Trying to fit contemporary music into neat little niches and categories is an almost impossible task. You could argue that some musicians can be clearly defined as being country while others are most certainly rap. However, what about the term "pop music"?

Should you take the time to learn the meaning of the word, you will probably be very surprised. The term pop music according to a number of sources (dictionaries included) defines pop music as being a type of music that has wide appeal. If that were the case then rap, country and rock would all fall into this genre at some point. Many music experts and people directly involved in the industry use the "pop" as a shortened version of the word popular.

If the term pop music is, as many people suggest, interchangeable with the phrase "top 40" then the list would change significantly according to who conducted the poll and the year that it was done. The list would also vary drastically according to region, city and country. The people who were asked to take the poll would certainly cause the poll to change.

A clear example would be to poll 200 people in the city between the ages of 15 and 20 and ask them what their top five favorite songs were. If you asked 200 people living in the same city, the same question, but they were all between the age of 35 and 40 the lists would be completely different. If you went back to that same city five years later and asked the question using the same age groups, the list would have altered again.

Using these exact same parameters, what would happen if you did the survey in three different cities? What would happen if you asked the question in London, New York and Nashville? It is doubtful that the lists would be even remotely similar.

What is "pop music"? If you asked this question to a hundred people of all different ages, backgrounds and cultures the answer would be different from each person.

There really does not seem to be a clear definition of what pop music is. People reading this might arguably contend that pop music is - music that is on the radio and has commercial appeal to anyone under the age of twenty. To counter this one could simply ask them what city they lived in? What is commercially appealing to a teen in the Midwest might not have any interest to one who lives in New York or to one in Sweden.

Ask them what radio station they listen to. If they are listening to a "country station", you might ask them if they thought that the music they were listening to had a wide appeal. There can certainly be no denying the commercial value of county singers like George Strait. He has sold over 68 million albums in the United States alone. Translate that into actual dollars and then figure in tours, royalties and other spin offs. You might even dare to ask the person how old they were when they started listening to his music. George really achieved success in 1981 and many of his fans were in their teens to early twenties.

Is George Strait a pop music star? According to the definition provided by the country listener the answer would be yes.

What is pop music? The term has too many meanings to have a clear and concise definition. Its interpretations are as different as the music it is trying to define.