Billboard Breakdown: 1962

This blog is meant primarily for entertainment purposes

I’ve heard reports that some people consider the pre-Beatles 60’s to have some of the worst pop music in Billboard history. This year I was starting to see it.

The genres are plenty diverse, really, and I’m prepared to talk about them. There’s genres you’d never expect to be on a 1962 year-end, genres that you’d expect to be on a 1962 year-end (Traditional Pop my loathed). Then we have Twist… a genre that’s its own brand of hell.

I do have to say that when I say Rock and Roll-derived genres are the hotness this year, I have to label a heavy asterisk next to it. Sure they’re popular, but at what cost? Rock and Roll is a mess and it wasn’t going to get any better. Otherwise it’s the same Pop and R&B you’d expect. Really, Rock, Pop, and R&B (and Rap starting in the 90’s) are just kinda the pop music constants aren’t they?

While the year has its share of good music, so do all years. On the flip side if I have to hear another Twist song that isn’t Twist and Shout by The Beatles I will probably just die. I always thought Bobby Rydell was a good artist, and my favor of him just shot up when I learned his only year-end charting song this year is I’ll Never Dance Again.

The death disc is also still around, though it was never really present in the first place (albeit the Death Discs released this year are some of the best). Also, Folk! Yay. Despite these positive developments there’s still just as many negative.

Anyways, let’s tear this thing apart.

P.S. if you want to understand my late-night ramblings here’s a playlist I made

All there and in order, I’ve checked and made sure.

Rock and Roll (12 songs)
Rock and Roll
Stylistic Influences: R&B, Western Swing, Boogie Woogie

This should be a good thing, but like I mentioned last time, Rock and Roll was a shadow of its former self. While the lyrics were never particularly deep in Rock and Roll, the lyrics going into the early 60’s are particularly vapid. Jailhouse Rock at least had a unique setting for its dance party. Though, the big dance this year was absolutely The Twist which means these songs had an even narrower pool of dances to choose from.

The worst part is that the Black artists who were performing Rock and Roll had moved onto Soul, R&B, or the more R&B-tinged Twist meaning a lot of these songs don’t even have that cultural influence. It’s not even Rockabilly where there’s a mutual respect. A bunch of these artists were pretty much just told to perform like this and the fact that one probably racist song (and one by Pat Boone) will later appear in the “Novelty, Rock and Roll” section should tell you how well that went.

Rock and Roll was originally directed towards teens. Then the teens grew up and got into Brill Building Pop. Then the new teens they were trying to pull got recruited to sing Teen Pop I and also got into Teen Pop I. Then the young adults they were trying to bag got into Twist.

The desperation to get teens back into Rock and Roll again is so prevalent in these songs it’s almost comical. I will use the song Shout, Shout (Knock Yourself Out) to prove my point.

Despite the melody being very similar to a much better song called Shout— no not the Isleys’ one, the Tears for Fears’ one— the song name-drops dances, popular songs of the era, and tosses them all into a party stew to try and get people to dance like they used to. But it’s so vapid and really not all that impressive, like I said, lyrics were never a feature of Rock and Roll but unique sounds were. Now it was all just getting copy-pasted like Traditional Pop’s slightly more entertaining cousin.

The Twist did have a massive comeback though so them mentioning that doesn’t sound desperate. Every song and their mothers was mentioning The Twist. Coincidentally that was making people dance like they used to.

Rock and Roll is a good genre, but it was long past its time to go. The shame is that it probably would’ve kept going if it weren’t for a little group from England.

Brill Building Pop (12 songs)
Pop, Rock and Roll
Stylistic Influences: Rock and Roll, Traditional Pop, Tin Pan Alley

Brill Building Pop had a good year this year. Despite the genre being the essential definition of mass-produced bullshittery, it’s actually pretty good. Goffen/King, a well-known Brill Building duo, got more adventurous with their music, so adventurous in fact, that one song didn’t make the cut. We’ll talk about that later.

That’s not to say Brill Building Pop was ever a bad genre, but the adaptation of a darker sound for some hits and a more serious take on the Wall of Sound (rather than the Phil Spector notes approach) makes it particularly good this year.

Now, the Wall of Sound technique isn’t particularly groundbreaking at this point in the game. The genre of Brill Building Pop was a few years old at this point, which is why it’s starting to morph into Pop-Rock even more obviously than the Rock and Roll influence already present, but I still think a good Wall of Sound is about as close to incredible production as a pre-Pyschedelic 60’s can get.

So yeah, it’s assembly line Pop, but it’s a good assembly. It’s one of those genres that just kinda works. Sometimes mass production can be good, Brill Building Pop is one of those times. Let’s see if this nice little 60’s can contin—

Twist (9 songs)
Rock and Roll
Stylistic Influences: R&B, Rock and Roll

Sorry. I have to talk about Twist now.

Twist exploded this year, immediately collapsed the year after thank God. But 9 songs, that’s an insult to Rock and Roll.

Okay, Rock and Roll was insulting itself plenty easily. It’s not like 60’s Rock and Roll is good or anything but this is just sad. Twist is a genre that is about dancing and literally nothing else. At least Rock and Roll can be about love. Nope. Not here.

It’s R&B-influenced and The Twist is a great song but the issue is that, well, that there’s 9 fucking Twist songs. Most of them are conglomerated at the bottom but even then two of those songs aren’t Twist songs because Twist is a hyperspecific genre meaning all the songs sound the same or similar. 160 BPM (though midtempo Twist exists), straight rhythms, about a dance, R&B and Rock and Roll influenced, and probably has a saxophone solo of some sort.

‘62 Twist… wait that sounds like a Twist song. Uh, Twist that was popular in the year 1962, introduces the midtempo Twist, which is real nice. Where would I go without the Mashed Potato (which I didn’t even put here) and fucking Slow Twistin’.

The Twist in particular is to blame for this one. It hit the top of the charts in 1960 and it does so in 1962, as well, creating a terrifying waterfall effect that leaves us with too many Twist songs. About 7 too many Twist songs. Sadly, The Twist laid the groundwork for the genre with its spirited saxophone solo and completely straight rhythms.

Also, The Twist isn’t a very deep song which would continue on for the rest of the genre. Yes, the rest. Genres don’t really die but Twist has been completely inactive since 1963. The Beatles probably killed it by making Rock and Roll 2 and also maybe coming up with a Twist song so good that everyone gave up (their cover of Twist and Shout). Also, it probably oversaturated itself to death but the pop music establishment doesn’t care about oversaturating itself.

Now like I said, a few songs in this genre are great. The Twist, Twist and Shout, even Mashed Potato (again, which I didn’t even put here), but the majority are about dancing The Twist with your girl at “the place” while you do “the thing” oh and your girl is such a good dancer. Now, it’s not specifically about The Twist all the time. No, no, no. There’s other hot dances to… like The Fly! No? Ahh, what about The Wah-Watusi! No? Well, The Fly wasn’t a hit this year but it was in 1961. The Wah-Watusi is completely real and on this year-end though and it’s about as unique as every other song in this genre. Twist knows no bounds.

Twist isn’t a terrible genre in musical concept. The straight take on Rock and Roll and bringing back the saxophone is a great idea. The only issue is that the lyrics are terrible and that Twist was everywhere. It’s a one-trick pony so it gets irritating fast. The genre literally burned itself out faster than anyone could blink. Good for it, really. I never want to catalogue another Twist song unless it’s The Beatles’ Twist and Shout.

