{{Short description|Pop genre from New York in the 1960s}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox music genre | name = Brill Building | image = Brillbuilding2009.jpg | caption = The main entrance of the Brill Building in 2006 | stylistic_origins = *Pop<ref name="fonte2015"/> *Tin Pan Alley<ref name="AMBB">{{cite web|title=Brill Building Pop|url=https://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/brill-building-pop-ma0000012296|publisher=AllMusic}}</ref> *rock and roll{{sfn|Gulla|2007|p=366}} *doo-wop<ref name="hitmak">{{cite magazine|last=Bessman|first=Jim|title=TV's Hitmakers Spotlights Home of Brilliant Songwriting|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_hMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44|date=August 25, 2001|page=44|issn=0006-2510|magazine=Billboard}}</ref> *rhythm and blues{{sfn|Gulla|2007|p=366}} *Latin music<ref name="fonte2015"/> | cultural_origins = Late 1950s – early 1960s, {{nowrap|New York City}} | instruments = *Guitar<ref name="AMBB"/> *strings<ref name="fonte2015"/> | derivatives = * Soft rock<ref name="breakup"/> * sunshine pop<ref>{{cite web|title=Sunshine Pop|url=https://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/sunshine-pop-ma0000012028|publisher=AllMusic}}</ref> * bubblegum{{sfn|Cooper|Smay|2001|p=3}} | subgenrelist = | subgenres = | fusiongenres = | regional_scenes = | other_topics = * Girl group * pop rock * teen idol }} '''Brill Building''' (also known as '''Brill Building pop''' or the '''Brill Building sound''')<ref name="fonte2015">{{cite web|last1=Fontenot|first1=Robert|title=What is Brill Building Music?|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/overview-of-brill-building-music-2522601|website=About|date=November 1, 2015|access-date=October 6, 2016|archive-date=July 7, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160707044207/http://oldies.about.com/od/girlgroups/g/brillbuilding.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> is a subgenre of pop music that took its name from the Brill Building in New York City, where numerous teams of professional songwriters penned material for girl groups and teen idols during the early 1960s.<ref name="AMBB"/> The term has also become a metonym for the period in which those songwriting teams flourished.{{sfn|Seabrook|2015|p=51}} In actuality, most hits of the mid-1950s and early 1960s were written elsewhere.{{sfn|Seabrook|2015|p=51}}
==Overview== {{Listen |type=music |pos=left |filename=Neil Sedaka - Breaking Up.ogg |title=Neil Sedaka – "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (1962) |description="Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" is one of the quintessential examples of the Brill Building sound crafted by Neil Sedaka and his contemporaries.<ref name="breakup">{{cite web|last1=Viglione|first1=Joe|title=Breaking Up Is Hard to Do|url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-mt0046298616|website=AllMusic}}</ref> }}
The music conceived at the Brill Building was more sophisticated than other pop styles of the time, combining contemporary sounds with classic Tin Pan Alley songwriting.<ref name="fonte2015"/> Productions often featured orchestras and bands with large rhythm and guitar sections,<ref name="AMBB"/> while lyrics focused on idealized romance and adolescent anxieties, only rarely exploring more mature themes.{{sfn|Hall|2014|p=39}}
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.<ref name="kirsh">{{cite news|title=Don Kirshner|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/8459328/Don-Kirshner.html|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=April 18, 2011}}</ref> It declined thereafter, but demonstrated a continued influence on British and American pop and rock music in subsequent years.<ref name="AMBB"/>{{sfn|Gulla|2007|p=366}} The genre introduced the concept of professional songwriters to traditional pop and early rock and roll,{{sfn|Gulla|2007|p=366}} and helped to inspire the girl group craze of the era.{{sfn|New York Times|2011|p=163}} Other reasons for the style's decline was a tendency among writers and producers to duplicate earlier successes, resulting in many records that sounded the same, as well as the changing nature of society and consumer markets.{{sfn|Hall|2014|p=38}} Many of the genre's composers went on to further success as part of the singer-songwriter movement later in the 1960s and 1970s.<ref>{{cite book|title=101 Albums that Changed Popular Music|author=Chris Smith|year=2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G4mP7u6mPdkC&q=brill+building+composers+who+were+later+part+of+the+singer+songwriter+movement&pg=PA83|page=83|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195373714}}</ref> {{clear|left}}
==List of artists== '''1960s artists/songwriters'''
{{columns-list|colwidth=20em| * Jeff Barry{{sfn|Gulla|2007|p=366}} * Neil Diamond{{sfn|Gulla|2007|p=366}} * Gerry Goffin{{sfn|Hall|2014|p=39}} * Howard Greenfield{{sfn|Hall|2014|p=39}} * Ellie Greenwich{{sfn|Gulla|2007|p=366}} * Carole King{{sfn|Hall|2014|p=39}} * Don Kirshner<ref name="kirsh"/> * Connie Francis<ref name="AMBB" /> * Barry Mann{{sfn|Hall|2014|p=39}} * Shadow Morton<ref name="hitmak"/> * Fred Neil * Doc Pomus{{sfn|Gulla|2007|p=366}} * Neil Sedaka<ref name="AMBB" /> * Cynthia Weil{{sfn|Hall|2014|p=39}} * Mort Shuman * Burt Bacharach }}
'''Later artists''' * Roy Wood{{sfn|Auslander|2006|p=54}} * Cindy Lee * Jessica Pratt{{Citation needed|date=May 2026}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book|last=Auslander|first=Philip|title=Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BV6SnnkAU9IC|year=2006|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-06868-7}} * {{cite book|editor-last1=Cooper|editor-first1=Kim|editor-last2=Smay|editor-first2=David|title=Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/bubblegummusicis0000unse|year=2001|publisher=Feral House|isbn=978-0-922915-69-9}} *{{cite book|editor-last=Gulla|editor-first=Bob|title=Icons of R&B and Soul: An Encyclopedia of the Artists Who Revolutionized Rhythm|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pLgqFaYmgw8C&pg=PA366|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood|isbn=978-0-313-34044-4}} *{{cite book|last=Hall|first=Mitchell K.|title=The Emergence of Rock and Roll: Music and the Rise of American Youth Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gA2LAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|year=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-05358-1}} *{{cite book|last=New York Times|first=The|authorlink=The New York Times|title=The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XtZnWjnjahsC&pg=PA163|year=2011|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-0-312-64302-7}} *{{cite book|last=Seabrook|first=John|title=The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kOdwBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT51|year=2015|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn=978-0-393-24193-8}}
{{Pop music}} {{Pop rock}} Category:Pop music genres Category:American styles of music Category:Music of New York City Category:20th-century music genres Category:1960s in American music
{{music-genre-stub}}