Bubblegum pop
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Bubblegum pop (also known as bubblegum rock, bubblegum music, youth music, or simply bubblegum) is a genre of pop music. Some of the defining characteristics of bubblegum pop include catchy melodies, simple three chord structures, simple harmonies, danceable beats, and repetitive riffs or "hooks". Bubblegum pop is also characterized by its lightweight lyrics (which may include nursery rhymes or nonsense lyrics), often surrounding themes of romance and courtship. This style of music is primarily enjoyed by preteens and young teenagers who may also enjoy listening to it later in life for its "camp" or nostalgic qualities. Bubblegum pop is similar to Bubblegum dance (a type of eurodance) in which they both contain happy, fun subjects, and have catchy melodies. It is commonly prefabricated by a producer or record label.
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[edit] Origins
Essentially, bubblegum pop evolved from the other popular American musical forms that preceded and accompanied it, such as rhythm and blues and doo-wop. Bubblegum pop is also reminiscent of pre-rock novelty songs such as the WWII era "Abba Dabba Honeymoon" and "The Hut Sut Song," which hit the charts in 1951, hipster music like Slim Gaillard's "Cement Mixer (Puti Puti)", and dance-craze numbers like Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion" (1962).
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 nonsensical lyrics later surfaced in songs like The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" (1963), Tommy James and the Shondells's "Hanky Panky" (1964), and Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs' "Wooly Bully" (1965).
Critics of bubblegum pop maintain that the music is devoid of artistic merit and that the performers are "groomed" by record labels to depend on physical appearance as opposed to musical or artistic talent. In these cases, terms such as cheesy pop or simply cheese are often used to refer to this music pejoratively. Some critics also maintain that bubblegum pop is not created out of a desire to be artistically creative, but simply to produce something that sells - a process that results in what has become termed manufactured pop, also used in the pejorative.
(In his "Book of Bad Songs," humorist Dave Barry defines "bubblegum pop" as "a form of popular music that is so sickeningly sweet that it makes you want to jam pieces of chewed bubblegum in your ears to save yourself from listening to it.")
Nonetheless, it has proven a viable commercial enterprise, with record sales continuing to thrive. Individual singles, however, often only remain on music charts for a brief period of time - thus is the transient nature of bubblegum pop.
[edit] Marketing exploitation
Many of the acts related to this music genre are characterized by the heavy commercial usage of their image. Products bearing the artist's logo or picture, ranging from food to clothes, are released to the public. In the late 90s, acts such as Britney Spears and the Spice Girls served as a demonstration of this and released full-length movies, posters and other products that took advantage of their popularity.
[edit] 1960s and 1970s
The first wave of "pure" bubblegum came with Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz - music producers who formed Super K Productions in 1967 and gave the world the Music Explosion's "Little Bit o' Soul" and The Ohio Express's "Beg, Borrow and Steal" (the latter being a knock-off of "Louie Louie"). However, these songs were 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, Kasenetz and Katz released the Ohio Express's memorable "Yummy Yummy Yummy," a #4 hit in June 1968. Although the Ohio Express was a real, touring garage band in the Midwest, their hit singles were recorded by session musicians fronted by singer-songwriter Levine. The band members were handicapped attempting to reproduce Levine's distinctive nasal whine for their live performances.
Kasenetz and Katz developed a strong relationship with Buddah Records, and scored many hits on Buddah during 1968 and '69: "Indian Giver" and "Simon Says" by the 1910 Fruitgum Company, "Chewy Chewy" and "Down at Lulu's" by the Ohio Express, 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). Kasenetz and Katz also influenced other Buddah artists not other their direct control, most notably The Lemon Pipers: their 1968 hit "Green Tambourine" was produced by Paul Leka but had a distinct Kasenetz-Katz feel.
