This paper elaborates popular music characteristics and development through history, describes development of popular music in Croatia; internetional influence on croatian popular music as well as popularity of croatian music abroad. The first chapter of this document deals with determining culture and popular culture as well as music and popular music that represents the foundation of popular culture in the world. In the second chapter the historic development of MTV is coverd which labels the expansion of popular culture through the appearance of modern music videos which puts popular music into the context of acculturation from the side of the consumptive society. This chapter introduces the thesis of the contradiction between the terms art and market product. Popular music is put in the perpspective of an industry and therefore the question if music is a product of artistic creation or just merely an industry that brings great profit is asked. In the next chapter the main genres, phases of development and the main representatives of music are presented. The fourth chapter brings up a historic review of popular music in Croatia in the beginning, as a part of the former Yugoslavia, and through the time of transition and independence. The development of music and the international influence on it is represented chronologically. The last chapter of this thesis covers the valorization of the popular domestic music through the careers of some Croatian musicians whose meaning surpasses the domestic regions and becomes relevant even in the international sphere.