Vocal Pop

Vocal pop is pop music organised around the singer: a star vocalist interpreting standards and contemporary songs over orchestral, big-band or polished studio accompaniment, with phrasing, tone and personality as the record's centre of interest. It descends from the crooners of the 1930s and reached its classic form in the 1950s album era of *Frank Sinatra*, *Ella Fitzgerald* and *Nat King Cole*, when arrangers such as Nelson Riddle built settings tailored to a single voice. Later generations from *Barbra Streisand* to *Whitney Houston* renewed the model, and the category survives wherever interpretive singing outranks songwriting or production.