Brill Building (genre)

Brill Building
The Brill Building pictured in 2009
Stylistic origins	Pop[1][2] Tin Pan Alley[1][2][3] rock and roll[3] doo-wop[4] rhythm and blues[3] pop rock[2] Latin music[1]
Cultural origins	Early 1960s, New York City
Typical instruments	Guitars[2] strings[1]
Derivative forms	Soft rock[5] sunshine pop[6]
Other topics
Girl group Teen idol

Brill Building (also known as Brill Building pop or the Brill Building Sound)^[1] is a subgenre of pop music^[1] originating from the Brill Building in New York City, where numerous teams of professional songwriters penned material for girl groups and teen idols in the early 1960s.^[2] The term has also become a catch-all for the period in which those songwriting teams flourished.^[7] In actuality, most hits of the mid 1950s and early 1960s were written elsewhere.^[7]

The genre dominated the American charts in the period between Elvis Presley's army enlistment in 1958 and the onset of the British Invasion in 1964.^[8] It declined thereafter, but demonstrated a continued influence on British and American pop and rock music in subsequent years,^[2][3] having introduced the concept of professional songwriters to traditional pop and early rock and roll,^[3] and helping to inspire the girl group craze of the era.^[9] Other reasons for the style's decline was the tendency among writers and producers to duplicate earlier successes, resulting in many records that sounded the same, as well the changing nature of society and consumer markets.^[10]

Characteristics

	Neil Sedaka – "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (1962) "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" is one of the quintessential examples of the Brill Building sound crafted by Neil Sedaka and his contemporaries.[5]
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The Brill Building's music was more sophisticated than other pop styles of the time, combining then-modern sounds with classic Tin Pan Alley songwriting.^[1] Its productions often featured orchestras and bands with large rhythm and guitar sections,^[2] while its lyrics focused on idealized romance and adolescent anxieties, only rarely exploring more mature themes.^[11]

List of artists

Native to the Brill Building

• Jeff Barry^[3]
• Neil Diamond^[3]
• Gerry Goffin^[11][3]
• Howard Greenfield^[11]
• Ellie Greenwich^[3]
• Carole King^[11][3]
• Don Kirshner^[8]
• Connie Francis^[2]
• Barry Mann^[11][3]
• Shadow Morton^[4]
• Doc Pomus^[3]
• Neil Sedaka^[2][11][3]
• Cynthia Weil^[11][3]

Later artists

• Roy Wood^[12]

References

1. Fontenot, Robert (November 1, 2015). "What is Brill Building Music?". About.
2. Anon. "Brill Building Pop". AllMusic.
3. Gulla 2007, p. 366.
4. Bessman, Jim (August 25, 2001). "TV's Hitmakers Spotlights Home Of Brilliant Songwriting". Billboard. p. 44. ISSN 0006-2510.
5. Viglione, Joe. "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do". AllMusic.
6. Anon. "Sunshine Pop". AllMusic.
7. Seabrook 2015, p. 51.
8. "Don Kirshner". The Telegraph. April 18, 2011.
9. New York Times 2011, p. 163.
10. Hall 2014, p. 38.
11. Hall 2014, p. 39.
12. Auslander 2006, p. 54.

Bibliography

• Auslander, Philip (2006). Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-06868-7.
• Gulla, Bob, ed. (2007). Icons of R&B and Soul: An Encyclopedia of the Artists Who Revolutionized Rhythm. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-34044-4.
• Hall, Mitchell K. (2014). The Emergence of Rock and Roll: Music and the Rise of American Youth Culture. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-05358-1.
• New York Times, The (2011). The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-64302-7.
• Seabrook, John (2015). The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory. W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-24193-8.