This paper examines promotional tools of best-selling music hits of the last four decades. The goal of the paper is to explore and show how best-selling music hits were promoted, which promotional channels and media forms they primarily used, and to what extent could it be related to their success and popularity. The first part of the paper describes the music industry, of which components it is composed and in what ways it operates. Furthermore, the basic definitions of promotion in the music industry are presented and the music genres are briefly explained, how they differ and what are their characteristics. The theoretical part of the paper studies the evolution of popular music over the last four decades, ranging from 1980 to 2020. The first two decades researched in this paper, the 1980s and 1990s, are viewed through television as a media and, to a lesser extent, radio. The impact of Music Television (MTV), which transmitted music to television screens, is primarily studied. A brief overview of the 1990s clarifies the popularization of certain musical genres. The Internet, as the most widespread new media, has dominated the past two decades. The paper presents the changes that have taken place in the music industry with its appearance, as well as, consequently, the development of social networks and communication platforms. The research part of the paper uses an adapted form of content analysis method and comparative method. The aim is to achieve the set goal of the research through the study and comparison of music charts, official data on the sale of singles, the structure and content of songs and methods of promotion.