An Analysis of the influence of Rock music on Pop music.

By- Nikhith Thomas, Vol.III Issue-XXIV January 2017

Introduction to the Author: 

Nikhith Thomas is an MA literature student who currently studies at Christ University, his interests lie in the fields of American literature and Popular Culture and is currently writing a research paper on the liberalization of black music and its artistic expression through Michael Jacksons Thriller. He currently lives in Bangalore, south India.

Rock and Roll music is a particular genre of music that had been introduced in the early 1930s, it had been a wide phenomena that not only gave birth to many such artists but also to many other genres and also managed to influence other existing genres such as blues, rhythm and blues music, pop and country music. It was however in 1948 the birth of new technology and popular culture that began to coincide with this genre that formulated its newer shape. Artists such as Elvis Presely, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley asd so on were considered forerunners of Rock N Roll. It was in 1948 that the Americans started mixing with different ethnic backgrounds and different parts of the counrty during the World War Two, a new kind of music was finding its way into airwaves as well as roadside truck stops and juke joints . A mixture of black and white music forms from the Missippi Delta, country music whith grinding machinary and automobiles implicit in its grinding beat, rhythm and blues spread across the nation from its birthplace Detroit. When white Pop music entered the idiom in the immediate post modern era rhythm and blues became to be known as Rock and Roll. This research is conducted to analyse the effects rock music on pop music and how it helped shape modern pop music.

Does Rock and Roll music have any influence on Pop music? If so, did it help shape pop music through the years and make it a popular genre as it is known today? Can Rock and Roll music be a causal factor for the emergence and popularity of Pop music as it is known in modern era?

• The texts that has been looked into this research whether “Thriller” (Jackson, 1982) the largest and the most influential and famous song of all time. “Sacrifice” (John, 1989) a pop ballad.“Danger Zone” (Logins, 1986) a heavy synthesized movie theme song from “Top Gun” and many others that are a set of solo, album and movie songs contains various elements of Rock music in them. They have been selected as subjects of analysis because of the heavy use of the bass used in Thriller and the structrisation of the lyrics and the useage of the lead guitar solos and the synthesizers used in each song. The primary aim of this research is to study and understand how various styles and adaptations were adopted by Pop music in the early 70s that later led to the emergence of other mainstream genres such as Disco and and its influence on black music such as Jazz. And also Rap music, Electro, House and EDM music in the 1990s to the present date.
• Understanding what led to the birth of other Rock and Roll music genres such as Glam Rock, Punk Rock, Heavy Metal, Trash Metal, Hair Metal.
• Understanding the heavy contibutions of Pop legends such as Michael Jackson, Elton John, Kenny Loggins, Prince and Lionel Richie  that helped Pop shape as a dominant genre above the others genres that pre existed before them.
• By this Research it is hoped that an analytical study would be done that understand the importance of Rock and Roll music and its greater impact on modern day music.

The paper aims at looking into the history of Rock n Roll music and its influence on Pop music. It includes books and online articles.

The primary text that is analyzed is the “Emergence of Rock and Roll music” which looks at Jazz, Rhythm and Blues and other black music helped give birth to Rock and Roll music and how synthesizers helped take Pop music to another level (Hall, 2014). The book critically analyses on what led to the birth of Rock n Roll music based on a close observation on the historic events that had taken place in American music that was shaped by the emergence of events and youth culture and popular music due to its lyrics and sound and also Jazz (Hall, 2014). The book uses a more Marxist framework on how the emergence of industries had influenced any form of entertainment among the factory workers and barmaids and states that the after effects of World War 2 had actually influenced the youths to revolt against anything societal and question the notion of normality and adhere to drugs, alcohol and sex ( Hall, 2014). “The Cambridge companion on Guitar” is a book that helped to understand the importance and the use age of various kinds of guitars in Rock as well as Pop music and the necessity for inventing various models of guitars that would help cater to different kinds of songs that are made and also the various inventions made in the field of music. This book looked at Rock and Roll music as whether this new genre of music could help establish an alternative form of Pop music and also restructure its lyrics, tune, instrumentation, theme and mannerism of the songs that were later created ( Cohelo, 2003). Also, “How The Beatles Destroyed Rock N Roll” looked at the how legendry band The Beatles had experimented with various cuisines of alternate genres of pop music though them being a pure Rock n Roll band just for gaining popularity and establishing a name in the recording industry. Wald, through his book analyses the dynamics of this particular genre from its traditional form using the guitars and drums to a form that consistently used the Jazz instrumentation such as the saxophones and choruses and later how ‘Black Jazz’ had become ‘White Rock N Roll’ through a more cultural studies perspective of the mixing of genres and popularity of such form of music among the white crowd (Wald, 2009).

