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As sound recording became a mass medium, it fueled the growth of popular or pop music, which appeals to large segments of the population or sizable groups distinguished by age, region, or ethnic background. Pop music today includes numerous genres—rock and roll, jazz, blues, country, Tejano, salsa, reggae, punk, hip-hop, and dance—many of which evolved from a common foundation. For example, rock splintered off from blues (which originated in the American South), and hip-hop grew out of R&B, dance music, and rock. This proliferation of music genres created a broad range of products that industry players could package and sell—targeted to increasingly narrow listener groups.

Among these genres, rock turned out to exert a major influence on American society, culture, and even politics. For instance, it infused southern culture into the North and challenged cultural constraints on sexuality. It also blurred racial lines, as many of the blues artists who helped create the music that evolved into rock were black. But this blurring and shifting of boundaries also came through the fans—the many black and white young listeners who shared a passion for the new music.