Research to Dutch Pop Music and its history.

What was the beginning of it all? Due to the invention and production of LP’s, music became accessible within households. The microphone added to this and created a sense of intimacy. It was just like the musician was playing and singing right beside you in the living room. After World War One a lot of American soldiers stayed in Europe to party and drink and with this they cultivated the American Musical culture of Rock' ‘n Roll which spread like a burning fire among the European youth. Even though the older generation didn’t widely accept the music, due to its black heritage, the music couldn’t be stopped and got widely accepted within the mass culture. The excitement surround Elvis Presley, caused by the movement of his hips, eventually led to the existence of the first Teen Pop Star. Through the multi-track recorder instruments and the singing voice could be recorded separately. This resulted in involvement in music production in the area of sound by adding effects like compression, echo and reverb as characteristics of the pop music genre. Music production, or so to say the recorded record got integrated as an artistic whole of the final product. Because of this, pop music could be defined as;

The musical tradition that arose within the middle of the 20th century when Afro-American music got loose from her authentic context due to its distribution through mass-media and got mutated by technological development and the mix of other styles.

Unfortunately, with the occupation of the Germans the rage came to an end, as they didn’t want to have anything to do with American culture and their swinging music. Despite the ban illegal radio-stations dared to played the music from overseas. Besides, Hawaiian music, in which the electric guitar played the star-role, flew over to the Netherlands through Nederlands-Indië right before the war. The Germans allowed this, partly swinging music, as long as the lyrics were sung in Dutch. This created a new meaningful genre; Nederhawaiian. After this, the swing never left the Netherlands again and got combined with Dutch ballads and heartthrobs. 

The emerge of Dutch popbands in the post-war years.

For a very long time the Dutch pop music mainly focused on translated American singles, band with their members being Dutch-Indonesian and teens who spend their money to records, cigarettes, cars and radio’s. The image of the pop musician was leading. The music industry, in the sixties, used this quest for dance music by teens by producing this in big music studio’s. This lead to the foundation of record label Phonogram in 1953 by Philips. The first teen pop-star of the Netherlands was Willeke Alberti. She is the daughter of the long-known Willy Alberti from Amsterdam, which meant that they didn’t have to search for a long time for this persona. This created a trend for the contemporary cronyism in existence till this day within Hilversum.

             The Beatles created a trend of writing their own songs. Before this, a producer choose a song from a big publishing company that the singer had to sing. In The Hague a lot of bands took faith into their own hands and started singing and playing their own songs at special clubhouses. Record labels, thus, started looking for their own Beatles’ band to start recording beatrecords. Through the illegal radio-station, situated at sea at the coast of Scheveningen, Veronica, the record companies got tipped about the buzzing scene in The Hague, which resulted in the first record deals. LP’s weren’t really a thing back then, so it mainly concerned singles. When, in the sultry sixties, in America protest-songs and anti-war movement arose the concept also started rising in the Netherlands. Songs like ‘Welterusten Meneer de President’ written by Boudewijn de Groot and ‘Ben ik te Min’ van Armand got stamped as national heritage.

             The, mainly, Indorockers from the Hague knew their way around in the beatmusic and clubhouses of the mid-sixties. Amsterdam knew a more politically engaged public with active underground hippy ideals, named the provo’s. Concerts and festivals, also known als Provodya, associated themselves with beatmusic. These festivals from the end of the sixties made Amsterdam the hippy capital of Europe until the existence of nowadays. This made that beatpop was created through the entire country. Including Volendam; a place where melancholy, romance and sentiment of the hard poor fisherman’s life of generations got translated into Palingpop (translated as ‘Eel-pop’).

         Next to the culture of the psychedelica, musicians also carry a broad interest in the roots of their music. This created a fascination for soul, jazz and blues mainly rooted in Rotterdam due to its large number of coloured residents. This turns out to become the base for a, on the blacks crafted music culture, that can be heard through the city ‘till this day. Dutch blues groups mainly came forth from the province, but their self-written Dutch songs couldn’t count on a large following. The American covers, by far, stayed most important for the young scene. This changed when they grew their hairs and conformed to the style of American hero’s. The guitarhero had his entrance at the treshold of the seventies when the genre rock took its spotlight. The music had to be heavy, melodic and swinging.

