popular music

noun

: music written and marketed with the intention of achieving mass distribution and sales now principally in the form of recordings

Though many early pieces of popular music shared general features with classical music of the day, they were briefer and simpler, making fewer demands on both performer and listener.

—Gregory D. Boothe et al., Musical Quarterly, Vol. 74 No. 3, 1990

Word History

First Known Use

1906, in the meaning defined above

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