Doo-Wop (7 songs)
R&B
Stylistic Influences: R&B, Vocal Jazz

The Rock and Roll revival this year (not to be confused with the Rock and Roll Revival in a decade) does mean that a lot of Doo-Wop gets left by the wayside. To be fair, I think people were just getting tired of Doo-Wop because they didn’t really want nostalgia. They wanted now. How else do you explain Twist being so high? Doo-Wop is exceptionally bad at conveying the now, especially bad at trying to be cool and hip. At least an attempt at that this year (Duke of Earl) is admittedly kind of embarrassing.

A few songs do break through though. The Wanderer, for instance, is a masterful little piece of Doo-Wop that wraps up the hedonistic tendencies of this Twist-obsessed ‘62 populace with a neat little bow. Actually, when it comes to The Wanderer, there’s actually several presents. One to each girl before he goes off to get some milk.

In fact, a lot of Doo-Wop is busy catching up with the “now”. That’s why a lot of it this year is closer to Brill Building Pop or approaching Pop-Rock (in fact, one of Dion’s songs, Little Diane, is Brill Building Pop and comes with a fucking kazoo mixed in, I implore you to listen to it for yourself in the link).

Beyond that, Doo-Wop was still chugging along at a leisurely pace. Not really in any danger of losing its early 60’s position, it is comfortable to kick its feet up and watch as Rock and Roll bang bang shoo shoots itself in the foot.

For the most part, Doo-Wop is still good this year. The Wanderer is one of the best songs on this year-end and despite a misstep or two it’s still a unique genre, though Brill Building Pop was starting to have something to say about it.

Traditional Pop (6 songs)
Pop
Stylistic Influences: Tin Pan Alley, Vaudeville, Vocal Jazz

If anything at least Traditional Pop is having a weak year this year.

Albeit, despite the downright saccharine and bland nature of Traditional Pop, it’s starting to grow on me. Oh God soon I’ll be saying that music has been downhill since The Beatles.

Though specifically it is exactly one song that’s starting to turn me here. The rest still aren’t very good believe me. The song in particular is from the Breakfast at Tiffany’s soundtrack (yes, literally) and it’s called Moon River. A truly incredible song that at least knows if you’re going to overproduce the shit out of a ballad, commit to it. Thought Brill Building Pop would’ve drilled that into your head but no. Moon River is, as much as I hate to say it, a Dashie-approved Traditional Pop song.

Roses Are Red (My Love) is not.

Roses Are Red (My Love) is a song by bandleader Bobby Vinton, who was encouraged by his label to just fucking make Traditional Pop because Jazz was simply not cool. Not hip with the kids. Of course there’s 5 Jazz songs (4 depending on whether or not you count Ragtime) on this year-end including the very next song down on the playlist. Good call there.

For some godforsaken reason they don’t even bother getting a good singer. Most Jazz ensembles have their own singers, the bandleader does not sing, and is it evident.

What Roses Are Red (My Love) is, despite all its atrocities, is a changing sign of the times. Adult oriented music was becoming so overly sophisticated that this was the standard (especially when they were covering Standards). Adult oriented music really only lost that “pop Pop” moniker in the 70’s when AOR became a thing but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Traditional Pop existed this year and it’s just as saccharine as its ever been. Next.

Teen Pop I (6 songs)
Pop
Stylistic Influences: Rock and Roll, R&B, Traditional Pop

There’s a 12-year old on this year-end, which is making even the name of Teen Pop a misnomer. The song in particular? I Wish That We Were Married by Ronnie and the Hi-Lites, the fact that a 12-year old sings this song makes it an easy shoe-in for the worst song this year. Like, my guy, don’t think about marriage for another 6 years!

The other Teen Pop songs are what you’d expect. We have something from Brenda Lee but it sure as hell ain’t Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree. Anyways, Teen Pop is a mixture of R&B and Pop written for teens and performed by teens (primarily). There’s some diamonds in the rough, but the entire genre is just rough to me. It’s like your entire thing is that a teen sings it, good job, now get me to care.

Listed as Teen Pop I because Teen Pop becomes something else in the 90’s, though still maintains the same formula.

Why am I reexplaining Teen Pop? Simple, because the genre really has nothing special about it so the only way I can make it interesting is retreading old ground. Like, I want to give a 5 bullet-point list on how everything has changed this year but it really hasn’t, Teen Pop I is still a lazy cash grab and I’m not very interested. Even if it has, the songs are so forgettable that I can’t even explain that properly.

Come on, I want to talk about something interesting, this is more manufactured than Traditional Pop, wait, what’s next?

Girl Group (5 songs)
Pop, R&B
Stylistic Influences: Rock and Roll, Traditional Pop, R&B

Girl Group is really leaning into that Soul angle this year. It probably helps that this year was the rise of a very famous record label which eventually recorded their own Girl Group records, and we’ll talk about them a little later.

Girl Group is really quite great. As far as early Pop Soul goes, you could go much worse. While Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes) is on here and that song isn’t great, that was more to capitalize on the Twist craze and only got grouped here because it isn’t explicitly about dancing. The rest of the Girl Group songs are really quite good.

But yeah, Girl Group is what happens when you get a bunch of girls to sing Pop Soul, and that’s that of the genre. A lot of it is pretty good, sounds like it has Doo-Wop influence but it really doesn’t.

A lot of big girl groups actually hit the year-end this year, we have The Shirelles’ Baby It’s You, as made famous by The Beatles… that doesn’t sound quite right. Regardless, it shows the more mature side of this genre just as Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes) shows the youthfulness. The only difference is that Baby It’s You is good.

Now, Girl Groups were about to become rather famous with the formation of a famous label which we’ll be talking about later, as mentioned, but right now this style was in its infancy but still carrying itself pretty well.

Nashville (4 Songs)
Country, Pop
Stylistic Influences: Traditional Pop, Honky Tonk

You may see this and go “well Nashville took a hit”. It really didn’t. The only difference is that now Nashville has become a cancerous cell and has multiplied into 2 subgenres and ran its grubby little hands all over another one. At this rate we’ll reach exponential Pop Country growth (not to be confused with Country Pop, which is slightly better). Nashville is still just as big as ever, but Rock and Roll might be taking a little of the spotlight this year.

Nashville is generally Pop-influenced Country with overbearing production that’s usually produced in the town of Nashville, Tennessee. This is not pure Pop Country because there’s another genre a little further down that I think amplifies just how inseparable Pop and Country sounds of this era are.

Now, despite Nashville being just overproduced like shit and overall just amplifying everything I have wrong with Pop of this era, it’s not really a bad genre on the surface. Take for instance Burl Ives’ hit of this year (one of them at least), Funny Way of Laughin’. It’s a pretty good song that kinda reminds me of Raindrops from a couple years prior. It’s one of those songs about men trying to convince themselves they’re not crying when it’s really obvious they are.

The Death Discs are still going on this year, with Old Rivers being a particularly touching one (once you get past the stilted vocals) that also highlights the general growth of religion in Country music. It’s a song about an old farmer who eventually dies and goes to Heaven, and that’s it really. Death Discs aren’t really that complex in story.

However, the Death Disc I really want to talk about here is Patches. Now, Patches is another rather simple song. It’s been a hot minute since I listened but I think it’s about a guy who experiences his girlfriend’s death or whatever (maybe it’s just a breakup), so he fucking (trigger warning) kills himself.

My takeaway from all this is that Death Discs are getting heavier and heavier as the years go by. It’s like a bunch of Black Metal bands trying to see who can make the worst fucking music known to man except it’s just who can make the most brutal Death Disc. Though to be honest, Death Discs are one of those things that probably would’ve kept going had it not been abruptly cut off, but we’ll see.

