Not to be confused with Pop Rocks

Much pop and rock music has been very similar in sound, instrumentation and even 🏀 lyrical content. The terms "pop rock" and "power pop" have been used to describe more commercially successful music that uses 🏀 elements from, or the form of, rock music.[9] Writer Johan Fornas views pop/rock as "one single, continuous genre field", rather 🏀 than distinct categories.[4] To the authors Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman, it is defined as an "upbeat variety of rock 🏀 music" represented by artists and bands such as: Andy Kim, the Bells, Paul McCartney, Lighthouse, and Peter Frampton.[10]

The term pop 🏀 has been used since the early forties to refer to popular music in general, but from the mid-1950s it began 🏀 to be used for a distinct genre, aimed at a youth market, often characterized as a softer alternative to rock 🏀 and roll.[11][1] In the aftermath of the British Invasion, from about 1967, it was increasingly used in opposition to the 🏀 term rock, to describe a form that was more commercial, ephemeral and accessible.[12]

Critic Philip Auslander argues that the distinction between 🏀 pop and rock is more pronounced in the US than in the UK. He claims that in the US, pop 🏀 has roots in white crooners such as Perry Como, whereas rock is rooted in African-American music influenced by forms such 🏀 as rock and roll. Auslander points out that the concept of pop rock, which blends pop and rock, is at 🏀 odds with the typical conception of pop and rock as opposites. Auslander and several other scholars, such as Simon Frith 🏀 and Grossberg, argue that pop music is often depicted as an inauthentic, cynical, "slickly commercial", and formulaic form of entertainment. 🏀 In contrast, rock music is often heralded as an authentic, sincere, and anti-commercial form of music, which emphasizes songwriting by 🏀 the singers and bands, instrumental virtuosity, and a "real connection with the audience".[15]

Frith's analysis of the history of popular music 🏀 from the 1950s to the 1980s has been criticized by B. J. Moore-Gilbert, who argues that Frith and other scholars 🏀 have overemphasized the role of rock in the history of popular music by naming every new genre using the "rock" 🏀 suffix. Thus, when a folk-oriented style of music developed in the 1960s, Frith termed it "folk rock", and the pop-infused 🏀 styles of the 1970s were called "pop rock". Moore-Gilbert claims that this approach unfairly puts rock at the apex and 🏀 makes every other influence become an add-on to the central core of rock.[16]