The method used in this research is a textual analysis and a audio analysis on a compilation of solo songs and Rock and Roll albums and also the similar kind or taste of music that is found in Pop music in the early 70s up to the late 80s . This particular research also analyses Pop albums and traces of Rap music too. The Research is conducted on the basis on analyzing textual references and discourses found in other genres. The Method used in this research is a Qualitative one that looks into the quality of sound and the rhythmic meters that added to its influence and also the birth of other sub genres.

The framework assess the cultural impact of a particular culture on another and also the use age and exchange of various other musical instruments between two genres that helps to study the composition, the theme and the rhythm of the song. An anatomy of the Pop song into various sub elements such as introduction, the pattern of beats followed, the instruments used, the vocal and instrumental arrangement and the mood and the setting of the tone is also analyzed from a textual and a audio perspective.

Influence of Rock music on Pop songs

The term “rock and roll” was popularized in the 1950s by a disc jockey named Alan Freed. However, before he started using the term “rock and roll” to define the music he was playing on the radio, people were using the terms “rock” and “roll,” although not together to describe music. Black gospel singers hundreds of years earlier used the word “rock” to refer to being shaken in a spiritual sense. In the early 20^th century, when black people were playing and listening to “race music,” the word “rock” referred to the way that they danced to these songs that had strong beats. The dancing was very sexual and suggestive, just as the music was. The term “roll” has even been used since the Middle Ages to refer to having sex. Bands such as Dixieland and Ragtime gave birth to “American Jazz”.  Although Jazz musicians have had a profound effect on the world of Rock and Roll, as an art form, Jazz has remained pure and unto itself. It’s direct influence on early Rock and Roll is negligible purveyors and enthusiasts (Todd, 2009). The text that is taken into review is a book called “How The Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘N’ Roll” which  talks about how the most prominent legends of rock history had brought in and mixed several genres and styles of music with what was called originally called Rock N Roll music. Whitman a legend in jazz music and the Beatles the star players of Rock N Roll music both of two different styles of music managed to maintain the simplicity and the styles of old European standards of music (4 Wald). The book talks about how the style of the European Rock songs had been maintained in the traditional Rock N Roll manner without losing its rhythm and groovy style. By the time the Beatles had been established a hit by experimenting with rhythms of those such as Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins to re- segregate the Pop chart by distracting white kids from the innovators of the soul master, to diffuse rock energy with effectively sentimental ballads like ‘Yesterday’ . Instead of being high points of rock, the Beatles destroyed Rock N Roll turning it from a vibrant black or integrated dance music into a vehicle for white pap and presentations (5 Wald).

Rock N Roll legend Elvis Presely’s song “Milkcow Blues” (1954) was a slow, classy country blues lines rock n roll moment that paved and interested the audience to listen to more pop music that emerged from rock n roll music and a breakage of the rhythmic pattern of hardcore rock n roll music also happened, Presely unlike the Whitman and Beatles had loved to experiment with music especially after leaving to Sun records which helped him to experiment with various styles of music in the same form. ( 6 Wald). Elvis Presely’s outburst into radio car speakers in the 1960s where the power ballads had similarities to the modern day Celine Dion taste which form is from the folk blues revival (8 Wald). Among a study that was conducted it was found that  women and girls were primary consumers of popular styles, the critics were consistently male and more specifically that tended to be the sort of men who collected and discussed music rather than dancing to it. (9 Wald).

