Quick Facts
Also spelled:
P!nk
Byname of:
Alecia Beth Moore
Born:
September 8, 1979, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, U.S. (age 45)

Pink (born September 8, 1979, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, U.S.) is an American singer and songwriter who is known for her rock-influenced pop songs, powerful voice, and gymnastics-filled concerts.

Moore’s parents divorced when she was a child. She wanted to be a singer from an early age, and, while a young teenager, she began performing in Philadelphia clubs. She eventually sang backup for a hip-hop band and started to write songs. An MCA Records executive recruited her to sing for the rhythm-and-blues (R&B) band Basic Instinct. After the group disbanded, she sang with the all-female R&B group Choice. About this time she chose P!nk (commonly spelled Pink) as her stage name. There were several reasons for her choice, one being that her friends connected her with the tough character of Mr. Pink from director Quentin Tarantino’s crime drama Reservoir Dogs (1992).

After Choice disbanded, Pink decided to pursue a solo career. Her first album, Can’t Take Me Home, was released in 2000. The album was geared toward teenagers and featured pop and dance songs. “Most Girls,” “You Make Me Sick,” and “There You Go” were especially popular. Pink’s next album, M!ssundaztood (2001), had an edgier rock vibe. It produced the successful single “Get the Party Started.” That same year Pink participated in a remake of the Patti LaBelle song “Lady Marmalade” with Missy Elliott, Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, and Mya. It was released on the soundtrack for the movie Moulin Rouge! (2001), and the song won a Grammy Award for best pop collaboration with vocals. Pink also earned a Grammy for “Trouble” from her album Try This (2003); it won for best female rock vocal performance.

Green Day, American punk rock band
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Other Pink albums included I’m Not Dead (2006) and Funhouse (2008). The popular “Raise Your Glass” appeared as a previously unreleased song on Greatest Hits…So Far!!! (2010). Pink’s sixth studio album, The Truth About Love (2012), included the hit singles “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” and “Try.” Also on that album was “Just Give Me a Reason,” which Pink recorded with Nate Ruess from the group Fun. Pink subsequently collaborated with singer and songwriter Dallas Green under the name You+Me. They released a folk album, Rose Ave., in 2014. Pink then returned to her solo career with Beautiful Trauma (2017), featuring the hit song “What About Us.” Her tour in support of that album was chronicled in the documentary P!nk: All I Know So Far (2021); an accompanying soundtrack was also released. Hurts 2B Human, her eighth studio album, appeared in 2019.

In addition to singing, Pink appeared in several films, including Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003), Catacombs (2007), and Thanks for Sharing (2012). She voiced a character in the animated film Happy Feet Two (2011). Pink also supported various causes, including human rights and animal rights charities. She was an advocate for the LGBTQ community. In 2015 she served as an ambassador for UNICEF. Pink married motocross racer Carey Hart in 2006.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Also called:
rock and roll, rock & roll, or rock ’n’ roll
Top Questions

What is rock music?

How did rock music influence the emergence of folk rock?

Who are some famous early rock music artists?

rock, form of popular music that emerged in the 1950s.

It is certainly arguable that by the end of the 20th century rock was the world’s dominant form of popular music. Originating in the United States in the 1950s, it spread to other English-speaking countries and across Europe in the ’60s, and by the ’90s its impact was obvious globally (if in many different local guises). Rock’s commercial importance was by then reflected in the organization of the multinational recording industry, in the sales racks of international record retailers, and in the playlist policies of music radio and television. If other kinds of music—classical, jazz, easy listening, country, folk, etc.—are marketed as minority interests, rock defines the musical mainstream. And so over the last half of the 20th century it became the most inclusive of musical labels—everything can be “rocked.” Its popularity and traction persisted in the 21st century—despite the threat of a potentially outmoded business model—thanks largely to the flourishing live music sector.

In consequence of the immense popularity of rock and the breadth of its impact and inherent complexity—not least in terms of artists, diversity of sound, and marketing—is the hardest to define. To answer the question, What is rock?, one first has to understand where it came from and what made it possible. And to understand rock’s cultural significance, one has to understand how it works socially as well as musically.

What is rock?

The difficulty of definition

Dictionary definitions of rock are problematic, not least because the term has different resonance in its British and American usages (the latter is broader in compass). There is basic agreement that rock “is a form of music with a strong beat,” but it is difficult to be much more explicit. The Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, based on a vast database of British usage, suggests that “rock is a kind of music with simple tunes and a very strong beat that is played and sung, usually loudly, by a small group of people with electric guitars and drums,” but there are so many exceptions to this description that it is practically useless.

Legislators seeking to define rock for regulatory purposes have not done much better. The Canadian government defined “rock and rock-oriented music” as “characterized by a strong beat, the use of blues forms and the presence of rock instruments such as electric guitar, electric bass, electric organ or electric piano.” This assumes that rock can be marked off from other sorts of music formally, according to its sounds. In practice, though, the distinctions that matter for rock fans and musicians have been ideological. Rock was developed as a term to distinguish certain music-making and listening practices from those associated with pop; what was at issue was less a sound than an attitude. In 1990 British legislators defined pop music as “all kinds of music characterized by a strong rhythmic element and a reliance on electronic amplification for their performance.” This led to strong objections from the music industry that such a definition failed to appreciate the clear sociological difference between pop (“instant singles-based music aimed at teenagers”) and rock (“album-based music for adults”). In pursuit of definitional clarity, the lawmakers misunderstood what made rock music matter.

Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)
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