Bubblegum pop
Categories: Accuracy disputes | Pop music genres
| Pop music | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins: | A variety of influences, especially Rock and Roll |
| Cultural origins: | 1950s United States |
| Typical instruments: | Electric guitar, Electric bass guitar, Drums, |
| Mainstream popularity: | From 1960s to present - United States, Europe, and Asia |
| Derivative forms: | |
| Subgenres | |
| Bubblegum pop - Traditional pop music - Teen pop | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Pop punk - Pop rock - Pop rap - Power pop | |
| Regional scenes | |
| Asia: C-pop (Cantopop, Mandarin pop) - Indian pop - J-pop - K-pop - Europe: Europop (Britpop - Nederpop) - Americas: United States - Música Popular Brasileira | |
| Other topics | |
| Pop culture - Boy band - Girl group - Pop princess | |
Bubblegum pop (bubblegum rock, bubblegum music) is a genre of popular music and rock and roll. Some of the defining characteristics of bubblegum pop include catchy melodies, simple three-chord structures, and repetitive riffs or "hooks." Bubblegum pop is also characterized by its lightweight lyrics, often surrounding themes of romance and courtship.
Contents |
Origins
Essentially, Bubblegum pop evolved from rock and roll and the other popular American musical forms that preceded and accompanied it, such as rhythm and blues and doo-wop. Bubblegum rock is also reminiscient of pre-rock novelty songs such as "Abba Dabba Honeymoon" and "The Hut Sut Song," which hit the charts in the late 1940s, and hipster foolishness like Slim Gaillard's "Cement Mixer (Puti Puti)".
Seminal rock and roll numbers, such as Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" with its nonsense rhyming couplets (replacing the original vulgar lyrics), also influenced what would come later. This hybrid of R&B, garage rock, novelty songs, and nursery rhymes later surfaced in the post-Beatles era in songs like "Wooly Bully" (by Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs, 1964), which emphasized a hard-driving Tex-Mex beat and absurd lyrics.
Despite criticism that bubblegum music is void of artistic merit, record sales continue to thrive, with consumers of the genre - primarily young, often pre-teen audiences - assuring a steady market for the evergrowing industry. Individual singles, however, often only remain on music charts for a brief period of time - thus is the transitional nature of Bubblegum pop.
1960s and 1970s
The first wave of "pure" bubblegum came with Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz - music producers who formed Super K Productions and gave the world "A Little Bit of Soul" by The Music Explosion in 1966. However, the song was closer to R&B garage band music, and missing the element of nursery rhyme/nonsense lyrics that would be introduced by staff songwriters Joey Levine and Elliot Chiprut. About a year later, they released "Yummy Yummy Yummy" a #4 hit in June, 1968 for The Ohio Express. Although The Ohio Express was a real, touring garage band in the Midwest, under contract to Kasenetz and Katz, their hit singles were recorded by session musicians fronted by singer-songwriter Joey Levine. The band members were handicapped attempting to reproduce Levine's distinctive nasal whine for their live performances.
Other hits from Kasenetz and Katz followed, including "Indian Giver" and "Simon Says" by the 1910 Fruitgum Company, "Green Tambourine" by The Lemon Pipers and one-offs such as "Quick Joey Small" by The Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, another front for the same batch of Levine-fronted studio players.
Others joined in, notably Don Kirshner and Jeff Barry with the Archies, whose "Sugar Sugar" was the best-selling single of 1969, and was voiced by Ron Dante and Toni Wine. Many critics describe The Monkees, with their light and cheerful rock and roll, as bubblegum, due to their producer-driven career and reliance on outside songwriters and session players. Others claim The Monkees were not pure bubblegum until 1970's "Half-Monkees" LP Changes, produced by Barry.
The initial era of bubblegum carried on for a few more years, as LPs were released by David Cassidy, The Jackson 5, The Osmonds, Leif Garrett, The DeFranco Family and many others.
Many acts of the first glam rock era (approximately 1971-1975) had bubblegum influences. These included Gary Glitter, T. Rex, Sweet and Mud. These British acts had great success in the UK, Asia, and Europe, charting many singles. They were less successful in the US, however, due to the competition from other foreign acts such as ABBA and Olivia Newton-John, who provided a more "serious" approach to music. The last big act of the 1970s which featured obvious bubblegum elements was the Bay City Rollers, charting hits through the end of the decade.
