Honorific nicknames in popular music are often religious, familial or (most frequently) royal and aristocratic in nature and are used as a form of expression in the media, or to identify the significance of an artist by fans. Honorific nicknames were used in classical music in Europe as early as the early nineteenth century, with figures like Mozart being called "The father of modern music" and Bach "The father of modern piano music". They were also particularly prominent in African American culture in the post-Civil War era, perhaps as a means of conferring status that had been negated by slavery, and as a result entered early jazz and blues music, including figures such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie.

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."