Others joined in, including music publisher Don Kirshner and "Hanky Panky"'s co-author, Brill Building writer/producer Jeff Barry. Kirshner's 1966 creation The Monkees is often called bubblegum, due to their producer-driven career and reliance on outside songwriters and session players. Barry often contributed to the Monkees' projects as a songwriter and/or producer. Kirshner and Barry struck gold again in 1969 with the Filmation cartoon group The Archies, whose "Sugar Sugar" (written by Barry with Andy Kim) was the year's best-selling single. (Ron Dante and Toni Wine provided the Archies' singing voices.) Cartoon producers Hanna-Barbera created The Banana Splits, costumed actors miming to pre-recorded tracks for a Saturday morning cartoon show, around this same time. Other animated acts included Josie and The Pussycats (from Hanna-Barbera), The Hardy Boys (Filmation), the Groovie Goolies (Filmation), The Sugar Bears, and (in the UK) The Wombles.
The initial era of bubblegum carried on into the early '70s, with hits from The Cowsills, David Cassidy and The Partridge Family, The Jackson 5, The Osmonds, The Raspberries, The DeFranco Family and many others. Sesame Workshop, then called Children's Television Workshop, also jumped on the bubblegum bandwagon with a juvenile group called "The Short Circus" from its new series, The Electric Company, who would also double as kid cast members in various sketches in the show.
Many British acts of the first glam rock era (approximately 1971-1975) had bubblegum influences. These included Gary Glitter, Alvin Stardust, T. Rex, and such Nicky Chinn/Michael Chapman-produced acts as Sweet, Mud, and American expatriate Suzi Quatro. These 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.
Bubblegum maintained a minor presence on the US charts in the late '70s, particularly through Shaun Cassidy (David's half-brother) and Leif Garrett, both of whom also maintained television acting careers. The last big act of the '70s that featured obvious bubblegum elements were the Bay City Rollers, who charted hits through the end of the decade.
Punk rock trailblazers The Ramones did not produce bubblegum music, but their punk rock songs were highly influenced by bubblegum pop's upbeat tempos, simple chord structures and nonsense lyrics. Joey Ramone (born Jeffrey Hyman) named himself after bubblegum kingpin Joey Levine. Ramone once described his group as a "nouveau bubblegum band with teeth," and they recorded the 1910 Fruitgum Company's "Indian Giver."
[edit] 1980s
The 1980s saw few mainstream bubblegum-esque acts in the US and UK. In the late 1980s, British charts were dominated by Stock Aitken Waterman-produced acts such as Bananarama, Dead or Alive and Kylie Minogue, whose sound was somewhere between synthesized dance music and bubblegum pop. 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, who saw her popularity skyrocket as a direct result of The Beautiful You: Celebrating the Good Life Shopping Mall Tour '87 (shopping malls being a prime outlet for her teenaged audience), and Debbie Gibson, who toured the dance clubs the same audience frequented on the weekends during the Dream Tour '87. In Latin America, bubblegum acts such as Timbiriche, Menudo, Los Chicos, Las Cheris, and Los Chamos were hugely popular. In 1985, Magneto, a group that would later gain fame in the 1990s, was formed in Mexico.
Also, some bands not known for bubblegum pop nevertheless released singles that arguably fit the genre, some becoming chart-topping hits. For example, the 1980 single "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" introduced The Police to an international audience; the single "Jump" from Van Halen's 1984 became a standard for televised sporting events; and in 1988 lead singer Joe Elliott proclaimed "I'm hot, sticky sweet/from my head to my feet, yeah" in Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me", a pop-metal hit with obvious influence from "Sugar Sugar." While these artists generally share little in common with the bubblegum pop of the 1960s, the lasting impact of that genre can perhaps be seen in the structure of these songs, if not the sound.
twee, also known as indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid '80s, and has its roots in bubblegum pop and the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s such as Orange Juice, Television Personalities (band), and Josef K and the dominant UK independent band of the mid eighties, The Smiths.Indie pop bands had a pop sensibility but generally favoured a relatively simple guitar-based sound over the highly produced, synth-driven pop that was prevalent at the time on major record labels. a particular influence being the more poppy/jangly bands on the NME's C86 tape (e.g. The Pastels, and The Shop Assistants). The more jangly indie pop bands later came to be referred to as 'C86' (after the tape itself) or Cutie or Twee due to what commentators called the "revolt into childhood" of its followers, or a term coined by John Peel: shambling bands.
