I have that kind of "pop(ular)" ear - growing up on AM Top 40 - FM CHR radio
from the early 70's to early 90's and also working as a radio DJ, PD and Music
director. Plus most of my record collection was mostly hand-me-down 60's 45's
when I was a kid so I grew up on that three minute mentality.

I didnt seriously start buying albums until I was 13. I love songs like
"Whenever You're On My Mind" that jump out of the speakers at first listen. I
still use that "does it grab you" criteria to pick songs for my Live365
stations today - sometimes I'm too busy to pick listen to the whole CD so I do
a quick scan through at first and pick songs that have the best 90 second
intro
and sometimes scan to see if I like the chorus. Its not the best way, but I
have always thought that immediacy and catchiness are true Power Pop
virtures. 

I love a lot of 80's radio pop and R&B - some hits have aged well, others like
"Puttin' On The Ritz" make me wonder why ever I bought those singles.

Billy G. Spradlin
http://listen.to/jangleradio


At 12:21 AM 8/16/03 -0400, you wrote:
>In a message dated 8/15/03 7:03:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
>audities-owner@smoe.org writes:
>
>> but, i still have a real pop(ular) ear.  from growing
>> up listening to top 40 radio during the 80's? 
>
>Amen, Jocelyn. I think that my own love of pop-oriented music--both 
>slick/mainstream and obtuse/underground--is rooted in the fact that I grew up
in the 
>'80s, which was a time when mainstream music was very very poppy. So much of
the 
>music from that decade--from the more obscure alternative stuff right on up 
>to the top 40 stuff--was sugary pop, and that certainly was a huge influence
in 
>terms of shaping my tastes. This also might be why a lot of the *older* 
>power-pop--like the Raspberries or Badfinger--doesn't do as much for me as
the

>stuff that came from the punk era on. But I think many ignore this--that
'80s 
>mainstream music was, in all honesty, really poppy and catchy--in favor of
the

>more standard party line that '80s music was plastic garbage. It's too bad, 
>really. --Jason
>  
Billy G. Spradlin
http://listen.to/jangleradio