Soul (4 songs)
R&B
Stylistic Influences: R&B, Modern Gospel

Soul is actually quite big this year, although New Orleans R&B is taking a backseat for a very famous Soul subgenre that’s really becoming a thing this year. Though of course, nothing’s going to stand up to the titanous Rock and Roll stranglehold this year. Everything else kinda just pushed to the wayside.

Soul is the name for a general crossing of R&B with a lot of Modern Gospel. The big gang vocals can be a thing but it’s far more influenced by the vocals of Gospel than the sound. Some of these Soul singers are the best you’ll ever hear and we haven’t even gotten to Aretha Franklin yet.

Soul is just the name for the default, and sadly by that extension, slightly unmemorable sound of the Soul genre group. That being said, I do think Soul is a fairly good genre, it just wasn’t the year for default Soul.

Although if I’m remembering properly, Let Me In has god-awful sound quality no matter where you get it from. Apparently they raided Gary U.S. Bond’s recording studio. Speaking of which, they just did Twist this year. At least The Sensations aren’t that.

R&B (3 songs)
R&B
Stylistic Influences: Jump Blues, Dixie, Traditional Gospel

Two defaults in a row. That’s what happens when it’s so simple of course it’s one of the most influential genres in the group. Well, Soul was second, but Nashville is simply too influential so it had to get bumped down a slot.

The funny thing is that all the R&B hits this year are actually just entirely instrumental. In fact, Rinky Dink is just a step away from Easy Listening, the only difference is that the artist playing it isn’t as White as a sheet.

R&B was mainly living on through these instrumentals, heavy on sax and organ, instruments that were more or less faded out by this point. Well, sax had returned in Twist but was that really worth much? These R&B performers are holding on to a dying genre.

Except with R&B it had really just split, and all the other forms were giving it a run for its money. Even the most influential genres eventually fade out, some with a bang and some with a whimper.

R&B has the most interesting creation story in music history, in my personal opinion. The first genre to really defy categorization, now being split even further.

Later on, the original idea of R&B would get lost to its many, many, offshoots, and would be pieced together under a completely different sound and label. Even if the resemblance is meager, it is still a genre that cannot be killed.

Honestly, the legacy of R&B would be monumental if it was even half as much.

As for the songs on this year-end? They’re… fine I guess. Soul Twist is fine.

Pop Soul (3 songs)
R&B, Pop
Stylistic Influences: Soul, Traditional Pop, Doo-Wop

I really shouldn’t spend too much time on Pop Soul. First off, the genre really isn’t complicated. It’s a combination of Soul and Pop. It’s closer to Brill Building Pop than Traditional Pop, but that’s moreso because of its uptempo sound. It uses a lot of the Traditional Pop instrumental templates.

But also because the biggest Pop Soul enterprise is incredibly close.

Aside from what appears to be a categorization brain miscommunication (I put Mashed Potato Time here instead of Twist), Pop Soul is fine this year. Aside from the decent Mashed Potato time, there’s also a Sam Cooke song, although the better song of his is in a different genre I’ll be getting to.

Pop Soul is really just fine. There’s not really much you can do with it, and Soul hadn’t really found its identity beyond a few offshoots that leave a very messy “general sound”. I don’t really have much else to say about this genre, let’s get to the good stuff.

Motown (2 songs)
R&B, Pop
Stylistic Influences: Pop Soul, Brill Building Pop, Girl Group

Guess which label became a thing this year.

The “Motown Sound” as it’s called is really just a general description of Detroit Soul. This is because Motown was in Detroit and all their songs are similar enough where the genre is just the label name.

But despite these songs following similar formulas, they were absolute smash hits throughout the mid-60’s and even into the 70’s with tons of incredible bands coming from the label through those times. However, Motown was still finding its feet in the early 60’s, but that sound is already cooking up in those recording studios.

This is not the first year of existence for Motown, they were a recording label running through independent distributors before this point (also set up by Barry Gordy), and that’s how we got Money (That’s What I Want). However, this marks the first year in which Motown became its own distributor and people started paying attention to the name.

Motown would soon become the absolute hottest shit in American music in the mid-60’s, especially in Black American music. However, they only have one person on the label right now and that person is Mary Wells. Still very obviously Motown in its base form though.

But that doesn’t really explain what Motown, sometimes known as “Motown Sound” is. Well, it’s a type of Pop Soul that’s generally recorded in Detroit using a studio band that’s just always there, not too dissimilar from Nashville. Melodies and harmonies are strong, and the songs are meant to be dancing music, moving along at a frenzied pace. They’re pretty much assembly line, but as I’ve mentioned of Brill Building Pop, some assembly lines are better than others, and Motown is incredible. It’s so formula you might as well put “1” after it, but that formula works, and it works really damn well.

Motown popularized Pop Soul and made it even more marketable, but it also made it even better and sleeker. Soul was a marketable plushie, and of course I’m shelling out $100 for that shit.

Is Motown still around? Well, the label is, the genre is not. It’s like Sun Records, sure, the label is still around, but they sure as hell aren’t making Rockabilly anymore. But still, the influence of Motown cannot be understated.

Folk Revival (2 Songs)
Folk
Stylistic Influences: Folk Pop, American Folk Music

I’d like to start off this topic by making a correction for a mistake I made last time. The Highwaymen are not the same Highwaymen as the supergroup containing Johnny Cash. In fact, the supergroup was sued for it.

I’m bringing this up because they’re on the list again this year. However, Cotton Fields, while a good song, is not a Country Gospel song, instead belonging to a more general trend that is happening around this time.

Enter the Folk Revival.

Is there a real difference between the Folk Revival and American Folk Music? Not really, in fact it's probably one of the first "Neo" genres to exist. It's just American Folk Music part 2.

That isn’t to say there aren’t incredibly minor differences, as with all “Neo” genres. For instance, a lot of these songs have poppier structures, instead of the free verse of some old Folk.

However, the Folk Revival wasn’t really a genre focused on recreation, nor really a genre at all. Instead, the Folk Revival was a movement focused on preservation. The reason they had poppier structures was so that the Folk songs could become pop hits, and then they wouldn’t have to worry about them because the songs had already reached people, so they could move on to more obscure nonsense.

The Highwaymen are really not good representations of this genre though. The music’s good, but Peter, Paul, and Mary on this year end are probably the better performers to use as examples. They didn’t care about the money, just that the Folk music is preserved, and this year that song was If I Had a Hammer.

The Folk Revival quickly outlived its usefulness though, as people started just writing their own Folk, but it definitely got the ball rolling for Folk to become more popular. Now with YouTube if you want to listen to some obscure Folk song performed by a Delta Bluesman you can kind of just… look it up. It was a lot more powerful when people didn’t have tons of music at their fingertips.

The music’s still some of the best on the year-end though.

Country Pop (2 songs)
Country, Pop
Stylistic Influences: Nashville, Rock and Roll

There’s a simple strategy to determine whether something is Country Pop, Nashville, or Countrypolitan (we’ll talk about it), and it is entirely dependent on the Country-ness of the track. Just go by decreasing Country likeness and you’ll end up at one of those three tiers eventually.

Of course, we’re already assuming Country Pop is already removed from Country. It’s influenced by Nashville after all. Just like with every other Country genre since 1959. I love listening to old records.

This year, it’s just Bobby Darin being a musical chameleon because apparently he just drops the most banger song of 1960 and then just shrugs his shoulders. Things is a serviceable song. The Wanderer is better.