The start of charts, international fame and new movements.

At the start of the seventies some bands reached the chart in America including some deals. Due to this phenomena several radio stations and magazines started revealing themselves as real pop-channels and fitting visuals. The mass popularity was even easier to measure with the existence of pop-festivals; a concept that flew over when Woodstock took place. The Amsterdam RAI, a flight to Lowlands Paradise, Pinkpop and the Kralingse Woodstock got organised with headliners that we would receive as legends; would they perform nowadays. The emancipation and material prosperity gained more free time which led to the integration of pop music. Young people focused more and more on pop singles, while the older generation choose for the rock-album. Rock also evolved itself by incorporating symphonic elements within their recording techniques. The Mellotron, precursor of the sampler, was introduced and made productions sound broader than ever. The progressive rock also earned a spot with students and scholars due to its combination of jazz, rock and psychedelics. 

           Unfortunately, in 1974 radio-stations at sea were made illegal by law. With this, the commercial stations Veronica and Noordzee in territorial waters, came to an end. This was a real downer for up-coming unsigned bands, as these radio stations came with proper business relations with the recordindustry on main land. The public broadcasters weren’t that focused on music of Dutch heritage, so the back-room deals were traded for cronyism. Studio-techniques were improved as well which resulted in the replacement of the eight-track recording technique to the sixtien and twenty-four track recordingtechnique. Due to its rising costs, labels rather invested in well-known hit producers and session musicians than new unknown bands. The concept of disco was discovered which led entrepeneurs to convert their cafés into discotheques where soul and funk could do their thing, while rockfans manifested within youth centers. The visual image took a prominent role, within this time, in music distribution which led to the first Dutch playbacking girlband called Luv’. 

          The alternative rockpublic, developed from the Provodya, focussed less and less on idealism and musical craftery. Instead, they focussed on showbizzramance and introduced a louder, rawer, simpler and more scandalous punkmovement. By calling them ‘new wave’ people move to fresh rock and pop mixed with a dose of big-city romance and relative humor. Herman Brood fits this image perfectly. Behind the scenes a big infrastructure arises for the Dutch clubbing-scene and in 1977 the ‘Stichting Popmusic Netherlands’ (SPN) got founded. Around the county, provincial organisations and collectives emerge that help by organizing popconcerts, pulling up spaces to practice and offer help with technical issues. Youth centre flourish and bands play sold-out shows. Partly because of this the collectible was introduced to present new groups. 

Pop music in your native language; from folk songs and cabaret to pop.

Cabaret, song of life, schlager and other forms of music have a longer history than pop music. After world war two the Judish sentiment rose by the means of the ‘Jordaan-song’. André Hazes showed the influence of pop perfectly and exceeded the public of the ‘levensliederen’ in popularity. Johnny Hoes exceeded by creating carnavals-schlagers translated into pophits for the radio and reached a wide public with ‘Zangeres Zonder Naam’. His label Telstar Records is, without Prejudice, successful in ‘levensliederen’ and party-songs on all radio stations, except for the national ones. Later on, bands like ‘Doe Maar’ and ‘De Dijk’ also write for this label. Even Jan Smit, Danny de Munck and Frans Bauer dare to take a chance on the combination of the ‘levenslied’, schlager and pop.

Cabaret was and is also an important tradition, with composers like Toon Hermans, Wim Sonneveld, Annie M.G. Schmidt and Ramses Shaffy. Shaffys songs lean a bit more on the French Chansons. Herman van Veen made name in the seventies. It took a while for the Dutch to get to the soul of creating a pop-song, so the first years were mainly used to write translations of English hits. The first Dutch hit, with the same sentiment of rock 'n roll, was 'Kom van dat dak af' of Peter Koelewijn. Before the origin of the Beatles, all Dutch people song in their own language. After that, however, they transferred massively to English to showcase on the international circuit. Singers with an acoustic guitar, following the example of Bob Dylan, held to their own language. Boudewijn de Groot, Lenneart Nijgh and Rob de Nijs managed to wrote and sell a lot of albums in the seventies, after which de Nijs started organizing tour in theaters with a backingtrack.

