La música popular comprende un conjunto de géneros musicales que resultan atractivos para el gran público y que generalmente son distribuidos a grandes audiencias a través de la industria de la música. Esto está en contraste tanto con la música culta como con la música tradicional, las cuales normalmente se difunden por vía académica o por vía oral, respectivamente, a audiencias más minoritarias. Frente a la música tradicional o folclórica, la música popular no se identifica con naciones o etnias específicas sino que tiene un carácter internacional. Entre los géneros más representativos de la música popular de nuestro tiempo se pueden destacar el pop, el rock, el dance o la música latina, entre otros. Otras denominaciones que recibe a veces la música popular son «música ligera» o «música pop», aunque no son muy adecuadas al tener ya otros significados más restrictivos. Por otro lado, «música popular» se ha empleado en ocasiones históricamente para referirse a lo que actualmente conocemos como música folclórica o tradicional, un uso que todavía pervive en algunos contextos. Para evitar confusión con este último sentido, a veces se emplea la expresión «música popular moderna», o simplemente «música moderna».

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The term popular music belongs to a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional or "folk" music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of written music, although since the beginning of the recording industry, it is also disseminated through recordings. Traditional music forms such as early blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller, local audiences. The original application of the term is to music of the 1880s Tin Pan Alley period in the United States. Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the two terms are not interchangeable. 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, whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical genre within popular music. Popular music songs and pieces typically have easily singable melodies. The song structure of popular music commonly involves repetition of sections, with the verse and chorus or refrain repeating throughout the song and the bridge providing a contrasting and transitional section within a piece. In the 2000s, with songs and pieces available as digital sound files, it has become easier for music to spread from one country or region to another. Some popular music forms have become global, while others have a wide appeal within the culture of their origin. Through the mixture of musical genres, new popular music forms are created to reflect the ideals of a global culture. The examples of Africa, Indonesia, and the Middle East show how Western popular music styles can blend with local musical traditions to create new hybrid styles.

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