There’s really not much to say about this genre. If you want Nashville but don’t want all the Traditional Pop nonsense all over it, this genre is for you. Personally, being a Traditional Pop disliker Country Pop is probably the best Country genre that exists at this point. Let me tell you, there’s far too many Country genres that exist at this point.

Country Pop is broad so it’s not in stasis, but it sounds different now. Even Rock and Roll was too Rock for Country Pop.

Folk Pop (2 songs)
Pop, Folk
Stylistic Influences: American Folk Music, Traditional Pop

Folk Pop is a weird one.

The Folk Revival and Folk Pop are really not that different, and me splitting hairs is going to sound more ridiculous than usual… because honestly the difference between them is you can kinda just… tell? Like, Folk Pop has little in common with Traditional Pop, which was the main Pop that existed at this time (I choose to ignore Easy Listening because that’s exactly what it wants). It’s hard to get all melodramatic and add strings and soaring vocals and painfully slow rhythms when the entirety of Folk is that it’s supposed to be stripped down.

But even then… Folk Pop just sounds poppier. Like, the melodies are cleaner, the songs are more approachable, they have Pop structures. The Kingston Trio is on here and Where Have All the Flowers Gone? is a simple Folk song. It’s just… poppier.

It’s hard to really quantify how “poppy” something sounds, but listening to The Kingston Trio and then The Highwaymen back to back kinda reveals their differences. Maybe it will for you or maybe I just have an autistic hyperfixation on genres (I mean, I do, but…).

That’s really what Folk Pop is. It’s just American Folk Music-style Pop. Sometimes it’s Pop-style American Folk Music, Burl Ives and The Kingston Trio represent both sides of the spectrum. It’s hard to describe, but it’s the best I’ve got.

But what’s more important about Folk Pop is that it’s like actually amazing. Who could’ve thunk that removing all the Traditional Pop elements from Pop makes it better. Really hope someone tries that in the future.

Of course Folk Pop is still around. Just listen to the Laid-Back Camp EDs. The genre is still weird to listen to today, especially because it didn’t actually change when Pop did.

Country Soul (2 songs)
Pop
Stylistic Influences: Traditional Pop, Nashville, Soul

After riding the high of Folk Pop let’s see what’s next. Can’t wait to see how the obscure genres impress—

Oh. Let’s get this over with shall we.

Not even going to mince words, Country Soul is pretty much just Traditional Pop under a different name. The singers are just Black here.

Apparently Ray Charles had enough of making actually good music so he released a Country album. Nat King Cole joined him. Nat King Cole is already a prime Traditional Pop artist so you can see here how absolutely silly this distinction is.

I use the term “Country” loosely. Country Soul is as Country as Electropop is Electro. If you’re lucky you’ll hear a steel guitar. Most of the time it’s just Traditional Pop. It’s wild how much people can just fuck up Soul and make it not resemble Soul in the slightest. In fact, I almost marked a stylistic influence as “Blue-Eyed Soul” but Black people didn’t ask for Blue-Eyed Soul.

According to RYM, this genre is supposed to have horns. This is funny because the two Country Soul songs here do not, they’re just Blue-Eyed Soul sung by Black people with the slightest of Country influences.

This genre exhausts me, next.

Novelty, Rock and Roll (2 songs)
Novelty, Rock and Roll
Stylistic Influences: Novelty, Rock and Roll

This really should just be marked under “Novelty” (Stylistic Influences: Minstrel Shows, Vaudeville) but they’re both Rock and Roll songs so to keep things simple, they’re getting the same designation. They’re also both terrible so I don’t feel bad giving them a pure Novelty designation.

I feel like Novelty is an underappreciated genre, and one that has a bad name. Experimental in general isn’t really a genre of music, but it’s simple. Experimental is obviously trying something new and exciting with the medium to push the boundaries of music. I see Novelty as an Experimental work, however, the experiment is the joke. For instance, Steam Powered Giraffe. The experiment is that they’re mixing pantomime and sketch comedy as they’re supposed to be Victorian-era steam robots. It becomes Novelty, because they play it off as the joke.

Chipmunks on 16 Speed is another example you might’ve heard of. The experiment is that they’re slowing down the pitch of Alvin and the Chipmunks to the original tempo, so the vocals are “normal” but the instrumental isn’t. It becomes Novelty because it is played for humor.

On this year-end we have two such songs, Speedy Gonzales by Pat Boone, and Ahab the Arab by Ray Stevens.

They sound like they’re both racist but don’t worry only one is. In fact Ahab the Arab is also a strong contender for the worst song on this year-end.

Speedy Gonzales is pretty simple, the experiment is that it’s a song about, well, Speedy Gonzales. It made me chuckle once or twice and is probably the only half-decent thing Pat Boone has done. Makes sense as he was such a big character.

Now Ahab the Arab is a wild can of worms. The experiment is that it’s a mix of Rock and Roll with Arabic Bellydance Music, but it’s basically Exotica. That meaning it’s just approximating what it “sounds” like without actually being what it sounds like.

The song is supposedly funny but it made me groan so hard, because he recites “Arabic”, then translates it as if it’s real. Okay I can’t confirm, I’m willing to bet it’s not. It just sounds like yodeling and then passing it off as “Arabic”, though I’ve only listened to an Al Jeel album, feel free to correct or reaffirm me, but the song still sucks.

Also, the characters in there really have no personality, and then at one point he just lists off random shit the girl in the song is apparently eating, which might be funnier if the song wasn’t so goddamn awful.

These songs just are really not what I’d expect from a good “Novelty” act, however. These are the type of people that give Novelty a bad name, because they record shit that’s supposed to be “funny” and then that’s what gets popular. Thank God for Weird Al and SPG for making me come around on Novelty because if I heard Ahab the Arab I’d be setting fire to a genre too.

Dixie (1 song)
Jazz
Stylistic Influences: Ragtime, Marching Band, Spirituals

Dixie is short for Dixieland Jazz, though if you say something is "Dixie" people are probably going to understand you.

Dixieland is the colloquial term for the American South, though it was primarily used in the early 20th century and prior. That’s primarily where Dixie comes from, Louisiana specifically, with small groups playing songs influenced by military marches and Ragtime.

However, this genre technically got its name from the Dixieland Jazz Band. They’re a Jazz band out of Dixieland, but when they recorded a few songs in the mid 1910’s, their style got called “Dixieland Jazz”, because I assume some wires got crossed and people started seeing it as “a band that plays Dixie” rather than “a Jazz band out of Dixie”. After all, they were kinda the first ever Jazz band on record so they do deserve it.

Though imagine being such a paradigm shift a genre got named after you. That’s like calling Pop-Rock “Beatles Rock”, New Orleans R&B “Domino R&B”, or Noise Rock “Velvet Rock”. The very fact they gave the genre the name kinda proves how silly genre names can get.

Dixie soon became very popular and even now is almost synonymous with Jazz in media, especially if your story or movie or whatever takes place anywhere near New Orleans.

For instance, Down in New Orleans from Princess and the Frog? That’s a Dixie song. So Long, Goodbye, Farewell by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy? That’s a Dixie song. The ending of Steamboat Shenanigans by Steam Powered Giraffe? Dixie. Hell, the fucking solo from Straight No Chaser’s cover of Hey Santa is influenced by Dixie.

If you haven’t heard any of those songs, which is actually probably gonna happen, Dixie is pretty simple. Cacophonous horns, clashing melodies, small horn ensembles, and marching-style simplistic drum beats are what you can expect from our average Dixie song. A lot of these horn limes can be in direct opposition to one another, but the thing that makes Dixie not fall apart like hot glue on styrofoam is the incredible energy and pure love of the craft that oozes from every single one of these players.

