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.

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

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

By grounding innovation in cultural continuity, he left behind a body of music that continues to inform contemporary styles, including afrobeats, and remains central to the story of African popular music.

From BBC • Feb. 8, 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

This syncopation is now so common in all popular music that it has quite forgotten its Cuban roots.

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