Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. Rock and pop music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which pop became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral , and accessible.
73-620: Wham! were an English pop duo formed in Bushey in 1981 consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley . They were one of the most successful pop acts during the 1980s, selling more than 30 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986. Associated with the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US, the singles " Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go ", " Careless Whisper ", and " Everything She Wants " all topped
146-473: A chorus that contrasts melodically, rhythmically and harmonically with the verse . The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment. The lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions. Harmony and chord progressions in pop music are often "that of classical European tonality , only more simple-minded." Clichés include
219-483: A Pop Group (1988). She also worked with the band on their 1989 recording Modernism: A New Decade , but this album was rejected by the band's label, Polydor , and did not see a release until almost 10 years later, when it was included in the boxed set , The Complete Adventures of The Style Council . Between 1989 and 1991, Lee teamed up with Robert Howard of the Blow Monkeys to form Slam Slam. They achieved
292-434: A dreadful film ... It's 20 years old and it's rubbish. Why on earth should we allow it to be shown?" However, after viewing it in 2008, critic and journalist John Harris described it as "a rich, poetic, panoramic portrait of China's strangeness to the eyes of outsiders". Sporting a beard, Michael appeared with Ridgeley onstage at Live Aid on 13 July 1985 (although they did not perform as Wham!). Michael sang "Don't Let
365-733: A farewell single, " The Edge of Heaven ", and a greatest-hits album titled The Final , along with a farewell concert entitled the Final . Michael and Ridgeley met at Bushey Meads School in Bushey near the town of Watford in Hertfordshire. The two at first performed in a short-lived ska band called the Executive, alongside former school friends David Mortimer (later known as David Austin ), Andrew Leaver, Tony Bywaters, Jamie Gould and Paul Ridgeley. When this group split, Michael and Ridgeley eventually formed Wham! Ridgeley explained that
438-686: A few songs at the encore of his performance at the Rock in Rio event at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On 21 November 2009, there was a Wham!-themed night on television's The X Factor in the UK. Michael later appeared on the show's final episode, performing a duet of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with finalist and eventual winner Joe McElderry . In 2012, Michael said that there
511-451: A highly publicised ten-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group. The event was seen as a major watershed moment in increasing friendly bilateral relations between China and the West. In 1986, Wham! disbanded. Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more sophisticated adult market rather than the duo's primarily teenage audience. Before going their separate ways, they released
584-399: A light entertainment and easy listening tradition. Pop music is more conservative than other music genres such as folk, blues, country, and tradition. Many pop songs do not contain themes of resistance, opposition, or politics, rather focusing more on love and relationships. Therefore, pop music does not challenge its audiences socially, and does not cause political activism. Frith also said
657-554: A member of the British band Central Line under the aliases Dee Sealy in 1981 and Dee C. Lee in 1983. She was a backing singer for Wham! , then released her first solo single, "Selina Wow Wow", in 1984. She started working with the Style Council in 1984, while continuing as a solo artist. Lee was a member of the funk/soul group Central Line under the alias Dee Sealy in 1981 and her current stage name Dee C. Lee in 1983. She
730-407: A music researcher, states pop music as any type of music that a person has been exposed to by the mass media. Most individuals think that pop music is just the singles charts and not the sum of all chart music. The music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical , jazz , rock , and novelty songs . As a genre, pop music is seen to exist and develop separately. Therefore,
803-556: A number of minor UK club successes including "Move (Dance All Night)" and "Free Your Feelings", the latter produced by Young Disciples . In 1993, Lee collaborated with Gang Starr frontman Guru on a single from his solo project Jazzmatazz called "No Time to Play" which also featured guitarist Ronny Jordan . It peaked at No. 25 in the UK in November 1993. Later in the 1990s, Lee released two further solo albums; Things Will Be Sweeter (1994) and Smiles (1998). In 2006 Lee had
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#1732772772799876-498: A pop song is to them, songs from the 1960s turned out to be the most memorable, significantly more than songs from recent years 2000 to 2015. Before the progressive pop of the late 1960s, performers were typically unable to decide on the artistic content of their music. Assisted by the mid-1960s economic boom, record labels began investing in artists, giving them the freedom to experiment, and offering them limited control over their content and marketing. This situation declined after
