Pop Standards
tagStarted c. 1935Peak 1950–1965Last big hit c. 1968
Located in 1 route
Pop Standards are standards rendered as mainstream pop singles and albums rather than primarily as jazz vehicles. The arrangements tend to be concise, melodic, and highly song-forward, with orchestral sweetness or light swing but relatively little improvisational tension.
History
As standards left their Broadway or film origins and entered mass radio circulation, singers and arrangers recast them for broad pop audiences, often through TV variety shows, film tie-ins, and MOR radio; performers such as Perry Como, Doris Day, Andy Williams, Rosemary Clooney, Johnny Mathis, and Nat King Cole helped make familiar standards feel domestic, television-friendly, and commercially durable even after rock narrowed youth pop toward a different center.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Great American Songbook Foundation, “What is the Songbook?”
- Wikipedia, “Traditional pop”
- Library of Congress, “Songs of America.”