The origins of pop music can easily be traced back to the Ragtime. The Ragtime music was popular in African American communities in the beginning, and it primarily disseminated through sheet music and player pianos. After wards the music Ragtime was transformed into Swing and Jazz. Swing and jazz were both enjoyed for bother their dance ability and their mutability.
Swing and Jazz are this present day very popular forms of music and dances. It is very important to note that the clarity and understanding of the instruments of brass in particular and the punchy nature of the rhythm helped in ensuring that these music forms got to be the first ever in history to be recorded. These were the first kinds of music that were pressed into primitive record discs.
Styles that influenced the later development of pop music include but are not limited to the Blues which also originated in the African-American communities. It was also influence by Country music which comes from "hillbilly music" of poor folk, both white and black.
However, as an individual genre, it attempted to copy the commercial success of rock'n'roll. This proved to be its downfall, as the music was nothing but a bland and insipid cocktail of rock'n'roll, the blues and any other current music "rage"! Though it was a success with teenagers it was a complete failure as "music". It soon came to be shunned by all true musicians who regarded it as nothing but the "buying and selling" of the most popular sound of the day.
Pop music has a very heavy emphasis on rhythm and harmony. It needs to appeal to its target crowd of teenagers and so it became soppy and mushy. It is very sad to see that though Pop music started out with Elvis Presley, today it is synonymous with Britney Spears!
