Welcome to Shrout's History Of Popular Music....
Music has been around almost as long as mankind, but the same cannot really be said of popular music. Strictly speaking popular music is product of the coming together
of music and commerce, which first began to take place roughly two centuries ago. Some have argued, with some merit, that the troubadours of 12th century Provence
could be seen as the world's first popular musicians; this is really stretching the definition to it's absolute limits, but troubadours are neverthess included in this history.
My intention in the telling of this story is to take the reader on a journey from popular music's earliest manifestations right through to the modern day, linking to
pages which place styles, artists and songwriters within the contexts of time and place. It is written in the assumption that the reader has little or no prior knowlege
of the subject, with the hope that newcomers will come away with some understanding of how musical styles evolve over time in response to social, political, economic and
technological change. Possibly the expert in the field may also find something new and of value as the narrative unfolds.
Emphasis has been placed on the popular music of the English-speaking world, particularly that of Great Britain and America, due to the fact that until fairly recently the story
of commercial popular music has been largely centred on this area. Doing so also avoids the necessity for comment on or assessment of music which is outside the author's sphere of
knowledge.
If any obvious factual errors or omissions come to light, or you would simply like to make a comment or a criticism, please feel free to e-mail me.
Enjoy the journey.