Modern American pop began when the pioneer record companies, producers and songwriters of the Brill Building began to commercialise the sounds of the 1950's for a more mainstream audience in the wake of the demise of rock & roll. Its target audience was the clean-cut all-American kid who didn't necessarily want to rebel, but the product was so inoffensive it was just as likely to appeal to his or her parents.

All pop music is essentially a polished derivative of other styles rather than a style itself, produced by the more conservative elements of the record industry for a perceived mass market for 'easy listening'. As well as Brill Building and it's antecedents, this market also includes the extension into modern times of vocal pop , essentially a post-war leftover of the Big Band swing era, and popular songs derived from musical theatre. This is the soft centre, the most obviously market-orientated section of the industry.

It doesn't necessarily follow however that the songwriting in this category is sub-standard. Take for example the masterful, urbane pop that Burt Bacharach & Hal David wrote for Dionne Warwick in the 1960's. This is arguably songwriting honed to near perfection. So is much of the Brill Building output, particularly that of Gerry Goffin and Carole King. And many regard the songs Jimmy Webb wrote for Glen Campbell as pop masterpieces. No less a figure than Leonard Bernstein called Brian Wilson's West Coast surf pop "music of genius", so intricate is its harmonic and rhythmic structure

The country-tinged songs Felice & Boudleaux Bryant wrote for the Everly Brothers, the heart-felt ballads of Roy Orbison, some of the songs Bob Crewe & Bob Gaudio wrote for The Four Seasons and The Walker Brothers, the schmaltzy pop of Roger Nicholls & Paul Williams which The Carpenters turned into gold dust also have a strong case to be designated as 'classic pop', as does Prince's material written for Sheena Easton, The Bangles and Sinead O'Connor and the songs Tom Kelly & Billy Steinberg wrote for Cyndi Lauper and Madonna

The list could be extended almost indefinitely, but it has to be said that the 1990's and beyond has seen a decline in mainstream pop due partly to lower exposure being given to what used to be called 'hit parades'. Traditional pop songwriting has inevitably also declined somewhat in the face of an unrelenting onslaught from rap, hip-hop, DJ, and techno etc. How this category will progress is not clear. Its future may lie partly in songs derived from these modern styles, as evidenced by their inclusion in the teen pop of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and NSYNC, for example, though the 'safe' middle ground, however that may come to be defined, will undoubtedly be ever-present.

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