popular music

British

noun

music having wide appeal, esp characterized by lightly romantic or sentimental melodies See also pop 2

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Along with boasting one of the most easily recallable and down-to-Earth refrains in popular music, “Kiss” has a noteworthy history.

From Salon • Feb. 14, 2026

A guitarist, composer and bandleader who died on Saturday, Taylor's six-decade career played a key role in shaping modern popular music in West Africa.

From Barron's • Feb. 9, 2026

Classical training came early - he learnt tabla alongside vocal training - but so did exposure to popular music.

From BBC • Jan. 28, 2026

The centerpiece of 20th-century life was, he writes, an “abundance of cultural invention,” especially in popular music.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

When other entrepreneurs created jukeboxes by arranging for a phonograph to play popular music at the drop of a coin, Edison objected to this debasement, which apparently detracted from serious office use of his invention.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023