Pop Music Hits

Must-Have Abba Collection

admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:14:14 +0000

This double-disc, 37-track Abba anthology is an excellent collection for every Abba and pop music fan should have in their archives.

I already had a copy of ABBA GOLD at the time I bought The Definitive Collection, but now this CD has rendered my ABBA GOLD CD obsolete - it contains all the tracks that were on ABBA GOLD and more. It also includes many of the lesser-known singles that made it onto MORE ABBA GOLD (i.e. “Head Over Heels,” “The Day Before You Came,” and “Summer Night City”). In addition, this collection presents the tunes chronologically, so one can hear and make note of how ABBA’s sound changed and evolved during their decade-plus-long time together. It’s a shame that just because of “Dancing Queen” (their only song to hit #1 in the United States), many Americans think of ABBA as simply a “disco” act and dismiss them as such. In reality, ABBA were so much more. They dabbled in almost every time of popular music imaginable. Yes, they did disco (”Voulez-Vous,” “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme,” and the pounding “Summer Night City”), but they also did Latin-flavored folk tunes (”Fernando” and “Chiquitita”), pure pop ballads (the heartbreaking “The Winner Takes It All,” the last of their four U.S. top 10 pop hits and also a #1 Adult Contemporary single, as was “Fernando”), synthesizer rock (”The Visitors”), even German klezmer-ish music (”I Do, I Do…”). Simply put, ABBA could take any genre of music and make it their own, with fun and often quirky arrangements and intricate harmonies. Bjorn and Benny were (and still are) musical geniuses, and Frida and Agnetha were blessed with two of the most beautiful voices ever to grace vinyl. If Agnetha’s powerful performance on “The Winner Takes It All” doesn’t tug at your heartstrings, you have ice water running through your veins.

The Definitive Collection

Origins of Pop Music

admin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:44:23 +0000

According to wikipedia, the origins of pop music can be traced back in Napoli Italy, in 1679, when Alessandro Scarlatti composed his first opera, or even earlier, when Francesco Provenzale coined the musical language that Scarlatti popularized: light, lively and catchy. They placed the emphasis on arias, clearly separated from the “recitativo”, and grounded the arias on a strong sense of rhythm and melody.

An important turning point for popular music was the “speed war” of the late 1940s: a battle among the record labels of the day to enforce their own standard. The dominating format, the 10 inches (25 cm) 78 (rpm) disc, was challenged in 1948 by the new 33 ? rpm 12 inches (30 cm), and then in 1949 by the 45 rpm 7 inches (18 cm).Next came the switch in the material records were made of, from shellac to vinyl; the new component, combined with the slow 33 ? rpm playing speed, allowed recordings to extend their duration further than was previously possible, and gave birth to the long playing record (LP). Changes continued with the invention of the multitrack tape recorder, permitting completely electronic studio recordings for the first time, and the advent of stereophonic sound in 1958.

The first major pop stars as such were the crooners of the 1930s and ’40s. Bing Crosby sold millions of records, as did Frank Sinatra (arguably the first modern pop star, with screaming teenage female fans - the bobbysoxers), and in Britain, Al Bowly.

Curiously, pop music charts as such didn’t exist until 1952, when the first Top Twenty was recorded. It came at an interesting time, as “teenagers” really came into being.