Popular music sees female abandoning dress (4)
I believe the answer is:
rock
'popular music' is the definition.
(genre of music)
'female abandoning dress' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'abandoning' suggests deleting specific letters.
'dress' becomes 'frock' (frocking is a kind of dressing).
'frock' with 'f' taken away is 'ROCK'.
'sees' is the link.
(Other definitions for rock that I've seen before include "Sway to and fro - mass of stone" , "Music; diamond" , "Edinburgh - -" , "solid?" , "Lull (baby); 50s pop" .)