J-pop, natively also known simply as pops , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in traditional music of Japan, and significantly in 1960s pop and rock music. J-pop replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene.
Ichiro Fujiyama, influential ryūkōka singer
Nippon Budokan, legendary place for Japanese musicians
Shibuya-kei artist Keigo Oyamada (left) with YMO member Ryuichi Sakamoto
Concert of pioneer of visual kei, X Japan at Hong Kong in 2009 after their 2007 reunion
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. Rock and pop music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which pop became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible.
The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that the term "pop" refers to music performed by such artists as the Rolling Stones (pictured here in a 2006 performance).
Amr Diab, Egyptian pop star, named "El-Hadaba", for achieving high records sales in the Middle East and Africa for the last three decades
Bing Crosby was one of the first artists to be nicknamed "King of Pop" or "King of Popular Music".[verification needed]
The 1960s British Invasion marked a period when the US charts were inundated with British acts such as the Beatles (pictured 1964).