Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. Rock and pop music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which pop became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral , and accessible.
101-551: Connie Francis (born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero ; December 12, 1937) is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. She is estimated to have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. In 1960, Francis was recognized as the most successful female artist in Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Australia, and in every other country where records were purchased. She
202-453: A New York Times bestseller . In 1989, Francis resumed her recording and performing career once again. For Malaco Records , Francis recorded a double album entitled Where the Hits Are , containing re-recordings of 18 of her biggest hits, as well as six classics of yesteryear Francis had always wanted to record such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and " Torn Between Two Lovers ". In 1992,
303-473: A chorus that contrasts melodically, rhythmically and harmonically with the verse . The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment. The lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions. Harmony and chord progressions in pop music are often "that of classical European tonality , only more simple-minded." Clichés include
404-422: A vaudeville variety stage production being done live to tape at The Hollywood Palace Theater. Lipman was required to write arrangements every week for the telecast. In 1966 he received an Emmy Award nomination for his orchestration and arranging work. His career includes orchestrations and ghost writing for Broadway shows, film scores, and television shows. He co-wrote the arrangements with Henri René for
505-515: A 1961 television interview that she was fluent in Spanish and Italian, but always had a translator nearby to make sure her translated lyrics and especially her pronunciation were as correct as possible. In the wake of " Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel ", Francis enjoyed her greatest successes outside the United States. During the 1960s, her songs not only topped the charts in numerous countries around
606-558: A Cake " in 1949. Kay Thompson was paired with Lipman as her arranger and musical director in the recording studio. The 1955 album Kay Thompson Sings shows Lipman as a theatrical musical arranger. Popular singers and entertainers he wrote and arranged for through MGM during this time include Vic Damone , Betty Madigan , Kay Armen , Bill Tabbert , Jan August , Ginny Gibson , Ella Mae Morse , Fran Warren , and Bob Crosby . Charlie Parker and his producer Norman Granz organized recording sessions in 1949 and 1950 that would culminate in
707-444: A baby boy, Joey. Francis married TV producer Bob Parkinson on June 27, 1985, divorcing later that year. Early in her career, Francis was introduced to Bobby Darin , then an up-and-coming singer and songwriter. Darin's manager arranged for him to help write several songs for her. Despite some disagreement about material, after several weeks Darin and Francis developed a romantic relationship. Francis' strict Italian father would separate
808-442: A big band session. The sessions were recorded from July 5, 1950 to March 25, 1952 and arranged by Lipman with Parker's approval, comprising Charlie Parker Big Band with two tracks added from earlier sessions. Singles appeared on the radio and record stores, but the album wasn't released until 1954. After successes with Vaughan, Cole, and Parker, Lipman was hired to write arrangements for Perry Como's first album, So Smooth ,
909-407: A career in medicine and was about to accept a four-year scholarship offered at New York University . At what was to have been her final recording session for MGM on October 2, 1957, with Joe Lipman and his orchestra, she recorded a cover version of the 1923 song " Who's Sorry Now? " written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby . Francis has said that she recorded it at the insistence of her father, who
1010-700: A double-sided hit: on the A-side, " Lipstick on Your Collar " (number 5), and on the B-side, " Frankie " (number 9). Following another idea from her father, Francis traveled to London in August 1959 to record an Italian album at EMI 's famous Abbey Road Studios . Titled Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites , the album was released in November 1959. It soon entered the album charts where it remained for 81 weeks, peaking at number 4 and becoming Francis's most successful album. "Mama,"
1111-399: A light entertainment and easy listening tradition. Pop music is more conservative than other music genres such as folk, blues, country, and tradition. Many pop songs do not contain themes of resistance, opposition, or politics, rather focusing more on love and relationships. Therefore, pop music does not challenge its audiences socially, and does not cause political activism. Frith also said
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#17328908093901212-463: A major record company under Francis's own name. Even when MGM Records decided to sign a contract with her, it was because one track she had recorded, "Freddy", happened to be the name of the son of a company executive, Harry A. Meyerson, who thought of the song as a nice birthday gift. Hence, "Freddy" was released as Francis's first single, which turned out to be a commercial failure, just like her next eight solo singles. Despite these failures, Francis
1313-506: A medley of remixed versions of her biggest German hits charted in Germany. A single, entitled "Jive, Connie", ended up among the top-ten best-selling singles of the year, which brought Francis the prestigious R.SH-Gold award for the "Best Comeback of the Year" from R.SH (short for "Radio Schleswig-Holstein"), then one of Germany's most important private radio stations. A subsequent compilation album of her biggest German hits in their original versions
