<P> In the 1950s and 1960s, the new invention of television began to play an increasingly important role in disseminating new popular music . Variety shows regularly showcased popular singers and bands . In the 1960s, the development of new technologies in recording, such as multitrack recorders gave sound engineers and record producers an increasingly important role in popular music . By using multitrack recording techniques, sound engineers could create new sounds and sound effects that were not possible using traditional "live" recording techniques, such as singers performing their own backup vocals or having lead guitarists play rhythm guitars behind their guitar solo . During the 1960s era of psychedelic music, the recording studio was used to create even more unusual sounds, in order to mimic the effect of taking hallucinogenic drugs, some songs used tapes of instruments played backwards or panned the music from one side to the other of the stereo image . </P> <P> In the 1970s, the trend towards consolidation in the recording industry continued to the point that the "...dominance was in the hands of five huge transnational organizations, three American - owned (WEA, RCA, CBS) and two European - owned companies (EMI, Polygram)". In the 1990s, the consolidation trend took a new turn: inter-media consolidation . This trend saw music recording companies being consolidated with film, television, magazines, and other media companies, an approach which facilitated cross-marketing promotion between subsidiaries . For example, a record company's singing star could be cross-promoted by the conglomerate's television talk shows and magazine arms . </P> <P> The "introduction of digital equipment (mixing desks, synthesizers, samplers, sequencers)" in the 1990s resulted in what Grove Dictionary of Music dubbed the creation of "new sound worlds", as well as facilitating DIY music production by amateur musicians and "tiny independent record labels". In the 1990s, the availability of sound recording software and effects units software meant that an amateur indie band could record an album--which required a fully equipped recording studio in previous decades--using little more than a laptop and a good quality microphone . That said, the audio quality of modern recording studios still outstrips what an amateur can produce . </P> <P> In contrast to Western popular music, a genre of music that is popular outside of a Western nation, is categorized into World music . This label turns otherwise popular styles of music into an exotic and unknown category . The Western concept of' World Music' homogenizes many different genres of popular music under one accessible term for Western audiences . New media technology has led urban music styles to filter into distant rural areas across the globe . The rural areas, in turn, are able to give feedback to the urban centers about the new styles of music . Urbanization, modernization, exposure to foreign music and mass media have contributed to hybrid urban pop styles . The hybrid styles have also found a space within Western popular music through the expressions of their national culture . Recipient cultures borrow elements from host cultures and alter the meaning and context found in the host culture . Many Western styles, in turn, have become international styles through multinational recording studios . </P>

In the popular music field the most popular type of song is the love song