Research into Genres - Popular Music (Pop)

What is the definition of popular music?
"Music accessible to a wide audience, distributed through the mass media as a commercial product. It tends to be associated with urban rather than rural cultures, and is performed by professional musicians." - http://www.music.princeton.edu/~jeffery/Ellingtonvocab.html

"As a rule, pop music is music which is less rocky than 'Rock', less danceable than 'Dance', less heavy and metallic than 'Heavy Metal', less easy to listen to than 'Easy Listening', less blue than the 'Blues', less jazzy than 'Jazz', less funky than 'Funk', less jazzy and funky than 'Jazz-Funk', more musical than 'Spoken Word', and less likely to make you slit your wrists than 'Country & Western'." - http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A156520

When was it defined/How long has it been around?
Popular music began in 1954 when Elvis Presley recorded "That's All Right Mama" at Sun Studios, Memphis.

"There were rock'n'roll records before this one, nearly all of them by black artists, but this is the moment when the embryonic form found its perfect embodiment." - http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/may/02/popandrock

In October 2003, " for the first time since the dawn of rock'n'roll 50 years ago, none of the artists in the official Billboard American Top 10 was white. " If popular music "has a figurehead, it is Beyoncé Knowles, the only woman in that Top 10 and currently the biggest pop star of the new century." -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/may/02/popandrock


What are the typical conventions of this genre of music videos?
"From a theoretical standpoint the popular music video has long been considered the ultimate example of the post-modern text. Music video is a depthless world in which musicians lip synch in simulated depictions of musical performance or act out the fragmented narrative elements eluded to in the lyrics." - http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415448239/rock-party.asp


Who is the typical target audience?
12-17 year olds (female biased)
http://www.mtvnetworks.co.uk/channels/music

In general the target audience is younger teenagers however popular music is usually marketed at the mass' in order to obtain maximum profit.