I always loved Sam Cooke, because he seemed very versatile. He sang gospel, soul, blues, pop music.
Aaron Neville
I think Lady Gaga is great and is changing pop music and bringing back a certain rock 'n' roll spirit, swagger to the game.
Adam Lambert
Every year, there's some band that plays guitar-oriented pop music that has a single, but for the most part, it's kind of relegated to the sidelines.
Adam Schlesinger
Sometimes with pop music, you have to see it to love it. With soul music, it's sparse. There's nothing that's pretentious or planned. It's just so gutsy.
Adele
I love love songs. But I love pop music as well: Girls Aloud, Kylie, the Spice Girls, East 17, Mika.
For me, personally, the most interesting music comes from the popular sector - from film and pop music - since contemporary classical music got stuck and went into directions where it lost a lot of the public by over-intellectualizing.
Aleksey Igudesman
Most of all I want to make pop music that has something real behind it.
Alex Winston
There is genuine healing in a beautifully crafted musical theatre song, like Stephen Sondheim's 'Losing My Mind,' or a pop music gem like Joni Mitchell's 'Help Me.'
Alice Ripley
Like Juan Gabriel and Ana Gabriel, both singers and songwriters of legendary talent, Marco Antonio has reshaped a kind of Mexican romanticism. What he brings to pop music is the kind of songs that really talk to people's hearts.
Alicia Villarreal
I really do listen to all types of music, not only rock, but everything from good pop music - which is usually older pop music - to R&B and indie rock. I love indie rock more than a lot of the commercial stuff that you'd expect.
Amy Lee
I did a pop album, 'Sogno,' in 1999. I think it's important to record another pop album because many people love pop music. By this kind of repertoire, some people can later discover classical music.
Andrea Bocelli
The best pop music is the songs that a group of people can dance to, but you can also listen to in your bed and cry. That's something obviously that The Beatles started and... so having that darkness there opens another door.
Andrew Dost
I seriously hate pop music and all things super-commercial.
Ani DiFranco
Donna Summer was one of the strongest female singers in pop music. She was very underrated as a vocalist and a writer, and her songbook is just outrageous.
Annaleigh Ashford
When I was growing up, I was surrounded by people that were listening to a lot of pop music.
Anne-Marie
The representation that I always go back to is a pop star - whether it's Lady Gaga or Madonna, I love the way those women in pop music have always made an effort to create a specific vision.
Aquaria
Folk music is music that everyday people can play, and it inspired a lot of people to make their own music. That trailed into making your own pop music, and that's why garage bands started springing up everywhere.
Arlo Guthrie
I like pop music. Earnestly. Most of the greatest technicians, mix engineers, and players are working in pop music.
Autre Ne Veut
There's a certain type of indie fan who would balk at the prospect of there being value in pop music, but I think that's foolish. They're not really listening.
In general, I love dance-pop music with some soul and a dash of R&B.
Ava Max
The one thing about The Weeknd is that he's gone between the world of trap music and pop music and blended them together, so it makes it interesting in that way. That's what I like about him.
I don't really have a favorite genre. I could listen to a rock song, a metal song, jazz, pop music, whatever. For me, whatever style it is, it always depends on the chord progression, the lyrics, and the melody used.
The only thing that exists to me is commercial pop music.
My grandparents don't really listen to pop music, and they only speak Spanish and only listen to Spanish music.
I grew up in Southern California and always loved melodic pop music.
There is still some art in pop music. But it can't happen if you're not inspired.
I try to listen to over a hundred different songs a day. I listen to every single thing. If you're just listening to pop music, you're just gonna make pop music. I listen to Adele, Yo Yo Ma, Gucci Mane.
In the little rural town I grew up in, I missed out on the pop music of the time, the '80s, and now enjoy in retrospect. It's as an adult that I've opened it up to dance, hip-hop, R&B, and even big pop songs.
I always wanted to merge heavy metal with pop music, but I think that because I grew up more with pop, the Beatles and the Stones, I tended to affiliate myself with those projects.
If you try to do that in pop music - to play only rare show tunes, for example - people don't come.
As hard as it is, as ghetto as it is, hip-hop is pop music. It's the sound of music getting out of the ghetto, while rock is looking for a ghetto.
What I like about pop music, and why I'm still attracted to it, is that in the end it becomes our folk music.
My parents played the Bee Gees; Earth, Wind & Fire; Michael Jackson. The best pop music to infiltrate a child's mind.
For artists of my caliber, we're not played on the radio, so we don't really get a chance to get involved in that debate at all. We don't get a chance, because this weird kind of ageism exists in pop music. If you're past a certain age, you're not relevant. That's the kind of cliched term.
I have a borderline-embarrassing obsession with pop music.
Jazz was the pop music of its day, and all American popular music has stemmed from it one way or another.
When I finish something, I want it out that day. Pop music is like the daily paper. Its got to be there then, not six months later.
Even though I'm known as a pop musician, I have a seriousness about what I do.
The whole history of pop music had rested on the first person singular, with occasional intrusions of the second person singular.
Pop music can absorb so many peculiar talents, ranging from the completely nonmusical poseur who just uses music as a kind of springboard for a sense of style, to people who just love putting all that complicated stuff together, brick by brick, on their computers, to people like me who like playing conceptual games and being surprised.
I wanted to get rid of the element that had been considered essential in pop music: the voice.
I just felt like I'd rather listen to even the worst metal song more than most current pop music.
Pop music has been exhausted. The innocence has been exhausted. I think we've lost the ability to be blown away by music.
Political people don't solve stuff - not really. Political people are like guys in pop music.
In pop music, the public usually see the results - the hit records, the Grammy Awards performances, the concert tours - but not all the work that goes into getting into the spotlight. And not everyone realizes that, even if you have a lot of talent, chances are you won't make it.
As a pop musician, as someone who makes songs, the best ideas are the simplest. They come, and that's the lightning bolt moment.
I think I definitely learned how to structure songs, just from listening to a lot of 1960s, 1970s pop music, although I'm sure my mother's watchful eye had a lot to do with it.
I do listen to Abba. And a lot of '80s and '90s pop music.
I think that's a big trope in pop music: the blaze-of-glory breakup. It's not one that I particularly identify with, but it's definitely possible.
You want to embrace what the idea of pop music is. Not necessarily the stereotype of pop music; there was a time when you'd say 'pop music' and conjure up images of the Sweet, or Marc Bolan. That, to me, can be avant-garde still.
