History of Pop Music

Pop is short for popular,  which originated in its modern form in the 1950s, deriving from rock and roll and it's remained the defining term for the ever-changing music favoured by the public. Although it wasn't significantly applied until the middle of the 20th century, pop music can be traced by a few decades before that. Some people say that the songs of music hall were the first real pop songs, written by professionals and widely performed for audiences.
The first major pop stars were 'The Crooners' of the 1930s and '40s. Bing Crosby who sold millions of records, as did Frank Sinatra (arguably the first modern pop star, with screaming teenage female fans) and in Britain, Al Bowly.
Pop music charts didn't exist until 1952, when the first Top Twenty was recorded. It came at an interesting time, as "teenagers" really came into being. Historically there'd been no transitional period between childhood and adulthood. However, after World War II this seemed to begin to take place.
The term "pop song" is first recorded as being used in 1926, in the sense of a piece of music "having popular appeal". Throughout its development, pop music has absorbed influences from most other genres of popular music.
Pop music has been dominated by the American and (from the mid-1960s) British music industries, whose influence has made pop music something of an international monoculture.