949-580: A remorseful two-timer, had more emotional depth than previous releases. It reached No. 1, selling over 1.3 million copies in the UK. "Careless Whisper" marked a new phase in Michael's career, as his label Columbia/Epic began to somewhat distance him from the group Wham!'s playboy image. The next single was " Freedom " and was simply promoted as a Wham! single. Wham! used a video edited together from footage of their tour in China for "Freedom " 's single release in
1022-617: A reputation as a dance protest group. The debut record to be released by the band was "Wham Rap!" in June 1982. The song charted at only No. 105. In September 1982, " Young Guns (Go for It) " was issued. Initially, it also stalled outside the UK Top 40 but the band got lucky when the BBC programme Top of the Pops scheduled them after another act unexpectedly pulled out of the show. Wham!'s first manager
1095-460: A separation which was "also, broadly, one between boys and girls, middle-class and working-class." The latter half of the 20th century included a large-scale trend in American culture in which the boundaries between art and pop music were increasingly blurred. Between 1950 and 1970, there was a debate of pop versus art. Since then, certain music publications have embraced the music's legitimacy,
1168-476: A small role as a pop star in the film Rabbit Fever . In September 2007 she performed her hit "See the Day" on ITV1 's Loose Women show. In September 2007, she also performed at a charity event in aid of combating domestic violence. Lee also portrayed Preaching Nut-Nut in a 2008 short film, The Town That Boars Me , which tells the tale of a Pig Boy created by the lonely town butcher. The Pig Boy, now banished from
1241-528: A solo artist, as one half of a duo, and as part of a charity ensemble. At the end of 1985, the US Billboard charts listed "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" as the No. 3 song and "Careless Whisper" as the No. 1 song of the year. In March 1985, Wham! took a break from recording to embark on a lengthy world tour, including a ground-breaking 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group. The China excursion
1314-416: A tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments ; and seeks to encourage dancing or uses dance-oriented rhythms. The main medium of pop music is the song, often between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length, generally marked by a consistent and noticeable rhythmic element , a mainstream style and a simple traditional structure . The structure of many popular songs
1387-427: A thriving pop music industry, most of which is devoted to Western-style pop. Japan has for several years produced a greater quantity of music than everywhere except the US. The spread of Western-style pop music has been interpreted variously as representing processes of Americanization, homogenization , modernization, creative appropriation, cultural imperialism , or a more general process of globalization . One of
1460-488: A trend referred to as " poptimism ". Throughout its development, pop music has absorbed influences from other genres of popular music. Early pop music drew on traditional pop , an American counterpart to German Schlager and French Chanson , however compared to the pop of European countries, traditional pop originally emphasized influences ranging from Tin Pan Alley songwriting, Broadway theatre , and show tunes . As
1533-425: Is all the collective clubs around the world. Radio is just doing its best to keep up." Songs that talked of escapism through partying became the most popular, influenced by the impulse to forget the economic troubles that had taken over the world after the 2008 crash . Throughout the 2010s, a lot of pop music also began to take cues from Alternative pop . Popularized by artists such as Lana Del Rey and Lorde in
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#17327727727991606-652: Is essentially conservative". It is, "provided from on high (by record companies, radio programmers, and concert promoters) rather than being made from below (...) Pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged". According to Frith, characteristics of pop music include an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology, and an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities. Besides, Frith also offers three identifying characteristics of pop music: light entertainment, commercial imperatives, and personal identification. Pop music grew out of
1679-597: Is largely the story of the intertwining pop culture of the United States and the United Kingdom in the postwar era. — Bob Stanley According to Grove Music Online , "Western-derived pop styles, whether coexisting with or marginalizing distinctively local genres, have spread throughout the world and have come to constitute stylistic common denominators in global commercial music cultures". Some non-Western countries, such as Japan, have developed
1752-462: Is most in line with the tastes and interests of the urban middle class." The term "pop song" was first used in 1926, in the sense of a piece of music "having popular appeal". Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country , blues , and hillbilly music . According to the website of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ,
1825-430: Is that of a verse and a chorus, the chorus serving as the portion of the track that is designed to stick in the ear through simple repetition both musically and lyrically. The chorus is often where the music builds towards and is often preceded by "the drop" where the bass and drum parts "drop out". Common variants include the verse-chorus form and the thirty-two-bar form , with a focus on melodies and catchy hooks , and
