The perfect pop song is a rare and beautiful thing. It's probably the reason I wanted to call this column 'pop music' rather than 'rock music', for although 'rock' describes the mainstream more accurately, and that's where we are usually swimming, 'pop' harks back to simpler times when the tune was the thing. Maybe those times never ended. The news that 'Crazy' by Gnarls Barkley (great name) had reached number one on downloads alone, without a single CD being sold, shocked and appalled many old pop fans, but the registered young people who bought it were just doing what we all used to do: hear the tune, like it, buy it. What they are experiencing is the instantaneous sugar rush of a great pop single. It might not be very good for you, but who cares?
Copyright 2006 Spectator, The London