Dixie may sound like it’s clashing with itself, that too much is happening at once, but instead of it seeming like a middle finger to music like certain modern genres, Dixie clashes because all the players are so excited to play they’re butting in before their turn. If you’re listening to Dixie for musicial competency instead of pure, unadulterated fun, you’re probably not listening to it right.

As for the Dixie song on here, Midnight in Moscow, it is more concerned with being a musical composition instead of an impromptu music performance. It’s not as good as some of the examples I listed above. However, it’s still hard to fuck up Dixie, even if you’re sanding off all the edges. Even then, people listen to Dixie for those edges, so these songs are never remembered as much.

Technically Dixie without all the edges is part of the Dixie Revival, but it’s not on RYM and I can’t be bothered to switch it up so late in development. It’s still Dixie, just worse Dixie, and even then, worse Dixie is really only as bad as a middling song on this list full of Twist and teens.

Big Band (1 song)
Jazz
Stylistic influences: Dixie, Swing

From one Jazz genre to the next. Nice.

So Big Band music is Jazz music performed by big bands. It’s definitely hard having such a creative genre name, I’m sure. Big bands generally came out of more stripped down Swing bands, except they asked, “What if like, it was just Swing… but with a larger band??”

Big Band, aside from light Dixie influence (very audible in this year’s pick), is just Swing, played with bigger bands. Think of the difference between The Benny Goodman Sextet and The Benny Goodman Orchestra. There isn’t really a sizable one, but larger bands means louder noise and opens more sophisticated arrangement choices.

That’s really what Swing was, a more sophisticated take on Jazz music because Dixie was too chaotic for the time and they needed something lighter. Big Band was more sophisticated still.

If Dixie was too chaotic for the White upper class, I can’t wait for when I travel back in time and kill them with Hyperpop.

Big Band would also later influence the genre of British Dance Band, which is well known as Everywhere at the End of Time Stage 1, and could also be argued for The Stripper. David Rose was born British, but eventually moved to the US and started making US Big Band music. The Stripper does sound very EATEOT but only for the first little bit before it becomes too Dixie for that project.

As for the song proper, I really like it. It’s a quality Jazz song, and I love Jazz in general so no real complaints here. However, the very funny part is that The Stripper is directly after Roses are Red (My Love) on the charts, the song that Bobby Vinton was coerced into creating, singing, and butchering by the label because “Jazz was dead”.

The next time someone says something akin to, “Guitar bands are on the way out,” it deserves to be memorialized. Except Jazz did fall off and I’m pissed about it.

Vocal Surf (1 song)
Rock and Roll, Pop
Stylistic Influences: Doo-Wop, Surf Rock, Rock and Roll

You’ve probably heard of Surf Rock, you might’ve heard of Surf Pop, you probably haven’t heard of Vocal Surf. That begs the question on why it’s so high on my 1 song categories, because it didn’t have much staying power or long-lasting—

Because it’s the Beach Boys. It’s the fucking Beach Boys. They just slid in at the very bottom and I’m just supposed to ignore one of the key figures in American pop music in the 60’s.

So the thing with Surf Rock is that a lot of it is actually instrumental. Stuff like Wipeout or Miserlou is what most Surf Rock is. In other words, instrumental, vicious, and heavily focused on speed and technicality. The idea of Surf Rock being a bunch of songs about surfing primarily comes from Surf Pop, or this genre. That means you might’ve heard of this genre, just under a different name.

The progenitors of this genre basically took Surf Rock and created their own version about surfing, cars, and youth, all topics that were mostly tangentially related to Rock and Roll of the day. Counterpoint harmonies became Doo-Wop structures, and surf guitar became relegated to solos.

Vocal Surf is actually quite poppy, even though its biggest influences have nothing to do with Pop, despite the fact they were all definitely popular. This eventually lead into Modern Pop, but right now, Vocal Surf is a silly little genre about silly little things.

I would probably carry the same burning disappointment over this genre if it was as ubiquitous as Twist, as it definitely seems like a one-trick pony. However, much like Twist, one or two aren’t that bad, it’s just that Twist has 9 of them.

Surfin’ Safari isn’t the best Beach Boys song, but that’s a given. Pet Sounds is still a half-decade away. This genre isn’t very popular anymore, but oh God are the Beach Boys one of the most influential figures in American music.

Southern Soul (1 song)
R&B
Stylistic Influences: Soul, Rock and Roll, Electric Blues

Shoutouts to Sam Cooke for making a Twist song that’s unique enough to get a different genre!

Well, that’s technically a lie, there’s plenty of songs with “Twist” in the title that aren’t Twist songs, such as Soul Twist. However, Twistin’ the Night Away is the only one to get a genre all to itself. It’s quite good, but there are certainly other better songs.

Southern Soul itself is the antithesis of Northern Soul. Yes that’s a joke but hear me out.

At this time, in the north, we had the rise of Motown or Detroit Soul. This Soul was generally poppy and overproduced. Southern Soul on the other hand, is “rough” and “lo-fi”. It’s heavily influenced by Rock and Roll and Electric Blues, and thus usually has a very small pool of performers and overdubs. That doesn’t mean Southern Soul can’t be pop, in fact, you’re seeing it is right here. Southern Soul is just rougher.

Southern Soul was absolutely gaining no traction at this point. Arguably, Twistin’ the Night Away is closer to Pop Soul than Southern Soul. The biggest Southern Soul hit wasn’t even conceived yet.

That being said, Sam Cooke was many things, he might not’ve been a decent person, but he was hugely innovative in the world of Soul music. Twistin’ the Night Away is just another step in that innovation. Soul’s being overproduced? Let’s underproduce it.

Also, further 60’s Soul mutations just get better than this.

New Orleans R&B (1 song)
R&B
Stylistic Influences: R&B, Dixie, Piano Blues

In a sea of interesting and unique genres I’m just jumping to talk about, we have a repeat. I’ll make it quick.

New Orleans R&B and R&B in general are on their way out, this doesn’t surprise me. Soul’s the hot new thing and then we have R&B-influenced Twist. R&B’s just not cool anymore.

New Orleans R&B is, at its core, R&B influenced with Jazz. So as that random label guy said to Bobby Vinton, Jazz is on its way out too. It’s infused with Jazz, Blues, and many other things that simply didn’t make it into the R&B prototype in large quantities. That’s why they buffed up R&B II.

However, the genre that Fats Domino had brought to fruition almost 15 years ago at this point was a secondary thought in the mind of the public. Mind you it’s still good but this os the public that voted Twist as one of the best genres this year so their judgement is invalid right now.

New Orleans R&B is an interesting one, and there’s really not much to say about it. It’s more of a weird fringe genre that got the spotlight. I like weird fringe genres, for the most part, so hey, that’s not a bad thing.

I could talk about what it later influenced, what it meant to the Black community; but, it didn’t really influence much and there’s people who are better suited for that second role than a 19 year old White girl from Indiana.

Honestly, just enjoy New Orleans R&B for what it is. Pick up a Fats Domino record and give it a listen. You’ll probably have a good time.

Blue-Eyed Soul (1 song)
Pop
Stylistic Influences: Traditional Pop, Pop Soul

I hate Blue-Eyed Soul. I don’t hate the concept no, no, no. I hate what Blue-Eyed Soul became. It should just be Soul performed by White people, and hey ethnic debates aside that’s not terrible. However, it’s Traditional Pop with light Soul influence which is where it loses me.