1898-434: The barbershop quartet-style harmony (i.e. ii – V – I) and blues scale -influenced harmony. There was a lessening of the influence of traditional views of the circle of fifths between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, including less predominance for the dominant function . In October 2023, Billboard compiled a list of "the 500 best pop songs". In doing so, they noted the difficulty of defining "pop songs": One of
1971-435: The American and (from the mid-1960s) British music industries , whose influence has made pop music something of an international monoculture, but most regions and countries have their own form of pop music, sometimes producing local versions of wider trends, and lending them local characteristics. Some of these trends (for example Europop ) have had a significant impact on the development of the genre. The story of pop music
2044-485: The Style Council in mid-1983 by providing vocals on the song "Money Go Round". Lee's vocals appear on the tracks "Headstart for Happiness", "It Didn't Matter", "The Lodgers", "Walls Come Tumbling Down", and "Shout to the Top". Lee continued to record solo material during this time, but singles "Yippee Yi Yay!" and "Don't Do It Baby" failed to chart. In 1985, Lee was the featured artist on Masquerade's version of "Set It Off". In
2117-404: The Sun Go Down on Me" with Elton John , while Ridgeley joined Kiki Dee in the row of backing singers. In November, Wham! released the single " I'm Your Man " which went to No. 1 in the UK charts. Around this time, Ridgeley began a relationship with Keren Woodward of Bananarama , and also took up the hobby of rally driving. " Last Christmas " was re-issued for the festive season and again made
2190-573: The Three Crowns Public House in Bushey Heath Hertfordshire , and hand him the band's demo tape. In February 1982, Dean met with Michael and Ridgeley and offered them a recording deal. "I'm going to offer Wham! a deal with my new label Innervision," Dean said. "It's not a huge thing, I'm taking a punt. I'd like you to have a crack at recording a single or two and we'll see what happens from there." Initially
2263-633: The Top 40 at No. 24 and peaked at No. 3 in December. The following year, Dee C. Lee began her work with Paul Weller in the Style Council , and was replaced by Helen 'Pepsi' DeMacque . Holliman and DeMacque would later record as Pepsi & Shirlie . Wham! followed up "Young Guns (Go for It)" with a reissue of "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)", " Bad Boys " and " Club Tropicana ". By the end of 1983, Wham! were competing against pop rivals Culture Club and Duran Duran as one of Britain's biggest pop acts. Their debut album Fantastic spent two weeks at No. 1 in
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2336-428: The UK Top 10, peaking at No. 6, while Michael took up offers he was starting to receive to add his voice to other artists' songs. He performed backing vocals for David Cassidy ("The Last Kiss"), and also for Elton John on his successful singles " Nikita " (UK No. 3) and " Wrap Her Up " (UK No. 12), on which he sang co-lead vocals. Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more sophisticated adult market rather than
2409-476: The UK album charts in 1983, but the album achieved only modest success in the US. Soon after this, Ridgeley became conscious of legal problems with their initial contract at Innervision. While the legal battle raged, Innervision released a medley of non-single album tracks from Fantastic , entitled " Club Fantastic Megamix ". Wham! publicly denounced the release. After all the legal wrangling, Innervision settled out of court. Now signed to Epic Records , except in
2482-469: The US Billboard Hot 100 . Influenced by funk and soul music and presenting themselves as disaffected youth, Wham!'s 1983 debut album Fantastic addressed the United Kingdom's unemployment problem and teen angst over adulthood. Their second studio album Make It Big in 1984 was a worldwide pop smash hit, charting at number one in both the UK and the United States. In 1985, Wham! made
2555-432: The US and a few other countries on Epic's sister label Columbia Records , Wham! returned in 1984 with a new album and an updated pop image. These changes helped to propel Wham!'s next single, " Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go ", into the top ten of several countries around the world. It became their first US and UK No. 1 single, accompanied by a video of the duo with Pepsi and Shirlie, all wearing Katharine Hamnett T-shirts with
2628-469: The US, which was in July 1985. Their second album, Make It Big , climbed to No. 1 on the album charts and the band set off on an arena tour at the end of 1984. The double A-side single " Last Christmas " / " Everything She Wants " became the highest-selling single ever to peak at No. 2 in the UK charts. It stayed at No. 2 for five weeks and, as of February 2020, was the 10th best-selling single of all time in
2701-468: The United Kingdom, selling over 1.9 million copies in the UK. Wham! donated all their royalties from the single to the Ethiopian famine appeal to coincide with the fund-raising intentions of Band Aid's " Do They Know It's Christmas? " the song which kept them out of the top spot. Nevertheless, Band Aid's success meant that Michael had achieved No. 1 status in the UK within three separate entities in 1984—as
