Orchestral Pop

Orchestral pop is popular song arranged for full orchestra, in which strings, woodwind, brass and harp are not decoration but the substance of the record. Developed by arranger-producers such as *Burt Bacharach* and perfected in the 1960s by *Brian Wilson*, *Scott Walker* and *Serge Gainsbourg*, it applies classical scoring, chromatic harmony and concert-hall dynamics to the three-minute pop single and the album. Its landmarks, "Pet Sounds", "Scott 4" and "Histoire de Melody Nelson", treat the studio orchestra as the artist's primary instrument, and the style underlies baroque pop, chamber pop and the modern orchestral singer-songwriter record.