The influence of Rock n Roll music on Pop music had been one that had started since the 1950s due to the increasing popularity of the synthesizers. ‘Rock around the clock’ a rock n roll song performed by Bill Haley and his Comets (1953) spent 8 weeks on the Pop charts due to the rhythm and structurization of the song in a more Pop manner, to attract more black audiences towards RnB music ( Hall, Mitchell. 2014) . The Everly Brothers a band of Rock N Roll singers paved songs such as ‘Bye Bye Love’ (1957) and ‘Bird Dog’ (1957) wherein the songs were hit on the top 3 Billboard charts which included Pop, Country and Rhythm and Blues charts. High schools in the 1950s preferred Pop music and high school boys preferred Rock N Roll music, Mambo and Calypso music were taken over by Rock N Roll music that later influenced Pop music ( 10 Hall ).

The people who studied popular music while it was happening had tend to be far from being average consumers and partygoers and often despise the tastes and behavior of their more cheerful and numerous peers (96 Wald). By this the author tries to propose that songs made then were done by people who had an outside angle towards life, and could construct words and thoughts which were very different from the average consumer. All popular music history and criticism up in the 1980s and also the vast majority today had been written by men though most of main Pop trend were driven towards women (96 Wald). It said that most of the Pop tracks made in the 80s had a distinct theme as such and focused on areas like love to arrive to a common group or a particular sex of people such as women and aimed at attracting more female fans or followers on this particular genre of music due to its funky groove though most of them were composed by men.

According to Vincent Lopez who wrote in 1924, “The success of public ballroom depends on whether it is in favor with the women patrons”. (96 Wald) who stated that the trend even during the times when music was used as a form of entertainment for women who danced during lunch breaks and such depended on how groovy and rhythmic the music is and whether it could help them shake a leg. Ever since then the form of attracting women towards Pop music hasn’t changed as a result most popular music will be whatever style that most women prefer which is even prevalent in today’s music as well (96 Wald). Due to the influence of record and radio the idea of dance orchestra also changed since people went to the dances to have a strong visual appeal and music provided accompainments (96 Wald). Also, radio and records seperated sound from visual presentations and attached names to the music (96 Wald).

Romantic Music as well appealed to women more than men (96 Wald).

Pop had always been for melody and the songs made in the 1970s were no exception. Although the Beatles, rocks quinessenitial pop group had dissolved in 1970, all its members remained active. Their place was not taken by other sixties acts but by a new generation of Pop stars. Some of them remained as shooting stars who enjoyed a brief over whelming success but could sustain for several years. Peter Frampton’s “Came Alive” was a mediocre hit. While Fleetwood Mac had a bigger success with their album “Rumors”. While others had roller coaster careers like the BeeGees “Saturday Night Fever” that boosted their career up and down throughout the 1980s. While the most enduring Pop stars were Elton John and Rod Stewart who were both from the British Isles who began their careers in the 1970s and sustained it throughout the 1980s with sustaining ballads and also accused for selling out to the marketplace and also for not living up to their potetional work (300 Campbell, Body).

Rock and Roll would spring onto pop culture from roots music.

Several bands notably Foreigner and Queen created a niche for themselves by blending pop, hard rock and heavy metal. Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice” and “Feels Like The First Time” (1977) are love songs and relationship songs. Both of them have well developed melodies and the harmonic vocabulary chord extends beyond three or four chords. The song also has rich accompaniments featuring choirs and synthesizers in addition to a basic rock band. The metal elements are cosmetic and the guitar riffs and solos were played with distortion. Same applies to Queen’s “We Are the Champions” (1978) had almost a similar plan except the guitar is more prominent and Freddie Mercury’s singing is histrionic. These three songs offer convincing evidence that the song is a mix of distortion as to a heavy metal. In other respects the songs can be seen more Pop than the pure metal which was then played by Black Sabbath. (303 Campbell, Brody).