1414-407: A music researcher, states pop music as any type of music that a person has been exposed to by the mass media. Most individuals think that pop music is just the singles charts and not the sum of all chart music. The music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical , jazz , rock , and novelty songs . As a genre, pop music is seen to exist and develop separately. Therefore,
1515-420: A number of ballads they had written for her. After a few hours, Francis began writing in her diary while the songwriters played the last of their ballads. This, and her refusal to let Sedaka and Greenfield see the diary to mine it for material, inspired the duo to write Sedaka's own breakthrough hit " The Diary .") Afterwards, Francis told them that she considered their ballads too intellectual and sophisticated for
1616-498: A pop song is to them, songs from the 1960s turned out to be the most memorable, significantly more than songs from recent years 2000 to 2015. Before the progressive pop of the late 1960s, performers were typically unable to decide on the artistic content of their music. Assisted by the mid-1960s economic boom, record labels began investing in artists, giving them the freedom to experiment, and offering them limited control over their content and marketing. This situation declined after
1717-474: A press agent and entertainment director for the Aladdin Hotel . In January 1971, she married Izzy Marion, a hair-salon owner, divorcing 10 months later. In 1973, Francis married for the third time – her only marriage to last more than a few months – to Joseph Garzilli, a restaurateur and travel-agency owner; they divorced in 1977. It was during the third marriage that Francis adopted
1818-496: A professional musician. At the age of 19, Lipman moved to New York City and joined the Benny Goodman orchestra on his Let's Dance radio show in 1934 and 1935 as a pianist. He encountered the arrangements and compositions that Goodman acquired from Fletcher Henderson . He arranged for Vincent Lopez , and worked as pianist and arranger for Bill Staffon in 1935 and Irving Aaronson in 1936, and became pianist and arranger with
1919-455: A separation which was "also, broadly, one between boys and girls, middle-class and working-class." The latter half of the 20th century included a large-scale trend in American culture in which the boundaries between art and pop music were increasingly blurred. Between 1950 and 1970, there was a debate of pop versus art. Since then, certain music publications have embraced the music's legitimacy,
2020-469: A telecast of Dick Clark's American Bandstand . It was a hit in the U.S. and U.K. Lipman was musical director on the singles " Carolina Moon ", "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry", "You Were Only Fooling" and "Lock Up Your Heart". By early 1963, Perry Como was uncertain if he would continue making regular television appearances and eventually would end his long running weekly series. His uncertainty caused Como's conductor Mitchell Ayres to accept an offer to become
2121-416: A tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments ; and seeks to encourage dancing or uses dance-oriented rhythms. The main medium of pop music is the song, often between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length, generally marked by a consistent and noticeable rhythmic element , a mainstream style and a simple traditional structure . The structure of many popular songs
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#17328908093902222-472: A thriving pop music industry, most of which is devoted to Western-style pop. Japan has for several years produced a greater quantity of music than everywhere except the US. The spread of Western-style pop music has been interpreted variously as representing processes of Americanization, homogenization , modernization, creative appropriation, cultural imperialism , or a more general process of globalization . One of
2323-483: A trend referred to as " poptimism ". Throughout its development, pop music has absorbed influences from other genres of popular music. Early pop music drew on traditional pop , an American counterpart to German Schlager and French Chanson , however compared to the pop of European countries, traditional pop originally emphasized influences ranging from Tin Pan Alley songwriting, Broadway theatre , and show tunes . As
2424-418: A variety of styles, ranging from R&B, vocal jazz , and country to Broadway standards , children's music, waltzes, spiritual music, schlager music , traditionals from various ethnic groups represented in the US, and select songs from popular songwriters of the day, such as Burt Bacharach and Hal David , or Les Reed . Francis was married four times. In 1964, she was briefly married to Dick Kanellis,
2525-425: Is all the collective clubs around the world. Radio is just doing its best to keep up." Songs that talked of escapism through partying became the most popular, influenced by the impulse to forget the economic troubles that had taken over the world after the 2008 crash . Throughout the 2010s, a lot of pop music also began to take cues from Alternative pop . Popularized by artists such as Lana Del Rey and Lorde in
2626-652: Is essentially conservative". It is, "provided from on high (by record companies, radio programmers, and concert promoters) rather than being made from below (...) Pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged". According to Frith, characteristics of pop music include an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology, and an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities. Besides, Frith also offers three identifying characteristics of pop music: light entertainment, commercial imperatives, and personal identification. Pop music grew out of
