Popular music is
music belonging to any of a number of
musical styles that are accessible to the
general public and are disseminated by one or more of the
mass media. It stands in contrast to
art music,
[1] which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and
traditional music which was disseminated orally.
[2] It is sometimes abbreviated to
pop music, although
pop music is more often taken as meaning the genre of pop, rather than popular music as a whole.
Among scholars in the humanities, a broader range of definitions have been proposed about popular music. Frans Birrer (1985, p. 104) gives four conceptions or definitions of "popular" music
All of these, according to Middleton (1990,p.4) "are interest-bound; none is satisfactory." According to Hall (1978, p.6-7), "The assumption...that you might know before you looked at cultural traditions in general what, at any particular time, was a part of the elite culture or of popular culture is untenable." Thus popular music must be comprehended in relation to the broader musical field (Middleton 1990, p.11).
Bennett (1980, p.153-218) distinguishes between 'primary' and 'secondary' popular culture, the first being mass product and the second being local re-production, discussed further below.