Down to the 70’s Disco had become a popular phenomenon that involved groovy styles and funkier sounds that made people to dance, bands like the BeeGees and the Boney M two separate bands from different parts of the continent focused on how to get the people groove to their songs. Songs such as ‘Saturday night fever’(1977) a global staple of the kind of music produced in the 70’s swayed on the themes of partying, dancing and the funky mixture of groovy sounds that were mellow also gave the inside perspective of the kind of sound produced back then. Disco even affected film and produced an alternate form of a much groovier sound than rock n roll music that had slowly started to decline after the death of Elvis Presely in 1977, this genre had been picked especially by the Blacks back during the urban gay culture in New York city at that time. Artists such as Donna Summer, Boney M, Sylvester and Peaches and Herb associated themselves in this more serious form of music that had gained momentum after the wide uproar of the popularity of ‘ Saturday Night Fever’ soundtrack.

Music in the 1980’s seemed to have undergone a shift on the themes of music most of them being classic in nature and closely followed a retro/nostalgia feel to it at the same time being as interesting or even more interesting than modern day music, synthesizers The 1980s are commonly remembered for an increase in the use of digital recording, associated with the usage of synthesizers with synthpop music and other electronic genres featuring non-traditional instruments increasing in popularity. Also during this decade, several major electronic genres were developed, including electro, techno, house, freestyle and Eurodance, rising in prominence during the 1990s and beyond. Throughout the decade, R&B, hip hop and urban genres were becoming commonplace, particularly in the inner-city areas of large, metropolitan cities; rap was especially successful in the latter part of the decade, with the advent of the golden age of hip hop. These urban genres—particularly rap and hip hop—would continue their rise in popularity through the 1990s and 2000s.

Because there were so many things happening with music and emerging new sounds at the time, the technology used to produce the music had vastly improved compared to previous decades which left many listeners who did not listen to music in this time period often confusing some of the songs thinking they came out later than they actually did; So far this has been the only decade to have this influence and confusion with preceding decades.

A 2010 survey conducted by the digital broadcaster Music Choice, which polled over 11,000 European participants, revealed that the 1980s is the most favored tune decade of the last 50 years.

Bands such as AC/DC, Queen, U2, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Poison, Whitesnake were among the most popular acts of the decade. The 1980s saw the emergence of wildly popular hard rock band Guns N’ Roses and the successful comebacks of Aerosmith and Alice Cooper in the late 1980s. The success of hard rock act Van Halen spanned throughout the entire decade, first with singer David Lee Roth and later with Sammy Hagar. Queen, which had expanded its music to experimental and crossover genres in the early 1980s, returned to guitar-driven hard rock with “The Miracle” in 1989. Additionally, a few women managed to achieve stardom in the 1980s’ hard rock scene: Pat Benatar, who had been around since the late 1970s, is a prime example of female success in hard rock, and so are both ex-Runaways Joan Jett and Lita Ford.

The Arena rock trend of the 1970s continued in the 1980s with bands like Styx, Rush, Journey, Foreigner and REO Speedwagon.

Traditionally associated (and often confused) with hard rock, heavy metal was also extremely popular throughout the decade, with Ozzy Osbourne achieving success during his solo career; bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Dio were also widely popular British acts. Speed metal pioneer Motörhead maintained its popularity through the releases of several albums. There were Underground scenes that produced an array of more extreme, aggressive Metal subgenres such as thrash metal that broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica,Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth, with other genericstyles such as death metal and black metal remaining subcultural phenomena.