2727-470: Is largely the story of the intertwining pop culture of the United States and the United Kingdom in the postwar era. — Bob Stanley According to Grove Music Online , "Western-derived pop styles, whether coexisting with or marginalizing distinctively local genres, have spread throughout the world and have come to constitute stylistic common denominators in global commercial music cultures". Some non-Western countries, such as Japan, have developed
2828-462: Is most in line with the tastes and interests of the urban middle class." The term "pop song" was first used in 1926, in the sense of a piece of music "having popular appeal". Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country , blues , and hillbilly music . According to the website of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ,
2929-430: Is that of a verse and a chorus, the chorus serving as the portion of the track that is designed to stick in the ear through simple repetition both musically and lyrically. The chorus is often where the music builds towards and is often preceded by "the drop" where the bass and drum parts "drop out". Common variants include the verse-chorus form and the thirty-two-bar form , with a focus on melodies and catchy hooks , and
3030-477: The Billboard Hot 100 . Eventually, the single sold over one million copies. However, her minor chart success came too late for her record label—Francis's recording contract consisted of ten solo singles and one duet single. Though success had finally seemed to come with "The Majesty of Love", Francis was informed by MGM Records that her contract would not be renewed after her last solo single. Francis considered
3131-503: The American Bandstand 30th Anniversary Special and appearing in the town where she had been raped. Francis' new-found success was short-lived, though. She was diagnosed with manic depression , which again brought her career to a halt. She was committed to multiple psychiatric hospitals. Francis attempted suicide in 1984. Nevertheless, in 1984, Francis was able to write and publish her autobiography, Who's Sorry Now? , which became
Connie Francis - Misplaced Pages Continue
3232-573: The Artie Shaw Orchestra in 1936. Lipman also played for and recorded with orchestra leader Nathaniel Shilkret in early 1937. In 1937 Lipman joined Bunny Berigan 's band as pianist and remained in that position until Joe Bushkin took over in 1938. He re-orchestrated Berigan's second version of " I Can't Get Started " (1937). These Lipman arrangements included the 1938/39 concept album for RCA-Victor of Bix Beiderbecke 's music featuring Berigan on re-arrangements of Beiderbecke's hits from
3333-461: The Benny Goodman orchestra in 1934 and writing for television, films, and Broadway in the 1980s. He composed and arranged for Bunny Berigan , Jimmy Dorsey , Sarah Vaughan , Charlie Parker and worked as staff arranger in television for Perry Como and Hollywood Palace . Lipman was born Boston, Massachusetts on April 23, 1915. He started on the piano at the age of 7. After high school he attended college for two weeks but decided he to become
3434-616: The Billboard chart and was her second number 1 in the UK. The success of "Stupid Cupid" restored momentum to Francis' chart career, and she reached the U.S. top 40 an additional eight times during the remainder of the 1950s. She managed to churn out more hits by covering several older songs, such as "My Happiness" (number 2 on the Hot 100) and " Among My Souvenirs " (number 7), as well as performing her own original songs. In 1959, she gained two gold records for
3535-554: The Capitol Records sessions for Mel Torme to record the two sides "Who Sends You Orchids" and "(I'm Sending You a) Bunch of Love". Lipman's reputation as a conductor and arranger grew as he contracted with MGM . On June 18, 1954, MGM issued the album Manhattan Serenade by Joe Lipman and his Orchestra. Lipman was the musical director on the recording of the Eileen Barton No. 1 hit " If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked
3636-609: The Crown Heights, Brooklyn area (Utica Avenue/St. Marks Avenue) before the family moved to New Jersey. Growing up in an Italian-Jewish neighborhood, Francis became fluent in Yiddish , which led her later to record songs in Yiddish and Hebrew . In her autobiography Who's Sorry Now? published in 1984, Francis recalls that she was encouraged by her father to appear regularly at talent contests, pageants, and other neighborhood festivities from
3737-524: The Las Vegas Hilton with Dionne Warwick , a show billed as "Eric Floyd's Grand Divas of Stage". In December 2017, Francis released her most recent autobiography, Among My Souvenirs . While her singles were mostly kept in the then-current sounds of the day such as rock 'n' roll, novelty songs , the twist , torch ballads , or the girl group sound created by Brill Building alumni Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry , Francis' albums represented her in
3838-434: The barbershop quartet-style harmony (i.e. ii – V – I) and blues scale -influenced harmony. There was a lessening of the influence of traditional views of the circle of fifths between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, including less predominance for the dominant function . In October 2023, Billboard compiled a list of "the 500 best pop songs". In doing so, they noted the difficulty of defining "pop songs": One of
3939-465: The 1964 release David Merrick Presents Hits from His Broadway Hits featuring John Gary and Ann-Margret . He worked on the orchestration staff for Lionel Newman and Jerry Herman to produce the 1969 Academy Award winning film score for the musical Hello Dolly! Also notably during this time, Lipman was the main orchestrator for Sammy Davis Jr.s Sammy Stops the World (1978) television special which