2774-775: The decade, it was common for pop producers, songwriters, and engineers to freely experiment with musical form, orchestration , unnatural reverb , and other sound effects. Some of the best known examples are Phil Spector 's Wall of Sound and Joe Meek 's use of homemade electronic sound effects for acts like the Tornados . At the same time, pop music on radio and in both American and British film moved away from refined Tin Pan Alley to more eccentric songwriting and incorporated reverb-drenched electric guitar, symphonic strings, and horns played by groups of properly arranged and rehearsed studio musicians. A 2019 study held by New York University in which 643 participants had to rank how familiar
2847-512: The duo's primarily teenage audience, and therefore, he and Ridgeley officially announced the break-up of Wham! in the spring of 1986. Before going their separate ways, a farewell single " The Edge of Heaven ", and a greatest hits album titled The Final would be forthcoming, along with a farewell concert entitled the Final . Announcing the break-up, Michael said: "I think it should be the most amicable split in pop history." The farewell single reached No. 1 in June 1986. " Where Did Your Heart Go? "
2920-459: The early 1960s, [the term] 'pop music' competed terminologically with beat music [in England], while in the US its coverage overlapped (as it still does) with that of 'rock and roll'". From about 1967, the term "pop music" was increasingly used in opposition to the term rock music, a division that gave generic significance to both terms. While rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of
2993-399: The early 2010s and later inspiring other highly influential artists including Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift , it gave space to a more sad and moody tone within pop music. Dee C. Lee Diane Catherine Sealy (born 6 June 1961), known as Dee C. Lee or Dee C Lee , is a British singer. Born to Saint Lucian parents, she grew up in south-east London. Early in her career, she was
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3066-512: The efforts of rock band Queen to be the first to play in China: he made two brochures for the Chinese authorities; one featuring Wham! fans as pleasant middle-class youngsters and one portraying Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in typically flamboyant poses. The Chinese opted for Wham!. British director Lindsay Anderson was engaged to accompany Wham! to China and make a documentary film about
3139-460: The end of its final concert. 72,000 people attended the eight-hour event, which included support artists, on a scorching hot day in London. The duo had been together for five years, selling over 28 million records and 15 million singles. Foreign Skies , the documentary of their tour of China, received its world premiere as part of the festivities. In January 1991, Ridgeley joined Michael on stage for
3212-428: The former more accurately describes all music that is targeted for mass appeal (compare art music ) and includes many disparate styles. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is considered to be pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music . David Hatch and Stephen Millward describe pop music as "a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, and folk music". David Boyle,
3285-578: The genre evolved more influences ranging from classical , folk , rock , country , electronic music , and other popular genres became more prominent. In 2016, a Scientific Reports study that examined over 464,000 recordings of popular music recorded between 1955 and 2010 found that, compared to 1960s pop music, contemporary pop music uses a smaller variety of pitch progressions, greater average volume, less diverse instrumentation and recording techniques, and less timbral variety. Scientific American ' s John Matson reported that this "seems to support
3358-409: The home. By the early 1980s, the promotion of pop music had been greatly affected by the rise of music television channels like MTV , which "favoured those artists such as Michael Jackson and Madonna who had a strong visual appeal". Multi-track recording (from the 1960s) and digital sampling (from the 1980s) have also been used as methods for the creation and elaboration of pop music. During
3431-414: The late 1970s and would not reemerge until the rise of Internet stars. Indie pop , which developed in the late 1970s, marked another departure from the glamour of contemporary pop music, with guitar bands formed on the then-novel premise that one could record and release their own music without having to procure a record contract from a major label. The 1980s are commonly remembered for an increase in
3504-401: The late 20th century that became global superstars include Whitney Houston , Michael Jackson , Madonna , George Michael , and Prince . At the beginning of the 2000s, the trends that dominated during the late 1990s still continued, but the music industry started to change as people began to download music from the internet. People were able to discover genres and artists that were outside of
3577-501: The main purpose of pop music is to create revenue. It is not a medium of free articulation of the people. Instead, pop music seeks to supply the nature of personal desire and achieve the instant empathy with cliche personalities, stereotypes, and melodrama that appeals to listeners. It is mostly about how much revenue pop music makes for record companies. Music scholar Timothy Warner said pop music typically has an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, rather than live performance;
3650-514: The mainstream and propel them to fame, but at the same time smaller artists had a harder time making a living because their music was being pirated. Popular artists were Avril Lavigne , Justin Timberlake , NSYNC , Christina Aguilera , Destiny's Child , and Britney Spears . Pop music often came from many different genres, with each genre in turn influencing the next one, blurring the lines between them and making them less distinct. This change
