Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local audiences. Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music is a generic term for music of all ages that appeals to popular tastes, whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical genre.

Musicologist and specialist in popular music Philip Tagg defined the notion in the light of sociocultural and economical aspects:

"Popular music, unlike art music, is (1) conceived for mass distribution to large and often socioculturally heterogeneous groups of listeners, (2) stored and distributed in non-written form, (3) only possible in an industrial monetary economy where it becomes a commodity and (4) in capitalist societies, subject to the laws of 'free' enterprise, according to which it should ideally sell as much as possible of as little as possible to as many as possible."

Ariana Grande-Butera (born June 26, 1993) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She made her performance debut on Broadway at age 15. Recently, she has gained attention for her role as Cat Valentine on the Nickelodeon sitcom Victorious.

Grande was born and raised in Boca Raton, Florida. She is of Italian descent, half Sicilian, half Abruzzese.

In 2008, Grande played the role of Charlotte in the musical 13 on Broadway, for which she won a National Youth Theatre Association Award. When she joined the musical, Grande left her high school, North Broward Preparatory School, but continued to be enrolled. The school sent materials to her for study with tutors. She played the role of Miriam in the first reading of the forthcoming musical Cuba Libre composed by Desmond Child. Grande teaches music and dance to children in South Africa each year as a member of Broadway in South Africa.

Grande plays the character Cat Valentine on the Nickelodeon television show Victorious, which premiered in March 2010.

The Veronicas are a rock band from Brisbane, Australia, formed in 1999 by twin sisters, Jessica and Lisa Origliasso. In addition to music, the sisters market their own line of clothing which debuted in 2007.

In 2005, The Veronicas released their first studio album entitled The Secret Life of... which peaked at #2 on the Australian charts and gained an Australian ARIA certification of 4x platinum for 280,000+ sales. In total, the album spawned five singles, three of which were top ten singles in Australia.

In 2007, the duo released their second studio album, Hook Me Up, which also peaked at #2 on the Australian charts and earned an Australian ARIA certification of 2x platinum for 140,000+ sales. To date, the album has garnered four Australian top ten singles. The album's title track, "Hook Me Up", was The Veronicas' first #1 single in Australia.

In 2004, Lisa Origliasso and Jessica Origliasso were introduced to the Music Director of The Bell Hughes Music Group (BHMG), Hayden Bell. After producing some demo recordings with the twins, Bell invited them to sign a publishing agreement with Excalibur Productions (a subsidiary of BHMG). In the process, Bell helped facilitate their progression in musical style from acoustic pop to the more rhythmic rock pop approach that is now their trademark. On the strength of these demos, Bell took them to meet the executives at Engine Room (a subsidiary of PBL (Packer) Group) and they were immediately signed to a production deal. To further develop their song writing skills, Bell connected them with several internationally acclaimed songwriters and producers including Clif Magness (who has written with Avril Lavigne), Billy Steinberg (Madonna, Cyndi Lauper), Max Martin (Britney Spears, Katy Perry, P!nk), Eric Nova, Dead Mono and Vince DeGiorgio, where they created a catalogue of over 50 songs.

Eric Saade (Arabic: اريك سعادة‎ Īrik Saʿāda, IPA: [ˈiːrik saʔaːdɐ]; Swedish pronunciation: [ˈeː.ˈrɪk sa.ˈaː.ˈdɛ]; born 29 October 1990 in Kattarp, Helsingborg, Sweden) is a Swedish singer. After two years with the boyband What's Up!, he left the group in February 2009 to pursue a solo career. Eric Saade represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Germany after winning the national Swedish selection Melodifestivalen 2011 with his entry "Popular". In the final Saade came in third place.

Eric Saade grew up in Kattarp, Sweden with his Swedish mother and Palestinian father. His parents divorced when Saade was four years old. He is the second oldest of eight siblings and half siblings.

When he was six years old, Saade first sang on a stage at his mother's wedding. He has been writing songs since he was 13 years old. He got his first record deal when he was 15 years old. Before starting his solo career, Saade was in the boyband What's Up!.

In summer 2009, Saade hosted the Swedish music competition My Camp Rock, a camp inspirated by the Disney Channel movie Camp Rock. In the same year, he hosted the nationwide contest Julia's Shooting Stars.