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Popular music is a generic term for a wide variety of genres of music that appeal to the tastes of a large segment of the population, [8] whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical genre within popular music. [9]
As of February 2025, American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars is the artist with the most monthly listeners. He is followed by Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd, who was the first artist to surpass 100 million monthly listeners, while American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift was the first female artist and second overall. [18]
In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "contemporary hit radio" is also a radio format.
Billboard charts now cover these music genres: rock, pop, country, dance, bluegrass, jazz, classical, R&B, rap, electronic, Latin, Christian, world and holiday music, and even ringtones for mobile (cell) phones. An album chart, the "Best Selling Popular Record Albums", was first published on March 24, 1945, with The King Cole Trio its first No ...
The song, recognized as "the best-selling single of all time", was released before the pop/rock singles-chart era and "was listed as the world's best-selling single in the first-ever Guinness Book of Records (published in 1955) and—remarkably—still retains the title more than 50 years later".
The following list of best-selling music artists includes musical artists from the 20th century to the present with claims of 75 million or more record sales worldwide. The sales figures are calculated based on the formula detailed below.
The terms popular music and pop music are often used interchangeably, although the former more accurately describes all music that is targeted for mass appeal (compare art music) and includes many disparate styles. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is considered to be pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music.
In 2019, American music magazine Billboard began publishing a list of the greatest pop star of every year since 1981, with essay tributes for each artist. [1] The first year of 1981 was chosen as "the year that forever changed modern stardom", with the premiere of MTV which established music videos as an essential element for popular music iconicity. [1]