Talk:Pop rock

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Artists[edit]

By a narrow definition, some popular pop rock artists include Ashlee Simpson, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Skye Sweetnam, and Saves The Day, with Alanis Morissette and possibly Melissa Etheridge having originated the genre in the mid-1990s (in turn inspired from Nirvana's arrangements in the early 1990s).

This statement, as the subsequent paragraphs to some extent, has a couple issues. The first is that classifying artists is a tricky business, so the paragraph should at least say what criteria is being used to define braod versus narrow definitions. Secondly, on what planet is Nirvana pop rock?idk If they are mentioned to define the others, that needs to be expanded/clarified. Also Alanis and Melissa are sometimes considered rock period, so they might be considered to be moved.

Nirvana's use of pop melodic hooks and quiet verse -> loud chorus -> back and forth arrangements have heavily influenced all the artists mentioned here. You can draw a direct line between Nirvana's hit tracks and Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and "Behind These Hazel Eyes", for example. Wasted Time R 16:56, 7 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

This "narrow definition" implies a narrow understanding of musical history. "Way before Nirvana" there was a little band from Liverpool you may have heard of--The Beatles. The John Lennon and Paul McCartney compositions in particular had a stronger emphasis on melody than the rockabilly and doo wap music of the 1950s, hence inventing pop rock (although some might include surf rock, which preceded the British Invasion by a few years, under pop rock).
It's interesting to note the sudden change of tone in the Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook "year in music" articles from the period. From 1954 on, the articles' coverage of rock music was extremely negative and patronizing. This changed abruptly when the Beatles came out circa 1964. Some of this may be due to American acts giving way to British acts, but the articles themselves praise the stronger pop melodies of the early Beatles songs.
Centering a pop rock article on a grunge act like Nirvana is as ridiculous as centering a country music article on Garth Brooks. There was music before 1990! (Nirvana was itself influenced by The Pixies). archola 20:44, 29 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sources?[edit]

Erm, my understanding of pop rock is that it's merely an umbrella term for sorting music in record stores. Nothing leads me to believe it's a distinctive genre, especially as described in this article.

See above for an EB citation. As a genre, pop rock includes more pop influences than earler forms of rock (which tended to emphasize either blues or country-shuffle influences). At the same time, it has more rock influences (such as the beat) than does soft rock. Nowadays, much of pop rock is classified as Adult Contemporary, especially Hot AC or Adult Top 40. In fact, most of the post-Nirvana acts listed above have had major hits on Hot AC stations. archola 20:44, 29 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I wonder why Avril Lavigne isn´t on the article anymore...if you read the article for Lavigne, she states her music is Pop rock. Angel of the Will 11:23, 26 February 2007 (GMT-3)

Backstreet boys[edit]

They are NOT Pop rock. They are just a silly pop band. DavidJJJ 13:16, 23 August 2006 (UTC) No Shit there ;)[reply]

  • While I completely agree they are in no way a "pop rock" band and would probably be the perfect example of (pure?) "Pop music", don't forget to keep a bias-less tone when discussing such things otherwise your arguement might be ignored. ;) IrishPearl 20:01, 9 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Whitney Wolanin[edit]

I've been on this womans myspace, and it doesnt appear to be "Pop/Rock" to me? and is the link to her site really neccesary? Phlox

ok, seeing as people dont read things very often, im going to remove the link to her website, it seems a bit like an advertisment to me, but let me know mmmKayPhlox

Yup, people don't read (some of) these things very often, so it's almost always best to just do it yourself. Glad to see you figured that out, too. :) Eaglizard 00:06, 26 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

what post-grunge?[edit]

why to be merged with post-grunge?? not every pop rock band is related to alternative music as its commercialized branch (example: Blink 182 as a corporate version of Punk rock). you can call it corporate MTV pop-punk but not pop-rock. there are certain bands who have absolutely no connection to this post grunge thing,. example, Fredy Mercury's Queen had indeed certain pop rock phase during the 1980s. what they have incomon with postgrunge?? the songs like One vision for example (or how it was called): there are distorted guitars, brian may's rock solos and all, but still its quite poppy, its not 1970s long hairs and flares and old keyboard solos. there are numerous other examples around the world: bands with traditional rock lineups who are too soft for orthodox rock and especially for alternative rock, but on the other hand they are too hard comparing to new kids on the block. i cant think of much examples right now, but lets say INXS, Brian Adams, Fine Young Cannibals in the late 1980s, certain U2 and Dire Straits stuff then numerous European bands and so on. as im from former yugoslavia there were plenty of bands here labeled as "pop-rock" by the media (ussually during mid-to-late 1980s after the decline of the New wave, the New Romantics and the synth pop). Bajaga i Instruktori for instance. what post grunge? call it pop-grunge if you want, but not pop rock, its wrong--Chajeshukarie 23:54, 11 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can we just delete this page??[edit]