4040-435: The American and (from the mid-1960s) British music industries , whose influence has made pop music something of an international monoculture, but most regions and countries have their own form of pop music, sometimes producing local versions of wider trends, and lending them local characteristics. Some of these trends (for example Europop ) have had a significant impact on the development of the genre. The story of pop music
4141-467: The Jimmy Dorsey band until February 1942, when he was replaced by Johnny Guarnieri . He wrote hits for Glenn Miller such as "Blue Evening" and was helped by the success of bands led by Artie Shaw and Les Brown . After writing for Les Brown and others during the early 1940s, Lipman was at the forefront of writing and arranging for a new generation of jazz and popular musicians. Bebop was emerging in
Connie Francis - Misplaced Pages Continue
4242-648: The Rain" on GSF Records. This answer song to "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando & Dawn bubbled under the charts. The recording of a German version, though, remained unfinished. After her modest success with "(Should I) Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree?" Francis began performing regularly again. While appearing at the Westbury Music Fair in New York , on November 8, 1974, Francis
4343-461: The U.S. and U.K. Other songs he arranged for her included "Tonight I Shall Sleep With a Smile on My Face", You're Mine You ", "You Taught Me to Love You Again", " Summertime ", "While You're Gone", and "Bianca". In 1951 he arranged four songs for Dedicated to You , an album of duets between Vaughan and Billy Eckstine . He was contracted to write an arrangement "et (Jet, My Love)" for Nat King Cole in late 1950. In April 1951 he arranged and conducted
4444-405: The US until her contract with MGM Records expired in 1969. In 1965, Connie Francis participated in that year's edition of the annual San Remo Festival , where her team partner Gigliola Cinquetti and she presented " Ho bisogno di vederti ", which finished on number 5 of the final ranking. Francis returned to San Remo in 1967 to present " Canta Ragazzina " with her team partner Bobby Solo . In
4545-602: The US, Connie Francis had a third number-one hit in 1962: " Don't Break the Heart That Loves You ", and her success led MGM to allow her complete freedom to choose whichever songs she wanted to record. Francis's first autobiography, For Every Young Heart , was published in 1963. On July 3 that same year, she played a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II at the Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow , Scotland. During
4646-402: The US, however, " Time Alone Will Tell ", Francis's cover version of San Remo's 1967 winning entry " Non pensare a me " which had been presented by Iva Zanicchi and Claudio Villa , peaked at number 94 on Billboard's Hot 100 and at number 14 on Billboard's AC charts. In 1973, Francis returned to the recording studio, cutting "(Should I) Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree?", b/w "Paint
4747-443: The age of four as a singer and accordion player. Francis attended Newark Arts High School in 1951 and 1952. She and her family moved to Belleville, New Jersey , where Francis graduated as salutatorian from Belleville High School Class of 1955. Francis continued to perform at neighborhood festivities and talent shows (some of them broadcast on television), appearing alternately as Concetta Franconero and Connie Franconero. Under
4848-537: The album Charlie Parker with Strings . While arranger Jimmy Carroll designed the first set of tracks, Lipman was contracted to arrange the second session (studio recordings of July 1950). These were Parker's most popular songs during his lifetime and were admitted to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1988. With the success of first singles released from the Parker with Strings sessions, Granz and Parker agreed to record Parker in
4949-458: The album was to help Lipman move into a greater position as an arranger for more jazz and dance bands of the era. By the end of 1939 he was not writing arrangements for Berigan's band any longer. His arrangement on "Jazz Me Blues" would be the last he submitted. Lipman's time with Berigan was successful but tumultuous and short lived; in August 1939 he replaced Freddie Slack to become the pianist and chief arranger for Jimmy Dorsey and stayed with
5050-727: The basis for her April 1960 recording, " Everybody's Somebody's Fool " which would go on to become the first single by a female artist to top the Hot 100 . Veteran lyricist Ralph Maria Siegel penned a set of German lyrics, named " Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel ", which, after some friction between Francis and her MGM executives, was recorded and released. The song peaked at number 1 in West Germany . She had two more number one hits there, "Paradiso" in September 1962 and "Barcarole in der Nacht" in July 1963. It
5151-416: The beginning of a long, successful collaboration. Lipman worked on Como's staff from 1957 to 1962 for Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall . He also worked on The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom and with Connie Francis . After ten unsuccessful singles, Francis went into the studio with Lipman and his orchestra. The result was a version of the 1923 song " Who's Sorry Now ", and it was released on New Year's Day during
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#17328908093905252-480: The conductor for a television show in Los Angeles. Ayres asked Lipman to become staff arranger, so Lipman moved in 1963 and worked on the television variety program The Hollywood Palace , which premiered in early 1964. The show had a six-year run from January 1964 through February 1970 (194 episodes). With different guest hosts every week, the show competed with The Ed Sullivan Show . The Hollywood Palace mimicked
