Greg I have several pairs of reading glasses.....I also have a huge collection of music including the charts from 1950s when they began right up to date. I listen to all kinds of music......does not mean I have to like it all. I HATE manufactured cheesy pop. The reasons are obvious....these third rate guys pulled off the street and backed by the Cowells of this world are doing proper musicians out of work. Anybody and I mean anybody can be a postar giving the right breaks and the right hype and marketing and they can even make it with any old song. There are too many examples of this even going right back to when pop began That is my point pure and simple. Now I did not say and never will that all if it is crap...but lets face it most is hugely over rated produced by and manufactured by corrupt charlatons who control the industry. These popstars are just pawns in their game. I am not jealous....as I suspect you may think I am.... just angry that these guys who control the industry can sucker so many people into liking crap and repeatedly getting away with it.
Back in my heyday the sixties and seventies there was some great original stuff going on but even then we had our fair share of this cancer going on. Nowadays however it has completely taken over and most folk have forgotten what good music is or they have never heard it till they play some of the more obscure or older stuff. Now I know that guys like you are trying to make the big time and to do that you have to buy into liking this crap. That is a fact of life. I am sorry but I can never...if it is crap and these folk are undeserving then I am honest enough to say it. I have no interest in being a pop star or writing cheesy pop never have. Perhaps you might want to take some inspiration from the whole slew of musicians you like rather than emulating folk who should not be let near a recording studio.
With all the gizmos and equipment we have to hand and the huge inspiration we have going back in history music should and could be getting better...why is it getting worse. Why does every pop star thanks to Melodyne sound like Robbie the Robot on drugs....and why can so few of them produce a half decent live performance. I can do it every night and I am rubbish according to you.
I hope you have had a great Christmas and wish you all the best for the New Year...I really mean that. I do jest with you and a lot of what I say is tongue in cheek BUT my main point still stands.....We have been bombarded with so much crap that we have lost the plot and have come to accept mediocrity as the benchmark. The public are generally pretty stupid, gullible and easily led.....that is why they get preyed upon so readily. The recent case of the untalented Korean guy doing a crazy dance and chanting Gangnam Style is testament to how crappy music fads and fashions can take off. He even ripped both the song and the dance off.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=687727&songID=5238055