Modern and post-modern music has come a long way, and the music industry is always evolving to accommodate changing traditions and conventions.
Here is a brief history that outlines events from the modern music period during the late 1850s to the 1960s and the post-modern music era from the 1960s and onwards.
One of the key features that distinguish a modern music performance is how it expresses itself freely through rhythm, melody, and chord progression. The advent of audio recording technology and the ability to widely distribute music across the world had a huge impact on how people produce and listen to music.
Before modern music, communities reveled in folk music that emerged naturally among cultures and communities throughout the world. Conservative communities immersed themselves in art music that was procured by professional composers.
Folk music had a simple structure and informal quality, whereas art music was generally complex in structure and it had a formal nature. Some music historians indicate that post-modern music was a way for the war-torn individual to break free from the chains and formality of art music and to find expression in more meaningful ways through music.
Post-modern music developed out of the influences of the First and Second World Wars. The term ‘’postmodernism’’ was also first used in the 1970s to describe philosophical trends and music performances that appeared to have originated around 1945. In the 1960s, parents could take their kids to music festivals and events.
With the development of modern mass media, artists and musicians could reach large audiences through television, radio, audio recordings, and various live streaming services. The term popular music or pop music began trending in the 1990s.
Popular post-modern music performances follow a simple structure with an informal quality that can be recognized in the folk music of the past. Popular music develops at a fast pace, and the popularity of post-modern music seems to wane quickly.