5353-468: The country, and I'll bet ninety-five percent of them sing. "There's no doubt about it", predicted Mr. Clark. "She's is headed straight for the number one spot". I began feeling sorry for myself and a bit envious, too. Good luck to her, I thought. And then Mr. Clark just happened to play a song called "Who's sorry now" - MY "Who's Sorry Now"! Well, the feeling was cosmic - just cosmic! Right there in my living-room, it became Mardi Gras-time and New Year's Eve at
5454-608: The couple whenever possible. When her father learned that Darin had suggested the two elope after one of her shows, he ran Darin out of the building at gunpoint. Pop music Identifying factors of pop music usually include repeated choruses and hooks , short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse–chorus structure ), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much of pop music also borrows elements from other styles such as rock, urban , dance , Latin , and country . The terms popular music and pop music are often used interchangeably, although
5555-770: The decade, it was common for pop producers, songwriters, and engineers to freely experiment with musical form, orchestration , unnatural reverb , and other sound effects. Some of the best known examples are Phil Spector 's Wall of Sound and Joe Meek 's use of homemade electronic sound effects for acts like the Tornados . At the same time, pop music on radio and in both American and British film moved away from refined Tin Pan Alley to more eccentric songwriting and incorporated reverb-drenched electric guitar, symphonic strings, and horns played by groups of properly arranged and rehearsed studio musicians. A 2019 study held by New York University in which 643 participants had to rank how familiar
5656-454: The early 1960s, [the term] 'pop music' competed terminologically with beat music [in England], while in the US its coverage overlapped (as it still does) with that of 'rock and roll'". From about 1967, the term "pop music" was increasingly used in opposition to the term rock music, a division that gave generic significance to both terms. While rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of
5757-441: The early 2010s and later inspiring other highly influential artists including Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift , it gave space to a more sad and moody tone within pop music. Joe Lipman Joseph P. Lippman (April 23, 1915 - January 21, 2007) was an American composer, arranger, conductor, pianist, and songwriter working in jazz and traditional pop. His musical career was over five decades long, having started at age 19 with
5858-428: The former more accurately describes all music that is targeted for mass appeal (compare art music ) and includes many disparate styles. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is considered to be pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music . David Hatch and Stephen Millward describe pop music as "a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, and folk music". David Boyle,
5959-578: The genre evolved more influences ranging from classical , folk , rock , country , electronic music , and other popular genres became more prominent. In 2016, a Scientific Reports study that examined over 464,000 recordings of popular music recorded between 1955 and 2010 found that, compared to 1960s pop music, contemporary pop music uses a smaller variety of pitch progressions, greater average volume, less diverse instrumentation and recording techniques, and less timbral variety. Scientific American ' s John Matson reported that this "seems to support
6060-514: The group almost three years. Unlike his tenure with the Berigan organization, Dorsey's band was already achieving success and had a sound of its own. Lipman wrote a string of titles for the Jimmy Dorsey band, including , "Turn Left", "Turn Right", "Murderistic", "Aurora", "Bar Babble" and "Major and Minor Stomp". He produced more popular dance material that was challenging for the band like that of arrangers Jimmy Mundy or Jerry Gray . He remained with
6161-550: The height of the Vietnam War in 1967, Connie Francis performed for US troops. Francis recalls this story frequently during the introduction to " God Bless America " at her live concerts. Due to music trends in the early and mid-1960s, especially the British Invasion , Francis's chart success on Billboard's Hot 100 began to wane after 1963. She had her final top-ten hit, "Vacation", in 1962. A number of Francis's singles reached
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#17328908093906262-409: The home. By the early 1980s, the promotion of pop music had been greatly affected by the rise of music television channels like MTV , which "favoured those artists such as Michael Jackson and Madonna who had a strong visual appeal". Multi-track recording (from the 1960s) and digital sampling (from the 1980s) have also been used as methods for the creation and elaboration of pop music. During
6363-446: The late 1920s (Bunny Plays Bix). On Saturday November 19, 1938, Berigan's group appeared on CBS 's radio show, Saturday Night Swing Club with a contingent of nine musicians from his big band playing Lipman's new arrangement of Bix's composition In a Mist . From that same album he also arranged " Davenport Blues ", "In the Dark", and "Candlelights". Though not a great commercial success,
6464-414: The late 1970s and would not reemerge until the rise of Internet stars. Indie pop , which developed in the late 1970s, marked another departure from the glamour of contemporary pop music, with guitar bands formed on the then-novel premise that one could record and release their own music without having to procure a record contract from a major label. The 1980s are commonly remembered for an increase in
