Bubblegum music

Bubblegum (also called bubblegum pop) is pop music in a catchy and upbeat style that is marketed for children and adolescents. The term also refers to a more specific rock and pop subgenre, originating in the United States in the late 1960s, that evolved from garage rock, novelty songs, and the Brill Building sound, and which was also defined by its target demographic of preteens and young teenagers. The Archies' 1969 hit "Sugar, Sugar" was a representative example that led to cartoon rock, a short-lived trend of Saturday-morning cartoon series that heavily featured pop rock songs in the bubblegum vein.

Producer Jeffry Katz claimed credit for coining "bubblegum", 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 then popularized by their boss, Buddah Records label executive Neil Bogart. It became often used as a pejorative for pop music that is perceived to be disposable and contrived.

Most bubblegum acts were one-hit wonders (notable exceptions included the Cowsills, the Partridge Family and Tommy Roe) and the sound remained a significant commercial force until the early 1970s. Commentators often debate the scope of the genre and have variously argued for the exclusion or inclusion of dance-pop, disco, teen pop, boy bands, and especially the Monkees. During the 1970s, the original bubblegum sound was a formative influence on punk rock, new wave, and melodic metal.

Occasionally invoked as a pejorative, the "bubblegum" descriptor has several different applications. The 2001 book Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth rules out teen pop or boy bands as inherently bubblegum and defines the term as:

The artists were typically singles acts, with songs commonly featuring sing-along choruses, seemingly childlike themes and a contrived innocence, occasionally combined with an undercurrent of sexual double entendre. Comparing bubblegum to power pop, Mojo writer Dawn Eden said: "Power pop aims for your heart and your feet. Bubblegum aims for any part of your body it can get, as long as you buy the damn record." Music critic Lester Bangs described the style as "the basic sound of rock 'n' roll – minus the rage, fear, violence and anomie".

There is debate concerning which artists fit the genre, especially for cases such as the Monkees. In the opinion of music historian Bill Pitzonka: "The whole thing that really makes a record bubblegum is just an inherently contrived innocence that somehow transcends that. [...] It has to sound like they mean it." Music critic David Smay argued that disco is merely bubblegum by another name and that since bubblegum is "dance music for pre-teen girls", the genre's scope must therefore include dance-pop and such associated figures as Stock Aitken Waterman and Kylie Minogue, but "Not all dance-pop is aimed at kids and shouldn't be presumed to be disposable anymore than bubblegum."

According to music historian Carl Caferelli, "You could conceivably think of virtually every cute novelty hit, from pre-rock ditties like "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window" to transcendent rock-era staples like "Iko Iko," as a legitimate precursor to bubblegum's avowedly ephemeral themes." He went on to list such "important antecedents" as "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am" (Herman's Hermits, 1965), "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" (Royal Guardsmen, 1966), "Ding, Dong! The Witch is Dead" (the Fifth Estate, 1967), and "Green Tambourine" (Lemon Pipers, 1967).

"American bubblegum pop was often like garage rock's bouncy little brother: lacking the moodiness and sex appeal, but you could see the shared DNA. British bubblegum was born out of the same talent glut of session musicians and songwriters and shared a sweet tooth, but it was quite different in approach, owing rock almost nothing and rarely placing much of a premium on kid energy."