Up to the 1970s, most types of popular music used bowed strings. The hugely popular Motown recordings of the 1960s and 1970s relied heavily on strings as part of their trademark texture. Earlier genres of pop music, at least those separate from the rock and roll movement, tended to make use of fairly traditional orchestras, sometimes large ones; examples include the American "Crooners" such as Bing Crosby. This carried through into 1970s disco music such as I will survive by Gloria Gaynor and Love's theme by Love Unlimited Orchestra.

The rise of electronically created music in the 1980s saw a decline in their use, as synthesized string sections took their place. However, while the violin has very little usage in rock music it has some history in progressive rock (e.g. The Electric Light Orchestra, King Crimson, Kansas) and has a stronger place in modern fusion bands, notably The Corrs. The fiddle has also always been a part of British folk-rock music, as exemplified by the likes of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span.

Indian and Arabic pop music is filled with the sound of violins, both soloists and ensembles.

In the 1990s and 2000s, violins began to appear more often in rock. Yellowcard even featured the instrument with a role equal to the guitar in many of their songs. Smashing Pumpkins are well-known for their violin-based sections, and James' Saul Davies, who is also a guitarist, was enlisted by the band as a violinist.

Independent artists such as Owen Pallet and Andrew Bird have also spurred increased interest in the instrument. Indie bands have often embraced new and unusual arrangements, allowing them more freedom to feature the violin than their mainstream brethren. It has been used in the post-rock genre by bands such as Sigur Rós, Zox, Broken Social Scene, and A Silver Mt. Zion. The electric violin has even been used by bands like The Crüxshadows within the context of keyboard based music.

The popularity of crossover music beginning in the last years of the 20th century has brought the violin back into the popular music arena, with both electric and acoustic violins being used by popular bands.

Strings were first made of sheep gut (commonly known as catgut), stretched, dried and twisted. Modern strings may be gut, solid steel, stranded steel, or various synthetic materials, wound with various metals. Most E strings are unwound, either plain or gold-plated steel.

Violinists often carry replacement strings with their instruments to have one available in case a string breaks. Strings have a limited lifetime; apart from obvious things, such as the winding of a string coming undone from wear, a player will generally change a string when it no longer plays "true," with a negative effect on intonation, or when it loses the desired tone. The longevity of a string depends on how much and how intensely one plays. The E string, being the thinnest, tends to break or lose the desired tone more quickly than the others.

"Violin." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 18 Sep 2008, 16:34 UTC. 18 Sep 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Violin&oldid=239319616>.