6565-401: The late 20th century that became global superstars include Whitney Houston , Michael Jackson , Madonna , George Michael , and Prince . At the beginning of the 2000s, the trends that dominated during the late 1990s still continued, but the music industry started to change as people began to download music from the internet. People were able to discover genres and artists that were outside of
6666-474: The latter name, she appeared on NBC 's variety show Startime Kids between 1953 and 1955. During rehearsals for her appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts in December 1950, Francis was advised by Godfrey to change her stage name to Connie Francis for easier pronunciation. Godfrey also told her to drop the accordion—advice she gladly followed, as she had begun to hate the large and heavy instrument. Around
6767-692: The live album The Return Concert: Live at Trump's Castle . That same year, she also released With Love to Buddy , a tribute album of songs made famous by the late Buddy Holly . In late December 2004, Francis headlined in Las Vegas for the first time since 1989. In March and October 2007, Francis performed to sold-out crowds at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. She appeared in concert in Manila , Philippines, on Valentine's Day 2008. In 2010, she appeared at
6868-501: The main purpose of pop music is to create revenue. It is not a medium of free articulation of the people. Instead, pop music seeks to supply the nature of personal desire and achieve the instant empathy with cliche personalities, stereotypes, and melodrama that appeals to listeners. It is mostly about how much revenue pop music makes for record companies. Music scholar Timothy Warner said pop music typically has an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, rather than live performance;
6969-508: The mainstream and propel them to fame, but at the same time smaller artists had a harder time making a living because their music was being pirated. Popular artists were Avril Lavigne , Justin Timberlake , NSYNC , Christina Aguilera , Destiny's Child , and Britney Spears . Pop music often came from many different genres, with each genre in turn influencing the next one, blurring the lines between them and making them less distinct. This change
7070-448: The manner in which pop has been disseminated", which helped to move pop music to "a record/radio/film star system". Another technological change was the widespread availability of television in the 1950s with televised performances, which meant that "pop stars had to have a visual presence". In the 1960s, the introduction of inexpensive, portable transistor radios meant that teenagers in the developed world could listen to music outside of
7171-403: The mid-1960s, pop music made repeated forays into new sounds, styles, and techniques that inspired public discourse among its listeners. The word "progressive" was frequently used, and it was thought that every song and single was to be a "progression" from the last. Music critic Simon Reynolds writes that beginning with 1967, a divide would exist between "progressive" pop and "mass/chart" pop,
7272-802: The pop music styles that developed alongside other music styles is Latin pop , which rose in popularity in the US during the 1950s with early rock and roll success Ritchie Valens . Later, Los Lobos and Chicano rock gained in popularity during the 1970s and 1980s, and musician Selena saw large-scale popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, along with crossover appeal with fans of Tejano musicians Lydia Mendoza and Little Joe . With later Hispanic and Latino Americans seeing success within pop music charts, 1990s pop successes stayed popular in both their original genres and in broader pop music. Latin pop hit singles, such as " Macarena " by Los del Río and " Despacito " by Luis Fonsi , have seen record-breaking success on worldwide pop music charts. Notable pop artists of
7373-400: The popular anecdotal observation that pop music of yore was "better", or at least more varied, than today's top-40 stuff". However, he also noted that the study may not have been entirely representative of pop in each generation. In the 1960s, the majority of mainstream pop music fell in two categories: guitar, drum and bass groups or singers backed by a traditional orchestra. Since early in
7474-448: The possibilities of popular music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible. According to British musicologist Simon Frith , pop music is produced "as a matter of enterprise not art", and is "designed to appeal to everyone" but "doesn't come from any particular place or mark off any particular taste". Frith adds that it is "not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward [...] and, in musical terms, it
7575-503: The reasons pop can be hard to summarize is because there’s no real sonic or musical definition to it. There are common elements to a lot of the biggest pop songs, but at the end of the day, "pop" means "popular" first and foremost, and just about any song that becomes popular enough...can be considered a pop song. In the 1940s, improved microphone design allowed a more intimate singing style and, ten or twenty years later, inexpensive and more durable 45 rpm records for singles "revolutionized
7676-457: The recording "Who's Sorry Now?" was finished, only a few seconds remained on the tape. The single seemed to go unnoticed like all previous releases, just as Francis had predicted, but on January 1, 1958, it debuted on Dick Clark 's American Bandstand . Francis watched the show and wrote in her diary: I heard Dick Clark mention something about a new girl singer. So, what else is new? Another girl singer. There are ninety-five million females in
