Bubblegum pop (also known as bubblegum music or simply bubblegum) is a genre of music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, which may be produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers and often using unknown singers. Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972. A second wave of bubblegum began two years later and ran until 1977 when disco took over.
The genre was predominantly a singles phenomenon rather than an album-oriented one. Acts were typically manufactured in the studio using session musicians, and most bubblegum pop groups were one-hit wonders. Among the best-known acts of bubblegum's golden era are 1910 Fruitgum Company (a clear exception to the one-hit wonder rule), the Lemon Pipers ("Green Tambourine", credited as being the first bubblegum pop chart-topper), the Ohio Express ("Yummy Yummy Yummy"), and the Archies, an animated group which had the most successful bubblegum song with "Sugar, Sugar", Billboard Magazine's No. 1 single for 1969. Singer Tommy Roe also scored several hits during the era, including the 1969 number one hit "Dizzy".
Characteristics of Bubblegum
The chief characteristics of the genre are that it is pop music contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, is produced in an assembly-line process, is driven by producers, often uses unknown singers, and has an upbeat sound. The songs typically have singalong choruses, seemingly childlike themes and a contrived innocence, occasionally combined with an undercurrent of sexual double entendre. Bubblegum songs are also defined as having a catchy melody, simple chords, simple harmonies, dancy (but not necessarily danceable) beats, repetitive riffs or "hooks" and a vocally-multiplied refrain. The song lyrics often feature themes of romantic love and personal happiness, with references to sunshine, platonic love, toys, colors, nonsense words, etc. They are also notable for their frequent reference to sugary food, including sugar, honey, butterscotch, jelly and marmalade. Cross-marketing with cereal and bubblegum manufacturers also strengthened the link between bubblegum songs and confectionery. Cardboard records by the Archies, the Banana Splits, the Jackson 5, the Monkees, Bobby Sherman, Josie and the Pussycats, H.R. Pufnstuf and other acts were included on the backs of cereal boxes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, while acts including The Brady Bunch had their own brands of chewing gum as a result of licensing deals with TV networks and record companies.]
Etymology
]Producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz have claimed credit for coining the term bubblegum pop, saying that when they discussed their target audience, they decided it was "teenagers, the young kids. And at the time we used to be chewing bubblegum, and my partner and I used to look at it and laugh and say, 'Ah, this is like bubblegum music'." The term was seized upon by Buddah Records label executive Neil Bogart. Music writer and bubblegum historian Bill Pitzonka confirmed the claim, telling Goldmine magazine: "That's when bubblegum crystallized into an actual camp. Kasenetz and Katz really crystallized it when they came up with the term themselves and that nice little analogy. And Neil Bogart, being the marketing person he was, just crammed it down the throats of people. That's really the point at which bubblegum took off.”
History
The birth of bubblegum is generally dated from the success of The Lemon Pipers' psychedelic bubblegum hit "Green Tambourine" (1967), 1910 Fruitgum Company's "Simon Says" (1968) and The Ohio Express' "Yummy Yummy Yummy" (1968), but music critics have identified novelty songs including The Dixie Cups' "Iko Iko" (1965), Patti Page's "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?" (1953) and the hits of Annette Funicello as possible precursors.
A breeding ground for the genre has also been found in the field of 1960s garage rock, the songs of which shared an overriding simplicity with bubblegum. Garage and bubblegum groups were also both generally singles acts. Several garage punk bands, including Shadows of Knight, later recorded bubblegum tracks, while Ohio Express, one of the major 1960s bubblegum bands, began their recording career with punk-rooted tunes.
Between those two camps emerged Florida group The Royal Guardsmen, who scored a US No. 2 hit in 1966 with their novelty hit "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron", and The Fifth Estate, whose 1967 song "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" reached No. 11 in the US.
Tommy James and the Shondells are also seen as a major influence, with such songs as 1964's "Hanky Panky", 1966's "It's Only Love", and 1967's "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Gettin' Together", but critics are divided on one possible major bubblegum band prototype: The Monkees. Although the band began as a prefabricated, fictional rock group concocted to sell records and TV advertising time, the band later wrested creative control from their creators.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubblegum_pop
Afterword by the Blog Author
The narrative does not mention Tommy James and the Shondells "Crimson and Clover" in 1968. Further, it is my opinion that the early work of Neil Sadaka and The Beach Boys in the early 1960s was a forbearer of bubblegum. Listen also to Bobby Pickett with his 1962 hit "Monster Mash." And there was "Rhythm of the Falling Rain" by the Cascades in 1963.
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