Blue-Eyed Soul’s name has gotten bastardized over the years, from meaning Soul lightly influenced by White genres like Pop and Country, to Pop lightly influenced by Black genres like Soul. I hate Traditional Pop so that’s a point down, secondly, they’re once again completely missing the point of Soul, another point, third, what’s even the point of this genre?

Well, it would influence Sophisti-Pop and Adult Contemporary but that’s really not anything to write home about. The real question is, what record exec heard Sam Cooke and was like “You know what this needs? White people.” Who am I kidding that was probably all of them.

Blue-Eyed Soul is terrible, and I hate it. However, the Blue-Eyed Soul track on this year-end is one of the best Blue-Eyed Soul records out there.

That’s because the song in question is Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis. Honestly, godspeed to him, the song’s beautiful. Easily one of his best tracks, and this man has high-rated Blue-Eyed Soul albums for a reason. He actually has soul, and isn’t some corporate bigwig’s idea of what Soul “needs”. Again, he’s White, but ethnic debates aside, Elvis is massively influential, and this song clearly demonstrates why.

Blue-Eyed Soul can fuck off and die though. Take Country Soul with you.

Close Harmony (1 song)
Country
Stylistic Influences: American Folk Music, Traditional Country, Vocal Jazz

It’s the Everlys again (not to be confused with The Isleys). The song is Crying in the Rain.

Crying in the Rain is, odd, primarily. It’s a decent enough song, but the oddity comes in when you examine the genre. Brill Building Pop fits this song better, maybe even Nashville or Country Pop, however, this reveals one of the major flaws in genre naming schemes.

Close Harmony is a singing style that happens to be associated with Country music, it doesn’t have a distinct sound beyond two vocalists singing approximately a third apart. Well, Singing in the Rain has all that. The Everly Brothers are the sole performers of note in this genre. This song is a Close Harmony song. It’s not the best one, and it’s pretty overproduced everything aside, but it’s a Close Harmony song.

Now, one could restrict the genre of Close Harmony to be exclusively Country, acoustic, and authentic, but it isn’t.

That’s the important point to take away from these Billboard Breakdown projects of mine. Genre is nebulous; and genre is messy. Genre classification is a collection of disjointed people putting songs in boxes because they want to have playlists dedicated to songs that sound similar, because they want to talk about music ‘generally’, because they like putting things in boxes. Genre isn’t some all-knowing classification system.

It’s completely and utterly pointless. Genre is unnecessary, but I care about it a great deal. This is unfounded, but hyperfixations go brrr. I like it when things are organized, and it helps a little for looking at pop music. That being said, if you’re pushing your glasses up and asking me why Green Onions is an Electric Blues song instead of an R&B one… ask yourself if it really matters all that much.

Oh, speaking of Electric Blues…

Electric Blues (1 song)
Blues
Stylistic Influences: Delta Blues

You know, most songs have 2 stylistic influences at least. Trust me, Electric Blues does too, but it’s mainly the super small influences of putting a band together… and that’s it. Minutely influenced by literally all of Jazz.

Why is this the case? It’s actually quite simple, most of Electric Blues’ influence was from technology itself. The earliest forms of electronic music were like that, but even House came from Disco. Electric Blues came from itself and built upon itself to create the Blues we know today.

The year is the early 1930’s, and some madman just created a guitar that played like an acoustic but could be amplified using electricity! Wild, I know. It turns out that it works!

A bunch of Blues artists saw this guitar, and a few visionaries decided to jump on and start recording Blues using this newfangled electric guitar, and then they added a band because now the guitar wouldn’t be drowned out by them. Also, Jazz was doing that so they felt it was time.

They had done it before with Vaudeville Blues, but that was more Traditional Pop with Blues elements than pure Blues like Electric Blues.

That’s likely how Electric Blues came to be. The earliest Electric Blues were actually just people playing electric guitars as if it was a Delta Blues get together. This song here, Green Onions, comes after Electric Blues had been evolving for 3 decades. The thing with a lot of early Blues is that’s it’s incredibly disjointed, and Electric Blues was really the first Blues genre to start Blues as we know it today. Without Electric Blues, Chicago and British Blues wouldn’t exist, arguably the two most famous Blues genres.

Because of Electric Blues’ more cohesive sound, it became the staple genre of Blues and the name evolved to encompass more and more sounds.

That’s my long-winded explanation of why I consider Green Onions an Electric Blues song. You’ve probably heard it. It’s pretty good actually.

Honestly I think explaining Electric Blues is more interesting than explaining Green Onions.

Soul Jazz (1 song)
Jazz, R&B
Stylistic Influences: Modern Gospel, Swing, R&B

Someone had to pick up the slack for Ray Charles, and Jimmy Smith does it wonderfully.

Walk on the Wild Side is good incidental music. I mean that in a positive way trust me.

It’s groovy, intriguing, and very jazzy. It’s a pretty good description of Soul Jazz by itself, really. Soul Jazz is Jazz that’s heavily influenced by R&B. It also started being influenced by Soul when Soul became a thing, however it got the name Soul Jazz because recursion is not a thing that exists when it comes to genre names. Why do you think it’s called Alternative Dance when it’s primarily influenced by Post-Punk?

However, with New Orleans R&B being such a knockout, it stands that further “jazzing” it up so speak holds up wonderfully. It’s also a pretty influential genre in itself, though not the biggest of it. Let’s face it, Ray Charles really did enough for this genre in ‘61 but more Soul Jazz is not a bad thing.

I really don’t have much else to say. Most Jazz is still performed today, and Soul Jazz is no exception. People just call it Jazz Funk now. I mean, just listen to 20 Jazz Funk Greats, trust me. You’ll hear it… I’m sure my information is correct.

Ragtime (1 song)
Classical, Blues
Stylistic Influences: Romanticism, Spirituals, Classical March

What? Yes?

No really. Alley Cat by Bent Fabric can be many things, R&B, Easy Listening. It can also be Ragtime, and its heavy emphasis on dinky piano and march-esque rhythms almost Proto-Jazz in its construction makes it Ragtime as much as anything else.

Yes that’s a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo, but let me try to simplify it a little.

Ragtime is a very early style of uniquely American music inspired by the Old West. It’s traced back to the 1890’s but it could be earlier because it’s a rather simple piano genre. It’s based around a light melody on the higher parts of the piano and a solid oom-pah bassline. Ragtime predates Boogie-Woogie so don’t get the piano basslines confused.

A lot of Ragtime is somewhat happy and upbeat, and that’d feed directly into Dixie when that genre came around. In fact, Ragtime is pretty much ground zero of Jazz and I would not flame anybody who called Ragtime the first ever Jazz genre. Genre barriers are silly and when something becomes something else is blurry.

As for the march-esque rhythms, that’s just because Ragtime comes from classic military marches. It’s usually in cut-time despite not really having a drum part (although Alley Cat has a light brush rhythm). It just took directly from that, though marches are more influential on Dixie than Ragtime.

As for how the genre sounds, can you not like Ragtime? It’s just so silly and fun. While I understand that this was pretty much the first music genre which Black people could make a living out of, it’s still a good time circumstances be damned. Ragtime sounds like what the Boomers describe the 50’s as.

There’s also a bit of association with slapstick comedy. In the very beginning of movies there was no sound; so Ragtime was usually used to score early films. There’s probably a couple reasons why. A, the music was very popular and still sophisticated enough for the upper-class White folks of the era (it does take directly from Classical) and B, the scores were easy to get a hold on.

