How Has Popular Music Changed in the Last 50 Years?
May 2, 2011The last 50 years has seen a huge change in popular music. Not only have the most popular sounds and genres changed and developed, but the way that we access music has changed almost beyond recognition. Many of the biggest names from as far back as the 60s are still instantly recognizable today, and their influence can be heard in even the most contemporary sounding records.
The biggest bands in the world during the 60s such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stone and The Who were British, and in America this was called The British Invasion. Vinyl records were used to play music at home. Into the 70s a harder sound was created by artists like Black Sabbath and the anarchic sounding Sex Pistols. At the same time, Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley were producing successful soul and reggae records.
During the 1980s two developments changed how people listened to music – MTV was launched and CDs were made commercially available. MTV helped propel the likes of Madonna and Michael Jackson into super stardom, with the latter releasing the biggest selling album of all time ‘Thriller” in 1982. Rock and hip hop were other popular genres with the likes of Bon Jovi and The Beastie Boys achieving considerable success.
Not since The Beatles had a British group been as commercially successful in America as the Spice Girls. Girl Power was on everybody’s lips, and the likes of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were two young women that continued the trend – meanwhile, Britpop acts such as Oasis and Blur offered an alternative to this teen-friendly pop. Playing music through personal mp3 players, watching music videos online and downloading songs from the internet was perhaps a greater development of the new millennium than any single musical genius.
While music on the radio may sometimes sound like something from the far-off future, it in fact is almost always looking backwards, sampling sounds from the past or borrowing from old styles, as in the case of Amy Winehouse. Similarly, vinyl records are still being sold despite the dominance of CDs and mp3s.
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