The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 5 plus 4 letter word THE BEACH BOYS
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
T
H
E
B
E
A
C
H
B
O
Y
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Pop group" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case pop group = the beach boys.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.