Popular music belongs to any of a number of
musical genres, and stands in contrast to
art music,
[1][2] and
traditional music which was disseminated orally.
[2][3] Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the term
pop music usually refers to a specific
musical genre.
Form in popular music is most often sectional, the most common sections being verse, chorus or refrain, and bridge.
Popular music dates at least as far back as the mid 19th century, and is commonly subdivided into genres. Different genres often appeal to different age groups[citation needed]. These often, but not always, are the people who were young when the music was new. Thus, for instance, Big band music continues to have a following, but it is probably a rather older group, on average, than the audience for rap[citation needed]. For some genres, such as ragtime music, the original target generation may have died out almost entirely.
With the increasing social and economic independence of young people, this "generation gap" has grown wider and wider since the second World War. Music hall and other forms before the 1940s were not so clearly marked by generation. From the Depression through the end of the war, Bing Crosby was the highest-selling recording artist in the United States. His fan base had no age division. The average Kraft Music Hall listener was 21 years old. But after Crosby's semi-retirement in 1954, a large generation gap emerged. Elvis Presley became the most popular recording artist among teenagers[citation needed], while Frank Sinatra was most popular among adults[citation needed]. In the 1980's and early 1990's, Michael Jackson, dubbed "King of Pop", became the most prominent popular music figure before the late 1990's pop explosion with hundreds of new artist achieving success in popular music sales.