3723-448: The manner in which pop has been disseminated", which helped to move pop music to "a record/radio/film star system". Another technological change was the widespread availability of television in the 1950s with televised performances, which meant that "pop stars had to have a visual presence". In the 1960s, the introduction of inexpensive, portable transistor radios meant that teenagers in the developed world could listen to music outside of
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#17327727727993796-403: The mid-1960s, pop music made repeated forays into new sounds, styles, and techniques that inspired public discourse among its listeners. The word "progressive" was frequently used, and it was thought that every song and single was to be a "progression" from the last. Music critic Simon Reynolds writes that beginning with 1967, a divide would exist between "progressive" pop and "mass/chart" pop,
3869-492: The name originated from a need for "something that captured the essence of what set us apart—our energy and our friendship—and then it came to us: Wham! Wham! was snappy, immediate, fun and boisterous too." British graphic design studio Stylorouge was credited with adding the exclamation mark to the name of the band. Ridgeley and Michael worked persistently to get a foot in the door with recording executives. Ridgeley would frequently run into Mark Dean from Innervision Records at
3942-490: The pair wrote songs such as " Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) " and " Club Tropicana " together, but part way through the recording of their debut album Fantastic , the pair agreed that Michael was the stronger songwriter, and would take creative control. Still teenagers, they promoted themselves as hedonistic youngsters, proud to live a carefree life without work or commitment. This was reflected in their earliest singles which, part-parody, part-social comment, briefly earned Wham!
4015-802: The pop music styles that developed alongside other music styles is Latin pop , which rose in popularity in the US during the 1950s with early rock and roll success Ritchie Valens . Later, Los Lobos and Chicano rock gained in popularity during the 1970s and 1980s, and musician Selena saw large-scale popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, along with crossover appeal with fans of Tejano musicians Lydia Mendoza and Little Joe . With later Hispanic and Latino Americans seeing success within pop music charts, 1990s pop successes stayed popular in both their original genres and in broader pop music. Latin pop hit singles, such as " Macarena " by Los del Río and " Despacito " by Luis Fonsi , have seen record-breaking success on worldwide pop music charts. Notable pop artists of
4088-400: The popular anecdotal observation that pop music of yore was "better", or at least more varied, than today's top-40 stuff". However, he also noted that the study may not have been entirely representative of pop in each generation. In the 1960s, the majority of mainstream pop music fell in two categories: guitar, drum and bass groups or singers backed by a traditional orchestra. Since early in
4161-448: The possibilities of popular music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible. According to British musicologist Simon Frith , pop music is produced "as a matter of enterprise not art", and is "designed to appeal to everyone" but "doesn't come from any particular place or mark off any particular taste". Frith adds that it is "not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward [...] and, in musical terms, it
4234-503: The reasons pop can be hard to summarize is because there’s no real sonic or musical definition to it. There are common elements to a lot of the biggest pop songs, but at the end of the day, "pop" means "popular" first and foremost, and just about any song that becomes popular enough...can be considered a pop song. In the 1940s, improved microphone design allowed a more intimate singing style and, ten or twenty years later, inexpensive and more durable 45 rpm records for singles "revolutionized
4307-408: The same year, after the release of the second Style Council album Our Favourite Shop , and a stint working with the band Animal Nightlife , Lee released another solo single; the self-penned ballad " See the Day ". The single became a hit and peaked at No. 2 in the UK chart in December 1985, selling a quarter of a million copies in the UK alone, and earning Lee a silver disc . Twenty years later,
4380-411: The slogans "CHOOSE LIFE" and "GO GO". The next single was " Careless Whisper ", featuring only Michael in the music video. In certain markets, the single was promoted as "Wham! featuring George Michael", and in other markets, including the UK, it was credited to Michael as a solo act but, unlike any Wham! single except "Wham Rap!" and "Club Tropicana", it was also co-written with Ridgeley. The song, about
4453-562: The song was covered by Girls Aloud , their version peaking at No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart in December 2005. Her follow-up singles, a cover of Judie Tzuke 's "Come Hell or Waters High" and "Hold On" failed to make the UK Top 40 . All tracks were featured on her 1986 album Shrine . Throughout the rest of the 1980s, Lee continued to work with the Style Council on their albums The Cost of Loving (1987) and Confessions of
