Just one minor correction, Jim - I don't listen to ballads, but I do like reading them to myself. It's a private pleasure.

As I never listen to the radio, and comparatively little TV, I don't get to hear much popular music either. But I read reviews of records in the press - or hear about them from other people on- and off-line and, if I feel urged, check them out on various web sites to get a small earful. Some of it leaves me cold, other stuff not, but that's my business.

Dick, you're absolutely welcome to like and dislike what you will - no-one has any right to call you out for doing so. But if you publicly continue to dislike and criticise and be pejorative of modern commercial bland music pop then don't be surprised if other people publicly disagree. This is, of course, one of the functions of forums like these. In the end, I believe, the arguments pro and con are counter-productive, and say more about the people making them than the music itself. I think I'd rather celebrate the things that give me pleasure than anything else, and leave others to do the same with their musical choices.