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What Makes Pop Music Popular?

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Fred Hamill Profile
Fred Hamill answered
Pop music is a product. It is a general formula consisting of:

1) Time - studies have shown that the perfect length for a pop song is 3:26. That is the length of time people stay interested in a song before tedium sets in and they tune out.

2) Note progression - generally a three note cord progression or keyboard stroke repeated enough throughout the song keeps it running in a person's head. If a popular vocal concept is introduced with it, people will be singing it and whistling it as they do things.

3) Theme - the theme generally is love, lust, or dance. There are exceptions, but those are the big three themes.

4) Beat - the song, particularly now in the age of clubs and thumping car stereos, needs a good beat that you can feel almost physically. A beat slower than 4/4 is unacceptable in a pop song. That makes it a ballad or just depressing, not a pop song.

5) Unique quality - you need to differentiate yourself from all of the other acts, but only slightly. Pop does not reinvent the wheel, in fact, it only redecorates the same wheel that has been turning for a long time now.

6) Looks - the artist needs to be hot. Pop music generally does not accommodate less-than-hot people.

7) Talent - the more talented the artist the less hot they need to be, but if there is no talent then there is no product.

8) Frequency - if you want money you need play on the radio, performances on shows, and downloads, downloads, downloads. The more people hear it the more they want it.
David Williams Profile
David Williams answered

The lyrics, music and the voice of the singer matters in the pop music.

Carlos Lara Profile
Carlos Lara answered

Another fact is that the shortest the range of notes of the singer (in octaves) (it should also be based on the chords) it will be easier to memorize by the listener, and thus earworms happen. (An earworm is when a song is stuck in your head. Also, a tip is that every note in the melody of the singer must cause a certain sonority when played with the chord below it. What I mean is, if the chord progression is I-IV-VI-V, the notes on the melody played over the chord I, for example, must cause a feeling when played together with the chord.

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