This is an awful article. Offers no insight. The examples, like Alanis Morrisette and Rogue Traders (who?!) are unrepresentative. There needs to be more focus on The Beatles who are basically the foundign fathers of the genre. And who cares that there are Chinese pop rock bands?! There are pop rock bands all over the place. Honestly, this needs to be deleted and started from scratch. Mikenosilly 09:22, 16 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yup, this is one fugly article, as it stands ahorista. But that doesn't mean it should be deleted, for chris'sakes! It just needs some tender, loving care! For instance, one might mention a few influential songs of a certain King which influenced this genre. Or some others. Heck, without any valid sources, one might just write anything one pleased. And that's the real problem here: no published, critical examinations to establish a real definition for 'pop-rock' -- although we all know the genre exists, cause we've all used the term ourselves, now haven't we? Anybody w/ knowledge of music criticism care to tackle this problem? (Btw, Phlox, this is a case where it's not best to do it myself, I think ;) Eaglizard 00:11, 26 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

00's pop rock example area[edit]

I like the someone had the extreme foresight to talk in the past tense about "the later part of the decade" when technically we are only entering it now. Such audacity! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.109.225.41 (talk) 12:16, 6 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unreferenced examples[edit]

Hi, I removed the section of unreferenced examples. This is a hard-to-define term, so any examples need references, stating that "critic Bob X from the Rolling Stone called XXX a pop-rock act". Without references, the reader cannot assess the credibility of the bands you listed, many of which were genre-blending bands (e.g. pop-hard rock-hair metal of Bon Jovi). I argue that every example should have a source in this article. Even with sources, there will be disputes: critic A will say Bon Jovi is pop-rock, and critic B will say they are hard rock...............................................................................This isn't an Internet chat page, where all the opinions can all be put out here. People need to be able to rely on an encyclopedia.Nazamo (talk) 18:45, 14 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Pop Rock MADE IN ENGLAND![edit]

Get a life. 74.69.64.52 (talk) 20:31, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]


beatles early stuff the pre-1965 albums is considered pop rock. they did alotta covers song in those times and alot of them were from american artists. WikiWiki1984 (talk) 03:23, 25 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Elton John?[edit]

Could Elton John fit in Examples under the 1970s? I'm not completely sure if his music back then was really considered Pop Rock but I think he fits. I just wanted confirmation before I go on editing this article.~♫☆PianoWizzy☆♫~, who resides at pianowizzy.co.cc :) 15:13, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

No sense[edit]

This article has no sence, There is not a style called "pop", only the "dance pop", how to define pop rock as a fusion between rock and a rhythm that does not exist?

The sense of pop rock is that genres of rock who leave the underground scene and get space in the mainstream. Begining by beatles in 60' passing by New Wave in the 80', grunge in 90', nu metal 90', .. I propose a completely new article. Josboroliv 10:11, 6 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Adult Oriented Rock[edit]

The page album oriented rock does not cover or disambiguate adult oriented rock for which there is no page. On the talk pages for the former this is justified by saying 'adult oriented rock' is 'melodic rock'. But 'melodic rock' has been merged with 'pop rock'. But the 'Adult Oriented Rock' of the 80's is as different from 'Pop Rock' as it is from Heavy Metal or even Grunge which was a reaction to it.

Please, can the Music Genre Project have a page for Adult Oriented Rock to fit into this mosaic? The genre was well defined in the 1980s (at least in the UK) as a more melodic and commercial alternative to 'heavy metal', and could perhaps be summed up as all those rock bands (not pop bands) that never made the pages of Kerrang.Stub Mandrel (talk) 15:49, 29 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"Guitar pop" as an AKA[edit]

"Guitar pop" is certainly interchangeable with "pop rock" but I've had no luck finding sources that corroborate.--Ilovetopaint (talk) 10:48, 1 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

"Guitar-rock" listed at Redirects for discussion[edit]

A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Guitar-rock. The discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 August 3#Guitar-rock until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. signed, Rosguill talk 19:31, 3 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Lack of info[edit]

There is no actual information providing what pop rock songs are generally like. If someone needs to study, this doesn’t help at all unless they are studying history. It shows no insight into the key concepts of music. There is no overall information on what pop rock sounds like in pitch or instruments often used or even really giving good examples on it. I could go on and on, but looking at the key concepts of music, you can clearly see how it isn’t present here at all and is not helpful. 203.221.229.154 (talk) 06:50, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]