-Pop

Pop music, more than any other genre, is closely tied to the economic forces of mass production and mass marketing. The first popular standards were a result of the new market for sheet music in the 19th century. For the first time, songwriters could earn a living from consumers without a traveling show or a supportive patron. The invention of the phonographic cylinder at the tail end of the 19th century, and the more lasting disc technology developed at the beginning of the 20th century took the standardization of songs and potential for mass consumption a step further. Non-Classical Music in the first half of the 20th century was broadly referred to as "popular" music, not "pop" music. Nonetheless, the popular music from the 1900s to the 1940s that appealed to the most mainstream tastes in America, is generally recognized now as Traditional Pop. The dynamic post-World War II economy and the advent of the Rock & Roll era brought about a new age of teen consumerism and the first wave of Teen Pop celebrities. Various sources suggest the use of the word "pop" dating back well before the 1950s, but it was certainly the '50s when it took hold as a cultural phenomenon.