The decade also saw the emergence of a string of guitar virtuosi: Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen achieved international recognition for their skills. While considerably less numerous, bass guitar virtuosi also gained momentum in the 1980s, Billy Sheeha and Cliff Burton and alternative/funk metal bassist Les Claypool became famous during that period. Iron Maiden founder and bassist Steve Harris has also been praised numerous times for his galloping style of bass playing.Both Hard rock and Heavy metal were extremely popular live genres and bands toured extensively around the globe.

Artists such as Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5 and Lionel Richie previously associated with black pop music looked with a Mowtown feel added to it now alternated their styles to a more disco-ish feel to the grooves and funky styles added to it, and this was achieved by the efficent useage of synthesizers and the particular lyrics that was framed in a manner to only talk about party, dance and a more casual sort of love, for example The Jackson 5’s “Dancing Machine” (1973), Michael Jackson’s “Don Stop Til You Get Enough” are few forms of examples of this sort of music that paved certain standards to the music production made back during that time. Also, the sudden popularity of such a genre of music among the black and white youths only seem to be a blow back to the Rock N Roll industry that had seemed to be suffering then.

By the end of the 70’s disco music was fading peoples choices and tastes seem to be influenced by Punk Rock, Glam Rock and interestingly a mix of two genres of music one being rock and the other being pop. Such reasons can be explained by the mixing of genres that was experimented by established groups such as Queen whose album “Hot Spice”( 1982), Beatles who previously had already experimented with the genre many works only seem to make the music industry skirt on its feet on thin ice often varying among the varied tastes of people consuming such songs, Def Leppard whose first album “High n Dry” (1981) a classic example of hard rock that had emerged from the dying roots of rock n roll had later influenced them to alternate their genres of music being hard rock to glam rock through “Hysteria” (1987) and later to “X” (2002) through the years. By this period many artists had also changed their forms of music making it sound more pop/rock in nature, Prince being a classic example of such a movement made albums such as “My name is Prince” (1979) is an important one as the album focused on black music produced by Warner Bros had a classic shift to a more classic pop/rock/glam rock music which can be seen through his works in “Purple Rain” (1984) movie and album.

Another example of the influence of rock music on pop culture would be the essential and most important contribution of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (1982), Jackson being an enigmatic experimenter of alternate styles sub genres in music experimented his works on “Beat It” (1982) a song that spoke on the drug additction and gang wars used a very serious exchange of the genres by the association of hard rock band Van Halen’s lead guitarist Edward Van Halen and the band members of Toto who not only experimented but also defined hard core rock/pop music to a series of audience such as hardcore rock fans, pop and party goers and the beephoppers ( 100, Taraborelli). “Human Nature”(1982) also serves as another example of the influence of rock on pop with the useage of the lead guitar that is found complementing the lyrics of the song that is found to emerge from a more lazy soulful jazz ballad but had its form alterted with the systematic arrangement of the synthesizers and the rhythmic shakers that seemed to have been brought back to life from the old rock n roll ages.

An interesting example of the cultural exchange of between two nations and the systematic mix of two or more genres can be noted through “Wanna be startin somethin”(1982) which is based not on one but mulitple mix of genres such as pop, rock, dance and rhythm n blues music makes it hard to identify which genre it belongs to. Jackson uses a more elaborate use age of rock n roll beats in this song that makes rock n roll live to this day in music, also he exchanges international cultures with the addition of the Swaheli choruses added at the back drop that makes this song not emerging from one nation but multiple ones.

“Billie Jean” (1982) used the same technique of a strong baseline made by a synthesizer and the addition of a trumpet and the strong rock feel with an association of acoustic guitar and rhythmic drum beats influensing the particular pop genre into a pop/rock one.

