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.

But the question of where Laufey sits in the pantheon of popular music has befuddled critics ever since.

From BBC • May 2, 2026

"It's a very unique place. There's nowhere else that really you can study popular music to this intensity," said Crown.

From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026

With “Where the Music Had to Go,” Windolf carefully traces the contours of a revolution that transformed popular music into art.

From Salon • Apr. 17, 2026

The creators of some of the most transcendent and popular music ever made have largely fallen off the charts — or simply fallen.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2026

These forms came to have enormous influence on twentieth-century music, first in the Americas and then in time around the world, through popular music of countless genres.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

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