[edit] 1990s
In the early 1990s, mainstream bubblegum remained scarce, as first grunge music and adult contemporary, and then gangsta rap and dance music 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 shared with the bubblegum pop acts of old the production of catchy, simple, up-tempo pop tracks aimed at younger music buyers, a line-up assembled by producer-svengalis, and a glut of merchandising aimed at that same young audience.
The Spice Girls hit the world in the form of chocolate bars, dolls, magazines, a feature length movie and even personal deodorizing spray. This mass fusion of consumerism and popular music transformed the ideology of bubblegum pop as a business, rather than simply selling records.
As well as the Spice Girls, a series of boy bands such as the Backstreet Boys, N'SYNC, 98 Degrees, Boyzone, Westlife, Take That, and O-Town made their way onto the walls of teenagers around the world. Soon after the boy bands came a new era of the pop princess, lead by forerunner Britney Spears and "rivals" including Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, and Jessica Simpson who revolutionized the genre, and opened the way for many more pop princesses to follow. 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[1] song "Barbie Girl". Finally the British pop group S Club 7 and American trio Destiny's Child who opened a new time for the pop during late 90's.
During this decade, the prime Latin bubblegum pop singer was Mexican teen idol Fey, who released three albums, sold over 7 million albums (rare accomplishment in the Latin world) and had number one hits across Latin America. Many similar acts soon followed, including Kabah, Iran Castillo, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Thalia and Belinda.
In the underground music scene twee spread to the United States with record lables such as K Records and Slumberland Records which had similar sounds to their UK counterpart Sarah Records. the sub-genre cuddlecore was also born with bands like cub, All Girl Summer Fun Band and Bunnygrunt who used bass and guitar riffs from 60's pop melodies.
Simon Reynolds talking about the political/cultural aspect of the scene referred to a "revolt into childhood". Style magazine i-D in an article from 1986 similarly concluded that the followers of the genre had an ingenuous devotion.
"Childlike innocence and assumed naivety permeate the Cutie scene – their clothes are asexual, their haircuts are fringes, their colours are pastel. Cuties like Penguin modern classics(Penguin Books), sweets, ginger beer, vegetables, and anoraks. Heroes include Christopher Robin …Buzzcocks and The Undertones.”
Important groups included Tiger Trap, Tullycraft and Belle and sebastian.
[edit] 2000s
Bubblegum pop then appeared to be declining at the turn of the early millennium, as audiences grew tired of the many boy bands and princesses, and the popularity of hip hop music, R&B, and emo would emerge. A rebirth began as network executives at Disney molded their female stars such as Hilary Duff, Vanessa Hudgens, Miley Cyrus, Ashley Tisdale and Lindsay Lohan into pop princesses. This occurred after these artists made either a successful movie such as High School Musical, made-for-TV movie or TV show such as Lizzie McGuire with them. The Backstreet Boys have dramatically switched to a pop rock style, prompting protest from fans of their older sound. Artists such as the Disney headed group Cheetah Girls would like to bring back the classic Max Martin-esque sound that was popular around the year 2000 with their music.
Then Pop Rock acts entered the scene such as Simple Plan, New Found Glory, Fall Out Boy, Blink 182, Hawthorne Heights, Good Charlotte, Hawk Nelson and Stellar Kart became heartthrobs to teenage girls, but they faced stiff competition from pop singers such as Ryan Cabrera, Justin Timberlake, and Jesse McCartney. Along with the pop-punk scene, some urban music started to have a bubblegum pop feel to it. In late 2004, 2005, and some parts of 2006, artists such as Frankie J, Paula DeAnda, Chris Brown, and Omarion started to become increasingly popular, matching even the popularity of the "Disney" artists who were prominent at that time.
When American Idol debuted in 2002, a slew of new manufactured pop stars were created by viewing and voting public. Kelly Clarkson is among the pop rock-influenced Idol contestants who have released records. Most of these Idol winners have performed songs in a variety of genres, including some bubblegum pop.