Finally, “Thriller” (1982) is a first class example of the mix of genres of music between dance, funk, rhythm and blues, rock and pop that uses the synthpop technique of adding a rich and groovy baseline which was achieved with the help of syntesizers and addition of supporting base guitar grooves and funky guitars and the electronic groovy sounds to make the song creepy and scary as the lyrics as it supposed to be thus scaling the masterpiece as unclassifiable under any proper genre yet to stand out as a fine example of all the genres, the dance steps used in the video didn’t belong to any genre too such as jazz, rock n roll or pop ones but more theatrical in nature yet groovy and eye catching to the viewers. Interestingly it can be noticed that this particular form of mixing of genres were later used by artists in the late 80’s but gained popularity in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Kenny Loggins’s “Danger Zone” (1986) a classic example from the previous songs produced by other artists influenced the writers of this song to give it a more of a pop/rock feel with the drum beats being pop in nature but having the syntesizer mixer sounds by Yamaha DX7 to produce a serious rock feel and also shaping it punk in nature, the lyrics being rockish and the high tenor saxophone to give the pop/rock mix a jazzy and dance taste to provide the needed effects, making the song pop rock in nature thus one can see the effects of rock n roll music that added the rock n roll beats n nature alternate its form n come out as pop ones that were made from the Linn drum kits used back then. Berlin’s “Take my breath away”(1986) from the same movie starred by Tom Cruise also uses the same synth technique of giving a long sad slow soulful ballad as an example of pop rock music that uses the rock drum beats of 2/4 beats per second a classic pop rock beat structuring of the songs made in the 80’s.

AHA’s “Take On Me”(1985)  used the means of synthpop which is a genre of popular music that used synthesizers and acoustic guitars and drums and was popular found in electronic dance rock, alternative rock and disco that was popularily found in many songs of the 80’s. Though it was seen as a remarkable entry of a such a genre which contains a more full bodied sound of the disco genre that prevailed in the 80’s such a genre didnt see a rise in the later periods and such an example can be seen in AHA’s “The sun always shines on tv” (1986) which failed miserably to stay on the Billboard charts for more than a week. However “Take On Me” did seem as a remarkable attempt to dish out rock n roll themes with disco in pop music, that made the song seem more interesting and inspiring every time a listener listens to it and a classic song of the 80’s that did have a powerful impact in re-shaping pop music.

Police “Every breath you take” (1984) is an example of the influence of rock music on pop genre with the funky guitar playing simultaneously at the background with the vocals, interestingly like any rock n roll song the composition of this particular song is done on simple chords of the guitar that uses a 4/4 composition and is largely incomplete at many places though sliding smoothly through the rhythmic patterns but misses choruses at main areas making the composition of the particular mood of the song subtle and classifies this song under the pop/rock category. Strangely this method seemed to work making the song a classic hit with its larger influence on the particular themes or the lyrical composition and structure of a song on a wider category as artists began to experiment more with their compositions.

Lionel Richie another noteable artist in the music industry had also experimented with the forms of music, his song “Dancing on the ceiling” (1986) is an example of influence of rock genre on pop forms, though crtically acclaimed as one of the worst songs of the 80’s it did have a positive effect on the pop charts, “Dancing on the ceiling” has a sudden start on a high tempo wave with a smooth groovy effect that aims at making the listener dance the moment they hear it with various alternate layers of synthesizers adding to this ‘dancy effect’ accompained with the lead solo guitar that distinguishes and identifies the song as a sub alterante dance pop mix with rock elements added to it, Richie in most of his songs uses an elaborate chorus with effects such as laughing, screaming and clapping sounds that adds to the mood of the song such were seen in his other songs such as, “All night long” (1983) that talks about a more carefree life that reminds the listener to pause for a minute and break free from all forms of labour and to enjoy and admire the life given, same can again be seen in his latter song “Shout it to world” ( 2000) that talks about the love he felt towards someone and wanted to express it openly to the world and uses the same technique of a multi chorus that adds on to the effects of the moods and can be also heard not from a closed studio but from an open space where they are heard to be doing something else other than just singing.

