American pop
American pop is pop music in the United States. American folk singer Pete Seeger defined pop music as "professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music".
An early genre of American pop music was the swing craze, a popular dance style in the early part of the 20th century.
Jazz artist Rudy Vallée became what was perhaps the first complete example of the 20th century mass media pop star. Vallée became the most prominent and, arguably, the first of a new style of popular singer, the crooner.
One of the most successful crooners was Bing Crosby. Crosby cited popular singer Al Jolson as one of his main influences. Crosby was in turn cited by Perry Como. Crosby also influenced this singing of Frank Sinatra; Crosby and Sinatra sang together in the 1956 film High Society.
American pop musical examples from the 1960s include The Monkees. Pop groups like these remained popular into the 1970s, producing family acts like the Partridge Family and The Osmonds. By the late 1990s, there were numerous varieties of Teen pop including singers like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Samantha Mumba and Clean-cut boy bands like *NSYNC, The Backstreet Boys, 98° and girl groups such as The Spice Girls and Destiny's Child.
