Brill Building | |
---|---|
Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | Late 1950s – early 1960s, New York City |
Typical instruments | |
Derivative forms | |
Other topics | |
Brill Building (also known as Brill Building pop or the Brill Building sound) [1] is a subgenre of pop music [1] that took its name from the Brill Building in New York City, where numerous teams of professional songwriters penned material for girl groups and teen idols during the early 1960s. [2] The term has also become a metonym for the period in which those songwriting teams flourished. [7] In actuality, most hits of the mid-1950s and early 1960s were written elsewhere. [7]
The music conceived at the Brill Building was more sophisticated than other pop styles of the time, combining contemporary sounds with classic Tin Pan Alley songwriting. [1] Productions often featured orchestras and bands with large rhythm and guitar sections, [2] while lyrics focused on idealized romance and adolescent anxieties, only rarely exploring more mature themes. [8]
The genre dominated the American charts in the period between Elvis Presley's Army enlistment in 1958 and the onset of the British Invasion in 1964. [9] It declined thereafter, but demonstrated a continued influence on British and American pop and rock music in subsequent years. [2] [3] The genre introduced the concept of professional songwriters to traditional pop and early rock and roll, [3] and helped to inspire the girl group craze of the era. [10] Other reasons for the style's decline was a tendency among writers and producers to duplicate earlier successes, resulting in many records that sounded the same, as well the changing nature of society and consumer markets. [11] Many of the genre's composers went on to further success as part of the singer-songwriter movement later in the 1960s and 1970s. [12]
1960s artists/songwriters
Later artists