“Hello” by Lionel Richie (1984) a suspense filled musical slow ballad that mixed the elements of jazz, rock and pop seemed to be an interesting pattern because it combines the use age of piano, saxophone, acoustic guitar, a mild twist of synthesizers and a slow combination of drum beats makes it hard to define the song under a strong genre though the emotions and the elements strongly stand out which is another reason for its miscalculated treatment under any genre though people may claim it to be pop and others jazz its actaully a classic example of Jazz Rock.

Sir Elton John’s “Sacrifice” (1989) a soulful ballad also combines the manner of adding rock elements to a pop genre, however interestingly pop music had undergone a change during the late 80’s thanks to the contributions by Michael Jackson’s “Bad” (1987) album that started experimenting with pop culture and early signs of hip hop dance moves and traces of such sounds in songs like “Bad” from the same album. Similarily, in “Sacrifice” one can note the varied beats of the sound that used the snare drum that gave a more muffled beat sound and the piano feel that soley stands out, a reason why this particular track stands out is because of the use of the lead guitar towards the end of the song that cements this track as an example of pop/rock track which was influenced by the ongoing changes in rock history at the moment. People now started to appreciate rock tracks with a more funkier groove and pop feel rather than just being a hard core rock song that consisted of just sounds made by various sets of instruments such as the guitars and the drums, also rap and hip hop started dictating pop music by now and the focus now shifted towards boy bands such as Westlife, Backstreet Boys, Boyzone etc who succeded their predecessors like The Petshop Boys, Wham, Beach Boys and Aha.

By the turn of the century, Pop music that had been influenced by rock culture had shifted its form to rap and hip hop though still some of its identities didn’t change, one such immense contributions that both helped but yet deteroiated the influence of rock on pop music in that field would be by Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” (1991) album that was a mixture of several genres of music making this particular genre unidentifiable under any such genre. On one hand there were songs such as “Jam”(1991), “She drives me wild”(1991) and “Cant let her get away”  that extensively used hip-hop and rap in their form and structure of the song made the album sound to the modern day hip hop feels and sounds. On the other hand songs like “Give in to me”(1991) “Black Or White”(1991) and “Why you wanna trip on me”(1991) all were songs that gave the impression that the album was for a more hard rock, heavy metal sort of audience due to the close association of Slash guitarist from Guns N Roses. Traces of gospel music was also found in tracks such as “Will you be there”(1991), “Keep the faith”(1991) and “Gone too soon”(1991).

This research only focuses on the influence of Rock on Pop music and not its influence on Classical or Trance music, and it does not focus on the the album artworks that were used by various Rock and Pop singers or bands also it does not focus on the video movements or dance forms that were formed while shooting the videos of such songs. Interviews and Fashions senses were not considered by this research. Time constratints also inhibits the research to go any further. And many other important artists that may have been major contributors and their contributions to rock n roll have not been taken into consideration.

Pop music is very popular due to its peppiness, lyrics and sometimes the edginess and the raw characterstics that help define the soul of the song. From the 1950’s to the modern day music that is made, pop as a genre has always been an experimental background that has been forever influenced by one genre or the other whose hardcore pop shape is hard to define. From rock to jazz, to rhythm and blues to rap and hip-hop pop as a genre has been influenced by many such artists thus to make such songs popular and interesting among its listeners there are various other non-pop sound elements that are used to give it a new feel or dimension. Thus one can safely say that there are various Rock and Roll elements that are added in Pop music not only in terms of sound but also to the composition and instrumentation as well from historic and music that is modernly produced, thus pop is not a hard core musical genre that soley exists on its own but is a genre as such that is influenced and inspired as such with other elements such as culture and lyrical structure. Thus defined as classic to the culture of Rock music and its fashion statements also influenced the other genre to a fair degree and taught traditional Pop music to embrace and restructure to its new form on the basis of themes of the song as well as the manner in which it is delivered. Thus Rock and Roll music did influence Pop music.

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