1980s
The 1980s saw few bubblegum-esque acts in the US and UK. In late 1980's Britain, the charts were dominated by Stock Aitken Waterman produced acts such as Duran Duran, Kylie Minogue, Culture Club, and Spandau Ballet. In the U.S., the birth of the boy band came about with the successes of New Edition and New Kids on the Block. The two reigning teen queens of the decade were undoubtedly Tiffany and Debbie Gibson who saw their popularity skyrocket after touring malls, a prime outlet for their teenaged audience. Glam metal was the most popular bubblegum-like genre of music at the time, and some of the less serious bands, such as Poison, were major hitmakers. In Latin America, bubblegum acts such as Menudo, Los Chicos, Las Cheris, and Los Chamos became legendary groups. In 1985, Magneto, a group that would later gain fame in the 1990s, was formed in Mexico.
1990s
In the early 1990s, bubblegum remained scarce, as first grunge music and then gangsta rap dominated the pop charts. In the late 1990s, bubblegum was forced back into the spotlight through the sensationalism and mass hysteria brought about by the popularity of British girl group, The Spice Girls, who revolutionized the popular music industry by operating as more than just a girl band. The Spice Girls hit the world in the form of chocolate bars, dolls, magazines, a feature length movie and even personal deodorising spray. This mass fusion of consumerism and popular music transformed the ideology of bubblegum pop as a business, rather than simply selling records. Following the Spice Girls, a series of boy bands such as The Backstreet Boys, N'SYNC, 98 Degrees, Boyzone, and O-Town made their way onto the walls of teenagers around the world. Soon after the boy bands came the era of the pop princess, including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, and Jessica Simpson. The Scandinavian group Aqua also had massive "bubblegum" hits in Europe, but today are mostly remembered in the U.S. as a one-hit wonder for their controversial song "Barbie Girl". In addition to this, several of the Latin American bubblegum groups attempted comebacks in the late 1990s, with Menudo's El Reencuentro being the most successful among them.
2000s
- Image:Stop hand.png The factual accuracy of this section is disputed. Please view the article's talk page.
Bubblegum pop then appeared to be declining at the turn of the millenium, but suddenly started a new rebirth as network execs at the Disney Channel molded their female stars such as Hilary Duff, Raven-Symone, Hayden Panettiere, and Lindsay Lohan into pop princesses. Pop punkers then entered the scene, with the hardcore punk sound softened for the benefit of the teenage crowd. Acts such as Green Day, Simple Plan, and Good Charlotte became heartthrobs to teenage girls, but they faced stiff competition from alternative singers such as Ryan Cabrera, Aaron Carter, and Jesse McCartney.
American Idol, the American version of British channel ITV's Pop Idol, premiered on the Fox Network in the summer of 2002 and made Kelly Clarkson into a superstar. In later editions the show made stars out of Clay Aiken, Fantasia Barrino, and Carrie Underwood. Clarkson also spawned several imitators, most notably Ashlee Simpson (who infamously lip-synced her way through a performance on Saturday Night Live). Bubblegum pop is likely to continue well into the 21st century.
Further reading
- Kim Cooper and David Smay (eds), Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Prepubesent Pop from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears, Feral House 2001 ISBN 0922915695
- "Bubblegum" also is a record by Mark Lanegan.
See also
- Mark Lanegan — Bubblegum the album
External links
- October 2005 is International Bubblegum Month, with bubblegum music themed events scheduled for sites in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Australia. Visit the International Bubblegum Month website to see photos of the Bubblegum Achievement Awards, honoring Steve Barri (Lancelot Link), Ron Dante (Archies), Joey Levine (Ohio Express) and DJ Dr. Demento.
| Pop music |
| Boy band - Bubblegum pop - Girl group - Pop culture |
| Pop punk - Power pop - Synth pop - Teen pop - Traditional pop music |
| By region |
| C-pop (Cantopop, Mandopop) - Europop (Nederpop) - J-pop - K-pop |