[78-L] Pop vs popular (was: Doris Day)

[Kristjan Saag]

Cary likes Bing but not Amy; the kids like Amy, hardly Bing - 
nevertheless both are pop singers.
Don's suggestion to use "popular" for the older generation of artists 
and "pop" for the younger seems reasonable, but doesn't really rhyme 
with the way the word "pop" has been used. I checked Billboard magazines 
from 1942, 1952, 1962, 1972 and 1982 - the word "pop" (meaning 
"popular") is used from the beginning, a little less in the 1940's but 
the difference is small: about 10/20 per issue between 1942 and 1982. 
Not a radical change...
Kristjan

Cary Ginell wrote 2011-09-21 21:39:
>
> Sorry, but Frank and Bing had the title "popular singer" first - it's time to create a new designation for the Amy Whine-houses of today. You can call them modern adult contemporary or whatever you want - I really couldn't care less, but to bestow Winehouse and others with the "pop singer" name and force Sinatra and Crosby to be called jazz singers is insane. Sinatra called himself a "saloon singer," which is quite an appropriate label if you ask me.
>
> Cary Ginell
>
>> From: doncox at enterprise.net
>> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
>> Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:40:45 +0000
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Doris Day
>>
>> On 17/09/2011, David Lewis wrote:
>>>
>>> Sorry to bring this thread out sort of zombie-like, especially as so
>>> many correspondents were so anxious to see it expire. But I wanted to
>>> share my perspective.
>>>
>>> Partly Doris' issue is a problem of classification. Once upon a time
>>> there was something called a "pop singer" or "pop vocalist" and that
>>> had a specific meaning. Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby were both pop
>>> vocalists whose records were in the "Pop Vocal" section of your local
>>> record store. In 2011, however, "pop" itself refers to an entirely
>>> different kind of music, and if Amy Winehouse is a pop singer, than
>>> Doris Day cannot be. So Bing and Frank have been re-designated as jazz
>>> singers, which is not too uncomfortable a designation for them,
>>> although I would have a hard time recognizing "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral"
>>> or "High Hopes" as "jazz," because these are pop songs, period. We
>>> have re-designated them into a category that really doesn't suit what
>>> they did in the "big picture" sense.
>>>
>>
>> Why not call the singers of that period (roughly late 1930s to early
>> 1960s) "Popular singers" as opposed to Pop singers?
>>
>> Obviously it is just a word; but then most popular "Classical" music is not
>> classical but romantic - words don't have to be accurate so long as we
>> know what we mean.
>>
>> Regards
>> -- 
>> Don Cox
>> doncox at enterprise.net
>>
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