atomicpoetWho was the first pop star ever?
I say it was Claribel.
Now I know what many of you are thinking: “What about Mozart, Schubert, or Beethoven?”
Yes, all those composers were popular but they do not exist in the tradition of pop music – which is distinct from sacred and classical music.
When I talk about pop music, I’m speaking about that tradition of music that stems from the Chitlin’ Circuit, Vaudeville, and Tin Pan Alley.
Specifically, I’m speaking about composers like Lennon/McCartney, George Gershwin, and Scott Joplin.
But before all of them was a woman from England known as Charlotte Alington Barnard who went by the Tennyson-inspired pseudonym “Claribel”.
Now what specifically qualifies her – of all people – to be the first pop star ever? She was the first composer ever to receive royalties from her music.
Back in the 1860s, Claribel was huge. She wrote over 100 songs, mostly ballads, and people were buying them hand over fist. Performance halls throughout the English-speaking world sang her songs.
To put it bluntly, she was the Taylor Swift of the 19th century. And sadly, she died at the age of 39 from typhoid fever. Yet in her short life, she changed music forever.
This, right here, is one of her many hits.
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