I talk a lot in my album recaps about pop music and a pop sound. I think of a pop song as merely being a song that has a beat, tune, and lyrics that are catchy. This of course means that pop can be layered onto any genre of music and I think that's fine. It also doesn't mean that the songs are necessarily made for a mass market, just that they have that certain something that catches your attention and keeps you listening. This can then be different for everyone and so it is a very individualistic thing.
What defines the pop music genre, is music that is aimed specifically at trying to meld the three together in singles that fit what is popular with most people at the time of production with no attention to the overall album.
One thing I want to make clear is that it is not necessarily important that all songs on an album or that an album itself have a pop basis to be considered good by me. I think Quadrophenia by The Who is a great example of this. Although there are definitely songs like The Real Me that fit my definition, the album has plenty of other moods and moments that don't fall into my definition of pop, but the album works because the songs work together to create an atmosphere that entertains and draws in the listener.
