Traditional pop or classic pop or standards music denotes, in general, Western (and particularly American) popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll, and its offshoots, as the dominant commercial music of the United States and Western culture. (For a definition of "Traditional pop" see.) The terms pop standards or (where relevant) American standards are used to denote the most popular and enduring songs from this style of music. More generally, the term "standard" can be used to describe any popular song that has become very widely known within mainstream culture.