When did pop music start to nearly always be drums, bass and guitar?
Rock oriented pop music began to overwhelm other forms of pop in the mid ’60s, following the “British Invasion”. The Louis Armstrong version of “Hello Dolly” is held as the non rock oriented song to hit #1 in the U.S., in 1965, and by the end of the decade Barbara Streisand and other MOR performers were using rock oriented arrangements for their records, with non-rock MOR relegated to the limbo of “Easy Listening”. With the exception of Movie and TV themes I think Roger Whittaker’s “The Last Farewell” is the last non-rock oriented tune to chart. Bass is the pulse of rock.