So, because slapstick was one of the first ways to get across comedy without sound (you can’t exactly tell a joke), Ragtime got used to score it. Thus, the music retroactively got sillier. So, when you hear The Entertainer, there’ll always be [insert funny Charlie Chaplin gag reference].

Movies aren’t my forte, music is. In a musical context, Ragtime is surprisingly uplifting given the circumstances. It’s quality music, and I hope Scott Joplin gets remembered as a legendary Classical composer.

Music Hall (1 song)
Jazz, Novelty
Stylistic Influences: English Folk Music, Ragtime, Vaudeville

Vaudeville is a term for a sort of musical variety and comedy common in early 20th century American music. Influenced by Minstrel Shows, Vaudeville is actually a general catch-all for a sort of lowbrow comedy show. The music that was common in Vaudeville shows is also known as Vaudeville. It took some Blues influence in the 20’s (and Vaudeville Blues has the prestigious honor of being the first known Blues genre on record), but prior to that was generally influenced by Ragtime and Dixie. It’s music intentionally meant to be silly.

Now, Music Hall on the other hand… is actually much of the same. Music Hall is the British equivalent of Vaudeville, right down to the shows the music comes from being known as Music Halls. I’m not sure if Britain had Minstrel Shows but Music Hall is more generally influenced by English Folk Music. It’s probably most equivalent to seeing a joke in a play which involves a hick singing a very goofy song over a tortured banjo melody (although banjos are an American thing).

However, Britain has a very notable crossover history with American music. Once Vaudeville made it over the pond, Music Hall became a Jazz-influenced genre. Much like Trad Jazz, it’s a very British take on what they think Dixie sounds like, but basically turned up to eleven. The wall of sound must’ve been really fucking goofy to British audiences because Music Hall makes ample use of it.

The Music Hall song on the year-end continues the cross-pollination of these distinct musics. Her Royal Majesty is a parody of Music Hall done up by framing a girl as Queen Elizabeth herself (remember when she was alive? She was alive then too), thus making the protagonist the “King of Fools” for trusting this girl in the first place.

This is all done with a completely over-the-top Dixie march-style wall of sound. It’s pure Music Hall… except it’s a Brill Building song. In fact, Goffin/King are right there as songwriters!

“Doesn’t that make it Brill Building Pop?” You might be asking. Yes and no. Her Royal Majesty is in fact a Pop song from the Brill Building, but Brill Building Pop is a genre. You don’t need to come out of the Brill Building to make Brill Building Pop and vice-versa.

As far as I can tell, Her Royal Majesty knows this. It might also know the formula of the Brill Building at this point and is going all topsy-turvy to change things up. In addition to the repeated references to “her majesty” I’m certain it’s not a coincidence they chose a Music Hall style for this one.

And actually y’all are sleeping so hard on Her Royal Majesty, it’s genuinely one of the best songs on this year-end and I will not explain or elaborate. Just listen to it in the link. Again, Novelty gets a bad rep.

Speaking of Novelty, that’s what Music Hall is. The fact that it was Novelty in the first place (with the experiment being a Jazz-influenced wall of sound) adapted it quite nicely into the 60’s.

Well, it’s here, but more precisely, stuff like The New Vaudeville Band or the Bonzo Dog Doo/Dah Band, which are already Novelty acts, adapted into Music Hall quite well. After all, you can’t get sillier than a genre literally designed to be silly. It became quite the hot genre in the mid 60’s and became the sound of British Novelty everywhere. Not bad for a genre in which most of the pioneers died before they got on record.

Countrypolitan (1 song)
Pop
Stylistic Influences: Nashville, Traditional Pop

Oh God no. Music Hall is an interesting genre with a storied history and it’s followed immediately by this shlock.

Not at the bottom yet even though this genre’s influence is pretty miniscule, because said artist is Patsy Cline. So you know, pretty big Nashville pioneer. That’s about as big a brag as being the softest firm mattress but go off.

She’s Got You has some pretty neat wordplay, but much like Nashville, I really don’t hate a lot of the songs that came out of this genre. End of the World, for instance, is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard (slight spoiler for next year).

However, you see those stylistic influences. Yes, Countrypolitan takes the already watered-down Nashville and literally drowns it in so much Pop it’s actually not Country anymore. The only thing differentiating this from Traditional Pop is steel guitars.

I didn’t even know End of the World was a Country song until I found out through RYM that the album belongs in Countrypolitan. I only knew Patsy Cline was a Country artist because of a few books I’ve read and the fact that she’s the upper level in Johnny Cash’s Nashville museum. This shit is so watered down it requires rescue from a lifeguard.

A lot of people’s grievances with modern Metal and Rock is a lot of my issue with Countrypolitan (and Nashville more broadly). They just took a good thing and then just made it “poppy” for that sweet sweet crossover appeal. After all, the thing music for the common man needs is melodrama and shiny production.

The greatest thing Countrypolitan ever did was piss off Country artists so much they invented Outlaw Country. I am not kidding.

Unlike Nashville, Countrypolitan has not influenced almost every Country genre under the sun. It did influence Urban Cowboy, though, which has a name so stupid it sounds like it was influenced by this genre.

Western (1 song)
Country
Stylistic Influences: American Folk Music, Traditional Country, Spirituals

I like that Westerns are still around. Out of all the Country genres on the chart this year it is the most Country. Even then, Nashville slowly claims its victims.

(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance is a passable song. I don’t have any visceral reaction to it or anything. It’s a perfect 3/5. It tells a super simple story and has pretty decent instrumentation. However, it also points towards a trend I alluded to in the last Billboard Breakdown.

I mentioned that Western would get influenced by Nashville at some point in the future, and this is it. It’s a weird Country Pop/Nashville hybrid that has both classical violin and fiddle for extra confusion.

It’s like there’s a Nashville skeleton there and Western is starting to find the skeletons in its closet. It’s overproduced, but not to a poppy degree, and is overall just a very intriguing song.

Country music in the early 60’s is a lot of different ideas trying to all be the same thing at the same time. I think (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance is the single greatest example of this Country phenomenon I can find. I would bellyache about Nashville more but I already have done it enough and it’s not really present here.

If you notice, I haven’t actually said anything about the genre of Western. Well, it’s Country music that tells a story… and that’s it. It’s closer to Traditional Country than anything else, but that’s what it is. It’s a very boring genre to talk about.

Easy Listening (1 song)
Pop
Stylistic Influences: Tin Pan Alley, Classical, Big Band

BEGONE FOUL BEAST!!

…

Okay, after equipping my Easy Listening-proof headphones and taking residence in my bunker, I think I can talk about this and not cleanse myself immediately afterwards.

Easy Listening might just be my least-favorite genre group. This is specifically referring to the basic bitch (emphasis on basic) Easy Listening but my point still stands. Most of what Easy Listening stands for is the deliberate kneecapping of Traditional Pop music. It removes Tradtional Pop’s only good trait, the vocals, and replaces it with Jazz that sounds like it belongs in the retirement home.

Easy Listening isn’t meant to be listened to. It’s meant to be easy to listen to. It’s music that is literally constructed to not be anything you think deeply about. It doesn’t have any interesting layers to complement its instrumental sound, and there’s certainly no good lyrics to set it apart.

Look, instrumentals don’t have to be complex. Minecraft Volume Alpha is almost-universally adored. That’s not complex, but it’s at least interesting. There may not be layers, but Minecraft Volume Alpha gets across feelings of nostalgia, loneliness, adventure, homeliness, all at the same time using nothing more than a detuned piano and some synths.

Easy Listening is… happy. That’s it. That’s all the music stands for. It’s not like an authentic silliness from Ragtime, or a nostalgic sense of hope like Doo-Wop. It is the grocery store music of happy instrumentals.

