Sunshine Pop - Characterization

Characterization

Sunshine pop songs are predominantly upbeat and apolitical, and at first glance, fairly superficial. However, they often feature complex production and arrangements. The instrumentation typically includes strings, guitar, bass, drums or percussion, and piano. More exotic instruments such as harpsichord, xylophone or sitar may also be heard. Multi-part harmony singing is ubiquitous. In short, sunshine pop is most often characterized by a cheerful attitude, harmony singing, and sophisticated production. These three principal elements are most readily associated with this type of music. However, the term actually has a broader use in practice: sunshine pop can sound relentlessly cheerful, but also more subdued or even sad. The music may be experimental and contain psychedelic elements. Sunshine pop is thus strongly related to several other musical styles such as bubblegum pop and psychedelic pop; both usually consist of lightweight, catchy and upbeat songs. However, psychedelic pop adds experimental elements such as studio tricks, sounds effects, and fuzz guitar to pop songs, creating a somewhat trippy whole.

Like sunshine pop, soft rock also creates a gentle feeling, but soft rock songs are more subdued and less exuberant form of sunshine pop often featuring a slower pace and stronger emphasis on orchestration. Other related genres include easy listening and surf music; with prominent use of harmony singing. However topics under surf music are limited to surfing or drag racing, and the production is usually fairly sparse and relatively simple. With orchestral similarities, baroque pop also shares many characteristics. However baroque pop lyrics and orchestration are a lot darker, more melodramatic and surreal; the genre is considered more sophisticated and in line with forward thinking musical styles such as progressive rock and art rock. The boundaries between these styles are often very blurred with the subtle difference, sunshine pop may thus be considered an umbrella term, that can include elements of various styles and genres.