Popular Music of the 20th and 21st Century
The 20th and the 21st century have brought about some great music. It is better known as popular music and appeals to a much larger variety of people. Some of the styles of music we have enjoyed are the “Classic” American Music, Early Rock ‘N’ Roll, Pop, Heavy Metal, dance-pop, and rap.
Some of the great composers of the “classic” American music are Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Richard Rodgers. Cole Porter was a major songwriter for the Broadway Musical Stage. His well known works include “Fifty Million Frenchmen”, “Can-Can”, “Anything Goes”. But his most successful musical was “Kiss Me, Kate”. Irving Berlin was responsible for over 3000 songs including the beloved song “God Bless America”, …show more content…

MTV helped in the rebirth of Michael Jackson who was one of the largest dance-pop artists. Michael and his brothers were a huge hit in the 1960’s in their group known as the Jackson 5. Michael caused quite a stir in the 1980’s with his album “Thriller”. This solo album sold more than 40 million copies worldwide! Michael like Elvis earned a nickname. His nickname was the King of Pop. He incidentally was married to the daughter of Elvis Pressley for a period of time. He like his father-in-law, Elvis, also died at a young age long before his career was over. Other artists that were popular during this time include Cindy Lauper, Madonna, Boy George, and Prince. Popular songs from this time include “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, ‘Like a Virgin”, “Do you Really Want to Hurt Me”, and “Purple Rain”.
The 1990’s gave us Rap Music. Rap music is half-spoken, rather than song to a strong bass rhythm. Rap lyrics speak of guns, drugs, violence, and sex. Some Better known rappers are 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., and Eminem. 2Pac was a huge success selling over 75 million albums. If not for his untimely death in 1996, he may have surpassed other artists in record sales. He was responsible for many controversial albums about cop killers. Eminem was responsible for a rap song that really opened my eyes to the violence that is contained in most of these rap song. Eminem received enormous fame in 1999 with the release of his song “Slim