What is a hit and where did it come from?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In today's world, people often hear words whose meaning they do not quite understand. One of those words is schlager. This term is often used both in musical series and in everyday life: on radio and television, in conversations. It seems that this word has something in common with the chanson genre, but it is not. Do you know what a hit is?

Word Definition

Shlager is a concept from popular culture; it denotes a pop song or melody that is particularly popular with the public.

In a broader sense, a hit means a work of any kind of art that is popular, but is itself lightweight in content. Also, a hit is any work that can be commercially successful and become fashionable.

Origin of the word

The word comes from the German Schlager - a salable commodity. It is a must in popular culture.

The history of the use of the word "hit"

Now that we know what a hit is, we can trace the history of developmentuse of this word.

In the 19th century, Austrian merchants attached a label with the word "smash hit" to the most competitive goods. It is from the professional jargon that the word originates. Schlager was picked up by representatives of the growing music industry: at first, the word began to be used in the activities of music producers who distributed notebooks with texts of popular songs and operetta arias. Then phonographic companies began to produce hits.

The concept of "hit" is also associated with the concept of "star" - a performer who is endowed with a particularly competitive image. Each stage of the star's work, marked by the release of a new album, was marked by one or more hits.

Shlager, as a special kind of entertaining songs, emerged from the combination of various types and genres of vocal art: operetta and vaudeville arias, city songs, romantic miniatures. In the 20th century, jazz and rock music left their mark on the appearance of the hit. Later, he absorbed the features of blues lyrics and rock lyrics.

Throughout all stages of development, the hit was a synthesis of different ethnic trends and styles. However, the structure of the hit, discovered back in the 19th century, remained unchanged: dance + lyrics.

Schlager constantly advertises itself, has a commercial nature. Dancing is an obligatory specific feature of hit songs. They are composed with the expectation of a special type of perception with a weakened logical attention, not aimed at understanding the text as a whole. The main thing inhit - a melody, a rhythm that infects the audience. Hits - and there are those songs that sound everywhere and are remembered, whether you like it or not.