           ‘Doe Maar’ was founded in 1978 by Ernst Jansz and Henny Vrienten. Their second album perfectly played in to the newest developments in the pop-scene; the combination between punky reggae and ska. Their happy notes hit well in a pessimistic time of economic crises and a Cold War. Besides that, ‘Doe Maar’ opens a rage within the Netherlands known only by the Beatles. In the nineties the duo Acda & de Munnik was created with a combination of cabaret and rock; the cabarock. Their albums, full of pleasant listening songs, including lyrics from real-life and characteristic singing with two voices has been succesfull every since. 

           The arrival of commercial television in the nineties also had a great influence on the Dutch music scene. Record labels started investing in the Dutch product and grew the Dutch share from 12% in ‘89 to 26% in ‘99. Dutch amusement- and pop music got big attention by the likes of Paul de Leeuw (Camp), Henny Huisman in the Soundmixshow (in which Gerard Joling grew his fame) and Marco Borsato, an Italian Pizza-baker which rose to stardom with his Dutch translation of ‘Dromen zijn Bedrog’ in ‘94. Together with producer and song-writer John Ewbank, Marco knew how to sell light-hearted songs, but also ballades with proper texts of quality. People cared deeply about Marco’s private life which made album after album sell out; surpassing ‘Doe Maar’. Local and Regional stations create local hero’s, some of them evolving into national hero’s. Like Guus Meeuwis, winning the Student Songfestival in ‘94 with ‘Het is een nacht’ en scoring a carnaval-song with ‘Kedeng Kedeng’ and Blof, founded in ‘92, creating tougher Dutch music. Thanks to their connection with Doe Maar-manager Frank van der Meijden they got to make a videoclip, after which they had their break through. After reliving the popularity of Doe Maar in clubs and charts in the nineties, the band-members decided to come together in 2000 to create a final CD.

The video-era.

With the arrival of MTV in ‘81 music got pulled into a cohesion, in which image and sound form one concept. All ways in which an artist shows him or herself, are reinforcing that image. The biggest artists of the eighties are really pulling this idea, like Michael Jackson and Madonna. Because of this, the popartist changes from a musician into someone who thinks in concepts and creates them. ‘Don’t you wonder sometimes about sound and vision’ David Bowie said in 1977. This statement was put at the center of the ultra-movement that surpassed the underground from ‘79 on. Declining sales within the recordindustry eventually resulted that, around ‘85, barely any investments were made in young talent. Musicians were forced to finance and distribute their own records. Punkgroups were really provicient in this. Economic cuts on clubs and community centers put live-music under pressure, which led to the creation of the ‘Podiumplan’ in ‘84 by the SPN. This is a subsidy fund for less-known Dutch bands and led to the existence of the Amsterdam School due to the amount of Amsterdam guitar-rock bands profiting from this regulation. It became harder to break through within the province. The small scale of Dutch pop made it even harder for quirky talent to float to the top.

The introduction of the cd in ‘82 caused a turnaround for the record-industry. Dutch pop, however, needed time to catch up and weren’t able to battle the production-methodes, vision and professionalism to, also on a visual level, compete with American and English acts. Production that were self-managed do bear fruit in the nineties.

Dancemusic in the nineties & a mix of cultures.

The early 1980s saw several important electronic developments. The drum machine, combined with a synthesizer, enabled the creation of a fully electronic, metronome-like production. The computer language MIDI allowed keyboards to communicate with each other, making them programmable and playable in sync. The sampler allowed for the creation of new music from snippets of sound from other records. It became possible to record records in the living room, and these technical resources quickly became less expensive and therefore more accessible.

In the United States mainly Dj’s start to experiment with the possibilities of electronics. Making LP’s for remixed, existing from breaks and beats, becomes a booming business. From this large house- and techno dance-parties emerge where XTC was widely used. A large highly educated mellow house-scene emerged in Amsterdam, while Rotterdam created a harder and bigger one. DJ Paul Elstak described a gabber-culture, in which the BPM lays around 200, while other scenes got stuck at 120 and 140 bpm. Besides, lower-schooled gabbers preferred to used a cheaper variant of XTC, called speed. The more commercial eurohouse starts to become a hit with artists like 2 Unlimited. in ‘94 the hardest point of Gabber was reached, which resulted in Paul Elstak to take it more slow. He also started adding melody resulting in the newer genre of happy hardcore.