Just listen to A Swingin’ Safari. It sounds like it was procedurally created in a lab to be mildly catchy.

Easy Listening is meant to throw on in the background as incidental music to score our life. It isn’t a genre that invites any further exploration, discussion, or anything of the sort. It makes music into generic art like the abstract painting you see in a McDonald’s to make you think you’re in a high-class establishment.

Hell, there’s an entire subgenre of Easy Listening dedicated to taking the piss out of Easy Listening. Cocktail Nation’s Vaporwave-esque commentary on the pervasiveness of corporate music meant for throwing on in the background is honestly exactly what it deserves.

I hope Easy Listening dies with the Beatles.

If you like it, good on you. I cannot.

Light Music (1 song)
Pop
Stylistic Influences: Easy Listening, Tin Pan Alley

Let’s get this over with shall we…

Light Music is another Easy Listening subgenre. Yay. Exciting. It’s primarily British this time, unfortunately they’re only good at making Rock and Metal.

Light Music is for making the incidental bits of Easy Listening even more incidental by just… refusing to even add in light Jazz influence. It’s all Classical all the time. Yay.

I don’t exactly have the same visceral reaction to Light Music I do to Easy Listening, also I think I got all my grievances out in the Easy Listening bit. Everything still applies here, though sometimes even more so.

Light Music is even more toothless than Easy Listening, somehow. I will admit that— as it’s more incidental— it’s like Cinematic Classical. Will I ever listen to it? No. I will not care about it in the slightest if it comes on. It’s so boring it doesn’t even deserve outrage.

Stranger on the Shore is the #1 song on the year-end. It’s also the Light Music pick. In fairness, the listening public of 1962 also determined Twist the second-biggest genre of the year. Also, Stranger on the Shore is boring as hell but it isn’t bad. It has a nice melody, but again there’s nothing really there.

Honestly most of the rest of the list is quite boring, but there’s only a few more so stick with me.

Italo Pop (1 song)
Pop
Stylistic Influences: Schlager, Chanson, Traditional Pop*

There’s a lot of genres that begin or nave “Italo” in them. This is not any of those genres, including Italo Dance which is arguably more “pop” than this one. It’s called Italo Pop because it’s influenced by Traditional Pop and at the time “Pop” was the definition of that sound.

Well, saying it’s influenced by Traditional Pop is a bit of a stretch. It sounds like it. However, Traditional Pop comes in many different forms and Schlager happens to be the European one, and that’s what Italo Pop takes from.

So apparently, the US and Italy had a somewhat strong relationship in the music department in the early days of Billboard. Some of the earliest hits not in English were in Italian. There’s the famous Volare, but we’ve got this one too, Al Di Lá by Emilio Pericoli.

Italo Pop is Pop sung in Italian pretty much. It takes from Easy Listening, which makes it a sort of Traditional Pop regardless of whether it was influenced by the genre specifically. Aside from that, there isn’t really much to say about Italo Pop, though after The Beatles got big it became a sort of Pop-Rock. Of course it retained the name “Italo Pop” because the difference didn’t need made.

The lyrics are typically about romantic topics, though that’s not a necessity because it all needs sung in Italian first.

Not much to write home about this one.

Polka (1 song)
World
Stylistic Influences: Czech Folk Music

The real question is how this got on two years in a row. This time, Norman by Sue Thompson is actually and undoubtedly a Polka song, unlike Wooden Heart from 1961. Like with all Polka it is impossible to take seriously which sucks here because I think the song is actually trying to say something.

The interesting thing is that it comes out of Nashville, making this a fully American production. I would’ve thought early music listeners would’ve thought Polka beneath them, but I am surprised it is not.

Polka is a sort of Czech Folk Music, which implies more European musical cross-pollination. It’s just a little tase of what’s to come. Again, this is not a European song, but it is clearly influenced by European music.

Polka is led by a raucous cut time beat and oftentimes contains accordion and upright bass. Horns are fairly common too, however. The most notable one is a tuba, but that’s not every horn ever used in Polka. Norman uses trumpets for instance.

Polka isn’t really a strict genre. The instrumentation is generally what’s lying around, which means that as long it has that upbeat boom-chik and unusual instrumentation, it counts.

As for how Polka got on here? I’m not entirely sure. Norman came out before Her Royal Majesty so European-styled music wasn’t super popular at the moment. I can only imagine that it came out of a big star with a label push by some Nashville execs who wanted to associate themselves with more than Country (it didn’t work).

That’s just a theory though a music theory. It’s a goofy song and very forgettable.

Marching Band (1 song)
Utility
Stylistic Influences: Classical March

P. T. 109 is an interesting one.

It’s by the same guy who did Big Bad John, Jimmy Dean. The song P. T. 109 is a Novelty song in the vein of Johnny Horton’s two big hits, The Battle of New Orleans and Sink the Bismarck. It’s a Marching Band-style song about a major historical event. The Novelty comes in both in regards to the subject matter and the general sound of the piece, creating the same Novelty as a British band creating a Music Hall track, harkening back to a very old style of music.

P. T. 109 is about JFK’s participation in WWII. Aboard the titular ship, Jimmy Dean idolizes the president and then the entire song ends in a joke. Because the US won, that means you don’t mess with a man named John, before singing the chorus to Big Bad John.

It’s a ridiculous song. The Marching Band joke was funny the first time but not the third. It is, however, a very early example of people directly commenting on current events. JFK had won in 1960, and this song was recorded and directly comments on his presidency. It’s pretty neat, but it just stinks of “Still relevant, dammit!” P. T. 109 is not a single and I’m unsure why it was ever released as one beyond mentioning the fairly popular president at the time.

As for the genre itself, Marching Band is focused around snare rolls, complex rhythms, but general non-percussion simplicity. It comes from Classical March, which was used on battlefields to keep troops motivated. RYM purports that Classical March came from Ottoman Military Music, which is a very unique style to feed into American music. We did participate in WWI, so who knows.

There’s no real differences between Classical March and Marching Band. The only difference I can tell is that the latter is more amateurish and more percussion-driven.

P. T. 109 could also, just as easily, be categorized under Country Pop. That being said, I think Marching Band is funnier, and it also emphasizes that these sorts of Novelty songs were in fact a trend. It wasn’t just some guy who decided to make a silly Marching Band song about a historical event and nothing else happened. No, in fact, at least a couple people decided they were going to do the same thing. Again, it’s an interesting idea, but one was enough.

There isn’t really much to say about Marching Band. Schools tend to still play it today, but the time for Marching Band hits has long since dried up. Nowadays, they’re in their own isolated competitions and communities.

Probably the least influential genre on here, but still worth talking about.

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And that’s 1962. That took a while to write, but I can now begin on the best part of this series, listening to the music for the next year.

No, seriously. Despite how much I tossed down songs, I live for things like Her Royal Majesty. Those awkward fringe songs that I thoroughly enjoy listening to. Also Twist dies next year so I’m excited.

As for what 1962 means in the Billboard Hot 100 canon, it’s hard to say. There’s obviously Twist, one of the biggest pre-Beatles cultural phenomena, and truly only a huge hit could be so overplayed. There’s also The Beach Boys, one of the most influential American bands. Otherwise, the 60’s really hasn’t found its sound yet. So much Rock and Roll and other 50’s-influenced genres.

1962 is a forgettable year of pop music overall. However, I’m not entirely sure if it would be bigger knowing what’s on the horizon.

And until next time; be awesome!
-Dashie