swooning females" at his vaudeville shows. By
69-569: A million seller with his 1940 rendition of the song " San Antonio Rose ", originally recorded by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys . In 1942, Perry Como had a smash hit with " Deep in the Heart of Texas "; Crosby, who had an enormous influence on Como, covered this song and took it to the number 3 position in the US chart that same year. Eddy Arnold , Jim Reeves and Ray Price are especially well known for their country crooner standards. Dean Martin
92-618: A number 1 hit in 1953 with his version of " Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes ", a chart-topping country hit for its author Slim Willet and a number 4 country hit for Ray Price; Guy Mitchell scored a number 1 in 1959 with " Heartaches by the Number ", a country hit for Ray Price ; and Britain's Engelbert Humperdinck achieved a 1967 UK number 1 hit with " Release Me ", another song already made famous by Price in 1954. In 1970, Price had
115-512: A smooth, intimate style that originated in the 1920s. The crooning style was made possible by better microphones that picked up quieter sounds and a wider range of frequencies, allowing the singer to access a greater dynamic range and exploit the proximity effect . This suggestion of intimacy was supposedly wildly attractive to women, especially a youth subculture known at the time as " bobby soxers ". The crooning style developed among singers who performed with big bands , and reached its height in
138-534: Is a noun-adjective that music critics often use in reference to guitar pop with a bright mood. 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 white crooners such as Perry Como , whereas rock is rooted in African-American music influenced by forms such as rock and roll . Auslander points out that
161-496: Is associated with the country music he recorded in the period when he was working for Reprise Records , whilst his fellow Italian-American crooner Como recorded several albums with country producer Chet Atkins in Nashville . Regular, non-country crooners also scored hits with pop versions of country songs: Tony Bennett had a Billboard number 1 hit in 1951 with his rendition of Hank Williams ' " Cold, Cold Heart "; Como had
184-424: Is begging to go out of fashion…. Crooners will soon go the way of tandem bicycles, mah jongg and midget golf ." Voice range shifted from tenor (Vallée) to baritone ( Russ Columbo , Bing Crosby ). Still, a 1931 record by Dick Robertson, " Crosby, Columbo, and Vallee ", called upon men to fight "these public enemies" brought into homes via radio. The term crooner has been applied to some female singers around
207-513: The 2024 J Awards , the album was nominated for Australian Album of the Year. The album's title is derived from Pratts & Payne, a British pub in London that the duo would visit during recording sessions at producer Dan Carey 's studio, Mr Dans. In an interview with Junkee , lead guitarist Royel Maddell said the songs were not written in the environment which they were recorded, which lead to
230-490: The microphone , singers had to project to the rear seats of a theater, which made for a very loud vocal style. The microphone made a more personal style possible. Al Bowlly , Bing Crosby , Gene Austin , Art Gillham , and by some accounts Vaughn De Leath are often credited as inventors of the crooning style, but Rudy Vallée brought the style widespread popularity. In his popular radio program, which began with his floating greeting, "Heigh ho, everybody," beamed in from
253-407: The 1940s to late 1960s. Crooning is epitomized by jazz vocalists of the era such as Bing Crosby , Rudy Vallee and Frank Sinatra , although Sinatra did not consider himself or Crosby to be "crooners". Other performers, such as Russ Columbo , also rejected the term. This dominant popular vocal style coincided with the advent of radio broadcasting and electrical recording . Before the advent of
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#1732790603156276-504: 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. In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau discussed the term "pop-rock" in the context of popular music's fragmentation along stylistic lines in
299-413: The 1970s; he regarded "pop-rock" as a "monolith" that "straddled" all burgeoning movements and subgenres in the popular and semipopular music marketplace at the time, including singer-songwriter music, art rock , heavy metal , boogie , country rock , jazz fusion , funk , disco , urban contemporary , and new wave , but not punk rock . Crooners A crooner is a singer who performs with
322-691: The album sounding darker: "If you record something in Byron [Bay], it sounds beachy and stuff like that. And then recording in South London with Dan, it definitely sounds a bit more dreary and grey”. Following the album's release, NME called Royel Otis "Australia’s next breakout indie heroes". Reviewing for the magazine, Andy Brown said Pratts & Pain was a "sublime debut" with "a sense of adventure", calling it "destined for festival season greatness – for cool-breeze drives, warm summer parties, and late-night singalongs". Joshua Khan of Clash said
345-635: The album was a sonic leap forward for the band, containing a "remarkably diverse" sound that sets them apart from other indie rock bands. Writing for Far Out , Aimee Ferrier was less positive, calling it a lacklustre release with forgettable tracks, making for "an inevitable addition to a landmine of average indie pop records". Notes Royel Otis Additional personnel Guitar-pop Much pop 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
368-456: 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 as Simon 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
391-626: The early 1930s, the term "crooner" had taken on a pejorative connotation. Cardinal William O'Connell of Boston and the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA) both publicly denounced the vocal form, O'Connell calling it "base", "degenerate", "defiling" and un-American, with the NYSTA adding "corrupt". Even The New York Times predicted that crooning would be just a passing fad. The newspaper wrote, "They sing like that because they can't help it. Their style
414-513: The form of, rock music. Writer Johan Fornas views pop/rock as "one single, continuous genre field", rather than distinct categories. To the authors Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman, it is defined as an "upbeat variety of rock music" represented by artists and bands such as Andy Kim , the Bells , Paul McCartney , Lighthouse , and Peter Frampton . The term "pop" has been used since the early forties to refer to popular music in general, but in
437-499: 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. In the aftermath of the British 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. As of the 2010s, "guitar pop rock" and " indie rock " are roughly synonymous terms. " Jangle "
460-430: The singers and bands, instrumental virtuosity, and a "real connection with the audience". 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 a folk-oriented style of music developed in
483-685: The world, especially those who have low alto voices. Among the first was white American singer Lee Morse who performed in three Vitaphone short films in 1930. A cartoon published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1930 listed four male and seven female singers as the "All-American Crooning Eleven". Blues singer Ruth Etting was in the group, along with Helen Morgan , Libby Holman , Bernadene Hayes , Annette Hanshaw , and others. Several more American women singers were called crooners in 1950 with chart hits by Teresa Brewer and Patti Page . Anita O'Day 's version of " Tennessee Waltz "
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#1732790603156506-480: Was a crooner-style hit in 1951. The success of women crooners continued through 1956 but was diminished in 1957 after Billboard combined the segregated black and white pop charts, which led to a rise in male hit songs. Black American blues singer Nina Simone has been described as a crooner for her work in the 1960s and 1970s. Due to the country songs popularized by Bing Crosby, the crooning style of singing became an enduring part of country music . Crosby achieved
529-450: Was released digitally in May 2024. A 17-track deluxe edition, titled It Ain't Over Til It Ends Edition was released on 4 October 2024. At the 2024 ARIA Music Awards , the album was nominated for Album of the Year , Best Independent Release , and won Best Rock Album , Best Produced Release (with Chris Collins ), Best Engineered Release (with Collins) and for the duo, Best Group . At
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