In which I lay to rest my previous habit, of linking to a new CiF piece by means of an enigmatic paraphrase, and shamelessly rip off Dave Hill's method of providing a teaser paragraph or two:Is it my imagination, or is there simply too much pop music around at the moment? At a time when the music industry seems to be on the verge of death, its primary resource - still, after 50 or more years, chiefly comprising songs that last about three and a half minutes and pertain to adolescents fancying a shag - is bloody everywhere.
I'm not just talking about BBC4's current festival of all things poptabulous, in which we put pop on trial, learn how it works, ask what it's good for and probably get it to choose the next president of the United States. Pop has permeated the most unlikely reaches of our cultural lives: our churches, our shopping centres and even political party conferences. It was suggested a couple of decades back that Pop Will Eat Itself: this looks like a bad case of bulimia...
...and then inviting you to read on...
PS: And already I've been called bald and boring-looking, and accused of intimate relations with Julie Burchill.