House-, techno- and gabber records involve a metronome tight four-quarter beat involving a bassdrum on each count. Half-way the nineties records involving more complicated rhythm-patterns emerged, based on funk-genres, like; jungle, big beats, chemical beats and broken beats. The first real dutch mega-acts are eventually the Vengaboys. in ‘98 eurohouse got overtaken by the newer genre, called trance. Ferry Corsten and DJ Tiësto got widely known overseas and turned out to be, just like Junkie XL, well positioned within the market as Dutch DJ’s. De big kick of dance parties is the sense of solidarity that then takes place, which scaled up those parties during the nineties and created a whole industry. Dance is the most successful genre within the pop-scene around the 2000’s. A pop-musician evolved into a conceptual artist, which puts knowledge of the market and latest trends as important as musicianship.

The Netherlands is a small trading country in which a lot of cultures come together. The influence of other musical cultures is relatively big, partly thanks to former colonies. Shelters for Dutch people from the former Nederlands-Indië have played a big cultural musical role. However, the native and immigrant scene were widely apart from each other until far into the eighties. Hans and Candy Dulfer made big impact, as saxofonists, on the mixture of jazz with many other genres. Candy even grows out to be a world-wide star playing on multiple records of celebrities. When Hiphop was created in the seventies in the Bronx by the black youth characteristics as rap made it break-through in the Netherlands mid-way in the eighties. The Urban Dance Squad made big cultural impact with the combination of hard rock, raps and scratches. This was the beginning of a mishmash of rock and hiphop. Most kids with immigrants parents feel like they have one foot in their parents’ country and one foot in the western pop, which led them to listen to a more extensive genre of R&B. The second half of the nineties was used for rappers to sharpen their pens on Dutch poetry. Freestyling was culturally incorporated as an on-stage art style. And above all, rap allowed their own opinions, experiences and feelings to be shared through longer poetic lyrics, which often couldn’t find a place in a traditional song-form.

Clear expansion of pop music and a marketing machine.

Pop festivals are growing, event agencies are expanding, and in commercial media, pop music and pop musicians are taking on increasingly prominent roles. The megastar emerges thanks to the large international television network and its multinational record labels. Millions of euros are involved, making it difficult for the Netherlands to keep up. André Rieu is the only domestic act to reach that level, alongside acts that operate in niche markets. Over time, metal proves to be the largest niche within pop music. Furthermore, during the 1990s, pop mainly grows in breadth — through more genres, artists, bands, and various target audiences. It becomes clear that the older generation is still willing to buy CDs and attend concerts, leading many older bands to reunite. New acts, on the other hand, also gain popularity, such as Ilse DeLange and René Froger.

This immense growth makes professionalization necessary, which leads to the emergence of music programs focused on marketing and management. As a result, pop groups for children also appear. Studio 100 creates the famous K3, and Kinderen voor Kinderen becomes a successful concept. The techniques used to serve the market become increasingly refined, with products and merchandise perfectly tailored to subcultures. Television talent shows successfully tap into the search for the ideal image of the perfect pop artist. Beyond fame and fortune, music becomes a medium for expressing personalities and their views on life and society. The SPN is renamed the National Pop Institute (Nationaal Pop Instituut).

During the 1990s, strong female artists also emerge for the first time, with Anouk leading the way in the Netherlands. Through her direct and sincere songwriting style, she leaves a lasting mark. Her temperament and the inner emptiness she describes are reflected in her music. With the founding of the Rock Academy (Rockacademie), a breeding ground for new bands arises — Krezip being one of them. Around the turn of the millennium, British rock breaks through in the Netherlands, with Kane and Di-Rect from The Hague among the most notable examples.

The arrival of the internet and the ability to burn CDs at home deal a major blow to the music industry. As a result, fewer new acts and bands are presented and financed. Money now has to be earned through cheaper downloads and compensation for the use of music. Consumers can also cater more to their personal preferences instead of relying on whatever CDs happen to be available in record stores. Smaller-scale artists therefore have just as much chance as megastars. Domestic artists benefit from this — especially those who perform frequently and manage to build strong connections with their fans. And thus, a new chapter in the Dutch history of pop music begins.

This is a concise summary of Nederpop met hart en ziel: Een geschiedenis van de Nederlandse popmuziek by Jan van der Plas.