Bubblegum pop artists such as the dance-troupe-turned-girl-group The Pussycat Dolls, and Rihanna appeared on the charts in 2005, although they have a large fan base outside the traditional bubblegum target audience (e.g. The Pussycat Dolls have a large popularity with young adult males). In 2006, several new bubblegum pop artists started to enter the charts. Hope Partlow, and Aly & AJ on the other hand, decided to go toward the singer-songwriter genre, but their fanbase continues to center around teens.
Most of the songs from the Disney Channel original movie High School Musical soundtrack mix elements of traditional musical numbers with bubblegum pop elements. The soundtrack to the movie was the number one selling compact disk in the United States in 2006 with heaviest support among preteen girls [1] [2]. .It is believed that bubblegum pop re-emerged from the dead from High School Musical[citation needed]. The Hannah Montana Soundtrack released in October 2006, became the first TV soundtrack to enter the Billboard chart at No 1. As of June 2007 it has sold more than 2 million copies. A two-disc special edition of the CD, released in March, pushed combined sales to 2.5 million[2]. The premier of the sequel High School Musical 2 on August 17, 2007 was the most watched telecast ever in children ages 6-11, and the most watched entertainment telecast in adolescents ages 9-14 as well as the most-watched basic cable telecast of all time[3].
The soundtrack to the Broadway version of Legally Blonde written by Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe was described as having a "solid Broadway-bubblegum sound" [4]
As of early 2007, bubblegum pop in North America is trying hard to become mainstream again for most of contemporary pop music and many new artists such as Paula DeAnda and hellogoodbye could be considered part of this genre. However, bubblegum pop has to compete with a diverse set of other genres, including hip hop, gangsta rap, hard rock, punk rock, alternative rock, reggae, jazz, electronica, R&B, country music, and music from the competitors of the popular Fox TV series American Idol. Later in 2007, bubblegum style pop is emerging back with artists such as Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, NLT, and the like. However it is predicited that bubblegum pop is going to come out on top in 2008 and beyond, due to the snap music and crunk criticism from hip hop communities, and the alternative rock communities criticizing emo rock and post-grunge[citations needed].
Notably, while bubblegum pop is struggling back to mainstream status in the United States, in the United Kingdom, it is still very popular, with groups such as Girls Aloud and the Sugababes dominating the charts. Some former bubblegum pop acts have gained a large amount of airplay after a change in musical direction, such as Hilary Duff who changed to a very well received dance/electronic sound from her rock roots, and Mandy Moore who changed to a more organic contemporary genre.
The new millennium also brought renovated bubblegum pop to the Latin market. In 2003, Belinda started the new wave of teen pop in Mexico and soon after other acts, including RBD, were released. This last group brought an intesified demonstration of the marketing exploitation possible in this genre. A telenovela, magazines, candy, clothing line, movie and variety show were all created and bore the "REBELDE" logo.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Kim Cooper and David Smay (eds), Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears.', Feral House 2001 ISBN 0-922915-69-5
[edit] External links
- Bubblegum University, subtitled "your sticky pink think tank," is a group blog dedicated to bubblegum scholarship. It is online at Bubblegum-Music.com
- The Classic Bubblegum Music Page Your One-Chew Source for Classic Bubblegum Music!
- Bubblegum Dancer - fansite for the similar genre of dance music, Bubblegum dance.
- [3]- a brief history of twee pop
[edit] Footnotes and references
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| Other topics | Boy band - Girl group - Pop icon - Popular music - Pop culture |
Pop rock |
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| Arena rock - Baroque pop - British Invasion - Bubblegum pop/rock - Glam rock - Indie pop - New Wave - Piano pop/rock - Power pop - Pop punk - Soft rock - Sunshine pop/rock - Surf rock - Synthpop - Synthpunk - Synth rock |
es:Bubblegum pop hr:Bubblegum pop nl:Bubblegum no:Tyggegummipop pt:Bubblegum ru:Бабблгам-поп sv:Tuggummipop
Categories: Articles that may contain original research since November 2007 | Articles needing additional references from November 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since January 2008 | Pop music genres | Rock music genres | Dance music