7777-438: The same time, Francis took a job as a singer on demonstration records , to bring unreleased songs to the attention of established singers and/or their management who might choose to record them for a professional commercial record. In 1955, Startime Kids went off the air. In May that same year, George Franconero Sr. and Francis's manager George Scheck raised money for a recording session of four songs which they hoped to sell to
7878-457: The single taken from the album, reached number 8 in the United States and number 2 in the United Kingdom. Following this success, Francis recorded seven more albums of "favorites" between 1960 and 1964, including Jewish , German , and Irish , among others. These albums marked Francis's transition from the youth-oriented rock 'n' roll music to adult contemporary music , which George Franconero, Sr. had realized would be necessary if his daughter
7979-479: The studio in 1981 to cut " Comme ci, comme ça ", and "I'm Me Again", the latter of which became the title track of an album which featured the new songs. "I'm Me Again" became Francis' last single to chart on the AC charts. In 1981, further tragedy struck Francis when her brother, George Franconero, Jr., with whom she was very close, was murdered by Mafia hitmen. Despite that, she took up live performing again, even gracing
8080-573: The term "pop music" "originated in Britain in the mid-1950s as a description for rock and roll and the new youth music styles that it influenced". The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pop's "earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience [...] since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the special meaning of non-classical mus[ic], usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as The Beatles , The Rolling Stones , ABBA , etc." Grove Music Online also states that "[...] in
8181-409: The term "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, designed to appeal to all, often characterized as "instant singles-based music aimed at teenagers" in contrast to rock music as "album-based music for adults". Pop music continuously evolves along with the term's definition. According to music writer Bill Lamb, popular music is defined as "the music since industrialization in the 1800s that
8282-431: The theme song of Francis's first motion picture . The movie introduced the concept of spring break , as the once sleepy town of Fort Lauderdale became the hotspot for college students on their spring vacation in the wake of the movie's success. The success of "Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites" in late 1959/early 1960 led Francis to become one of the first American artists to record regularly in other languages. She
8383-559: The top 40 in the US Hot 100 in the mid-1960s, with her last top-40 entry in 1964 being her cover version of " Be Anything (but Be Mine) ", a 1952 song made famous by singer/bandleader Eddy Howard . Despite her declining success on the Hot 100, Francis remained a top concert draw, and her singles – with a more mature style – were charting on the top quarter of Billboard's Adult Contemporary (AC) Charts and sometimes even reached Billboard's Country Charts . Francis enjoyed lasting chart success in
8484-470: The turn of the century! And on February 15 of that same year, Francis performed it on the first episode of The Saturday Night Beechnut Show , also hosted by Clark. By mid-year, over a million copies had been sold, and Francis was suddenly launched into worldwide stardom. In April 1958, "Who's Sorry Now?" reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and number 4 in the US. For the next four years, Francis
8585-623: The use of digital recording , associated with the usage of synthesizers , with synth-pop music and other electronic genres featuring non-traditional instruments increasing in popularity. By 2014, pop music worldwide had been permeated by electronic dance music . In 2018, researchers at the University of California, Irvine , concluded that pop music has become 'sadder' since the 1980s. The elements of happiness and brightness have eventually been replaced with electronic beats making pop music more 'sad yet danceable'. Pop music has been dominated by
8686-498: The work of Charlie Parker , Dizzy Gillespie , and Miles Davis . In 1948 vocalist Sarah Vaughan contracted with Columbia Records , and Lipman was hired to arrange the song " Black Coffee " for her. His arrangement and rendering by Vaughan delivered a moody dirge about a woman's lonely fate. "Black Coffee" rose to No. 13 on the Billboard magazine pop chart in June 1949. He arranged a long list of hits that boosted Vaughan's popularity in
8787-575: The world such as Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy. Even at the height of the Cold War , Francis's music was well received in Iron Curtain countries, and some of her recordings were made available on state-owned record labels such as Melodiya in the former Soviet Union and on Jugoton in former Yugoslavia, although it was common knowledge that rock 'n' roll was highly disparaged in Eastern bloc countries. In
8888-523: The world, but she was also voted the number 1 singer in over 10 countries. In 1960, she was named the most popular artist in Europe, the first time a non-European received this honor. From mid-1961 to mid-1963, Radio Luxembourg closed each day's broadcasts with "It's Time to Say Goodnight", a song Francis had recorded especially for them and was not officially released until 1996. Francis's enduring popularity overseas led to television specials in countries around