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#17327727727994526-578: The term "pop music" "originated in Britain in the mid-1950s as a description for rock and roll and the new youth music styles that it influenced". The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pop's "earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience [...] since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the special meaning of non-classical mus[ic], usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as The Beatles , The Rolling Stones , ABBA , etc." Grove Music Online also states that "[...] in
4599-409: The term "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, designed to appeal to all, often characterized as "instant singles-based music aimed at teenagers" in contrast to rock music as "album-based music for adults". Pop music continuously evolves along with the term's definition. According to music writer Bill Lamb, popular music is defined as "the music since industrialization in the 1800s that
4672-732: The town, returns at nightfall to torment the local women and satisfy his insatiable fetish for high-heeled shoes. The film was released in London on 28 August 2008. On 31 May 2009, Lee joined ex- Level 42 musicians, Mike Lindup and Phil Gould , to play a comeback gig with a collective called 'Favoured Nations' at Ginglik, Shepherd's Bush , London. In October of that year, she played a gig at Dingwalls in Camden Town . She continued to play one-off shows in London venues in 2010, and played in Chelsea in March 2011. In January 2018, she posted
4745-629: The use of digital recording , associated with the usage of synthesizers , with synth-pop music and other electronic genres featuring non-traditional instruments increasing in popularity. By 2014, pop music worldwide had been permeated by electronic dance music . In 2018, researchers at the University of California, Irvine , concluded that pop music has become 'sadder' since the 1980s. The elements of happiness and brightness have eventually been replaced with electronic beats making pop music more 'sad yet danceable'. Pop music has been dominated by
4818-525: The visit. Anderson called his one-hour and 18 minute film If You Were There . In the final stages of editing, Anderson was dismissed by Wham!'s management, the editing team quit, and the film was re-edited, renamed and released as Wham! in China: Foreign Skies . According to a 2006 interview with The Independent , Andy Stephens, manager for Michael, said that the film [Anderson's version] was simply not good enough to be shown in public: "It's
4891-407: Was Bryan Morrison . The effect of Wham! on the public was felt from the moment they finished their debut performance of "Young Guns (Go for It)" on Top of the Pops . Michael and Ridgley wore white espadrilles sockless, an open suede jacket and polo shirt, and rolled-up denim jeans. Ridgeley stood behind him, flanked by backing singers Dee C. Lee and Shirlie Holliman . Afterwards, the song shot into
4964-555: Was a backing vocalist for the pop group Wham! in the early 1980s and appeared in their music videos for the songs " Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) ", " Young Guns (Go for It) " and " Club Tropicana ". Following her departure from Wham!, Lee released her first solo single, "Selina Wow Wow", in 1984. In 1984, she worked with the Style Council and appeared on their debut studio album Café Bleu (released as My Ever Changing Moods in North America), having already worked with
5037-612: Was a publicity scheme devised by Simon Napier-Bell (one of their two managers; Jazz Summers being the other). It began with a concert at the Peoples' Gymnasium in Beijing in front of 12,000 people. They also played a concert in front of 5,000 in Canton. The two concerts were played without compensation. Wham!'s visit to China attracted huge media attention across the world. Napier-Bell later admitted that he used cunning tactics to sabotage
5110-457: Was epitomized in Spears' highly influential 2007 album Blackout , which under the influence of producer Danja , mixed the sounds of EDM , avant-funk , R&B , dance music , and hip hop . By 2010, pop music impacted by dance music came to be dominant on the charts. Instead of radio setting the trends, it was now the club. At the beginning of the 2010s, Will.i.am stated, "The new bubble
5183-472: Was no truth in speculation that he and Ridgeley were set for a Wham! reunion to mark the 30th anniversary of the group's first album. Michael died from heart and liver disease at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on Christmas Day 2016, at the age of 53. Upon hearing of Michael's death, Ridgeley paid his respects on Twitter, saying, "Heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend Yog." Michael
5256-586: Was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in November 2023, with Ridgeley as the induction presenter. Pop music Identifying factors of pop music usually include repeated choruses and hooks , short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse–chorus structure ), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much of pop music also borrows elements from other styles such as rock, urban , dance , Latin , and country . The terms popular music and pop music are often used interchangeably, although
5329-602: Was the group's final single in the United States. The song, originally recorded by Was (Not Was) , was a gloomy and sombre affair. The duo's last release was a double-LP collection of all the singles to date, including some extended versions. This was released in North America as the severely pared-down Music from the Edge of Heaven with alternate tracks. At London's Wembley Stadium on 28 June 1986, Wham! bid goodbye to their fans and each other with an emotional embrace at
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