What's the difference between traditional music and pop music?

Let's talk about traditional music first

Traditional music, we can see the word "national music" in many folk music CDs. This "national music" refers to music handed down from ancient times and developed in modern times. It can be seen that the creation time of "national music" refers to ancient times;

"New music" refers to music written by people who have studied western music, such as school songs. It can be seen that the creation time of new music was after 1840 Opium War.

"China Music" not only refers to the music handed down from ancient times, but also refers to the music created and adapted by China people according to western theories.

"China traditional music" refers to the music created by the people of China in their own ways and forms, including both ancient works produced in history and contemporary works. It can be seen that traditional music includes "national music" but not "new music", but they are all "China music".

Traditional music is an extremely important part of China national music. The difference between traditional music and new music lies not in the order of music creation, but in its expression form and style characteristics. For example, Erhu solo "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon" and "Fishing Boat Singing Night" are modern music works, but their playing forms are inherent in the Chinese nation, so they are also traditional music. On the contrary, the school song and piano solo "Shepherd Boy Piccolo" are not traditional music because they borrow the musical morphological characteristics of western music.

pop music

The so-called pop music refers to instrumental music and songs with short structure, popular content, lively form and sincere feelings, which are loved by the broad masses, widely sung or appreciated, and are popular for a while or even passed down to future generations. These music and songs are rooted in the fertile soil of public life. Therefore, it is also called "pop music".

Pop music originated from American jazz. At the beginning of the 20th century, a kind of jazz composed of multi-ethnic cultures appeared in America. This new music, with its unique way of playing (singing), refreshed the audience's eyes and ears, caused a sensation in the United States and soon spread all over Western Europe.

Today, pop music contains a wide range of contents. In terms of instrumental music, it includes colorful light music, jazz, swing dance, disco dance, tango, waltz, dance music with different styles and music of various operas.

Instrumental works in pop music have the characteristics of lively rhythm, relaxed and lively or lyrical beauty, diverse playing methods, changeable acoustics, rich colors, simple texture level and small band size, and electro-acoustic instruments are mostly used in modern works. The characteristics of vocal music works are: rich flavor of life, lyricism, humor, wide range, popular techniques, smooth tunes and easy singing; Lyrics are often written in the language of life, which is easy to understand and easily accepted and sung by the audience. Singers are mostly their own pop stars, and their vocal methods are different. They are not bound by the vocal school. When singing, their feelings are more important than singing skills, and they are dynamic, free, natural and friendly, which easily resonates with the audience. The strong accompaniment of the small band is integrated with singing. Because pop music has the above characteristics, it can be associated with the public, and it is easy to accept regardless of the level of education.