8989-523: The young generation and requested a more lively song. Greenfield urged Sedaka to sing a song they had written that morning with the Shepherd Sisters in mind. Sedaka protested that Francis would be insulted, but Greenfield said that since she hated all the other songs they had performed, they had nothing to lose. Sedaka then played " Stupid Cupid ." When he finished, Francis announced that he had just played her new hit song. It went on to reach number 14 on
9090-521: Was raped at the Jericho Turnpike Howard Johnson's Lodge in Jericho, New York , and nearly suffocated under the weight of a heavy mattress the culprit had thrown upon her. She subsequently sued the motel chain for failing to provide adequate security and reportedly won a $ 2.5 million judgment, one of the largest such judgments in history, leading to a reform in hotel security. Her rapist
9191-638: Was a disco version of "Where the Boys Are". That and other songs from the Who's Happy Now? sessions were subsequently recorded in Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and German. The Spanish and German recordings became albums of their own in as Connie Francis en Español in Spain and as Was ich bin (What I Am) in Germany. All three albums and the singles culled from them were released on United Artists Records . Francis returned again to
9292-488: Was also released successfully. In the wake of this, Francis recorded two duets for the German Herzklang label (a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment ) with Peter Kraus , with whom she had already worked several times in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A German-language solo album was supposed to follow on Herzklang, but despite all songs being recorded and mixed, the album remains unreleased. In 1996, Francis released
9393-432: Was convinced it stood a chance of becoming a hit because it was a song adults already knew and that teenagers would dance to if it had a contemporary arrangement . Francis did not like the song and argued about it with her father heatedly, delaying the recording of the two other songs during the session so much that she thought no time was left on the continuously running recording tape. Her father insisted, though, and when
9494-453: Was epitomized in Spears' highly influential 2007 album Blackout , which under the influence of producer Danja , mixed the sounds of EDM , avant-funk , R&B , dance music , and hip hop . By 2010, pop music impacted by dance music came to be dominant on the charts. Instead of radio setting the trends, it was now the club. At the beginning of the 2010s, Will.i.am stated, "The new bubble
9595-585: Was followed by other major British and American recording stars including Wanda Jackson , Cliff Richard , Petula Clark , Brenda Lee , the Supremes , Peggy March , Pat Boone , Lesley Gore , the Beatles and Johnny Cash , among many others. In her autobiography, Francis mentioned that in the early years of her career, the language barrier in some European countries, especially in Germany, made it difficult for her songs to get airplay. Francis used these reflections as
9696-460: Was hired to record the vocals for Tuesday Weld 's "singing" scenes in the 1956 movie Rock, Rock, Rock , and for Freda Holloway in the 1957 Warner Brothers rock and roll movie Jamboree . In the fall of 1957, Francis enjoyed her first modest success with a duet single she had recorded with Marvin Rainwater : "The Majesty of Love", with "You, My Darlin' You" as the B-side, peaked at number 93 on
9797-513: Was never found. In the years after the incident, Francis went into depression, taking as many as 50 Darvon pills a day and rarely leaving her home in Essex Fells, New Jersey . In 1977, Francis underwent nasal surgery and completely lost her voice. She went through three more operations and was unable to sing for four years. In 1978, Francis returned to the recording studio to cut an album titled Who's Happy Now? The lead recording on this album
9898-642: Was not until her number 7 on the US charts, " Many Tears Ago ", later in 1960 when Francis began to record cover versions of her songs in foreign languages other than German. Over the years she expanded her recording portfolio to 15 languages. She also sang in Romanian during a live performance at the 1970 edition of the Cerbul de Aur in Brașov , Romania. Francis was not fluent in all of these languages and she had to learn her foreign language songs phonetically . Francis explained in
9999-488: Was the first woman in history to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 when “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” topped the chart in 1960, she was also the first woman to have 3 No. 1 hits on the chart, just three of her 53 career hits. Francis was born to an Italian-American family in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey , the first child of George Franconero and Ida (née Ferrari-di Vito), spending her first years in
10100-598: Was to have a successful longterm music career. Nevertheless, Francis continued to record singles aimed at the youth-oriented market. Among her top-ten hits on the Hot 100 were " Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart " (1961, number 7), "When the Boy in Your Arms (Is the Boy in Your Heart)" (1961, number 10), " Second Hand Love " (1962, number 7), and "Where the Boys Are" (1961, number 4). The last one became her signature tune and became
10201-468: Was voted the "Best Female Vocalist" by American Bandstand viewers. As Connie Francis explains at each of her concerts, she began searching for a new hit immediately after the success of "Who's Sorry Now?" since MGM Records had renewed her contract. After the relative failure of the follow-up singles "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry," which stalled at No. 36) and "Heartaches" , failing to chart at all, Francis met Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield , who sang
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