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  Why are ”Pop” and ”Alternative” considered music genres? (3 posts)

• othniel3 years, 3 months said ago:

  “Pop” has been used as a genre for music for the last few years but I have yet to figure out how that genre is defined. It used to just be a tag that described if a particular genre of music was popular, example: Pop rock, Pop Metal, Pop Country…etc. but now it seems to describe an genre of music. But what has been described to me as “pop music” is just modern day soul and hip hop variations, which is confusing to me…just call it soul or hip hop. To me pop music is just music that is popular, so everything that is played on the radio, sells tons of CDs or sells out concerts is pop music.

  I guess the same goes with the Alternative genre tag. Alternative used to describe music that was an alternative to what was popular now bands that are popular are being tagged as Alternative. I hope you can see my confusion.

• Wren_Micaella3 years, 3 months said ago:

  They are subgenres of rock.
  Pop has more positive vocals and upbeat tempos.
  Alternative is a combination of post-punk, new-wave and grunge.

• Vivien_Timandra3 years, 3 months said ago:

  wrong…pop goes back at least 2 decades before the birth of rock and roll, back to the 1920’s or 30’s. rock music is actually a genre of pop music. it wasn’t until the late 60’s early 70’s that people started to seperate rock and pop. led zeppelin, pink floyd, and many other bands considered greats in rock charted on the pop charts.

  i’m always amazed when i see questions like this at how little younger people know about the history of modern music.
  .