so then, it's a joke? I don't get British humor. Or humour or whatever.

It's not a joke. Seriously, the best group of their sort this century. Amazing, in fact, that anything non-shit came out of the horseshitmill of 'reality' pop shows.

But then again, Americans often have a hard time with pop music that is just pop music and doesn't purport to do anything else. Did the Pet Shop Boys ever do much business in the states? I doubt it.

yes, the english have an insatiable and unfathomable hunger for fruity music hall shit.

is it too obvious, too unrefined, to prefer harding & cole?

I dnt know if they did much business in the States, but they've done plenty of biznaz in my headphones!

Pet Shop Boys went to number 1 in America.

Duran Duran, a bunch of make up-wearing straight english dudes with a strong apetite for girls, were more famous in the states than in the uk.

I love 80's synthpop. And not in a stupid ironic way or anything. I think the genre was incredible.

Good. Then Girls Aloud are so far up your street they can see what you had for breakfast.

For the record, I maintain that Erasure were the best 'synthpop' group.

I am a fan Duran Duran up until they started having issues, pretended to be serious, and in the process created self-conscious indie pop with out of reach aspirations like Orlando, the very last nail in the coffin. Erasure are a good pop band exactly because all that crap never bothered them much.

You are kidding, right? There are millions of Americans who listen to certain artists simply because they are popular.

Case In Point: The Jonas Brothers. There is absolutely NOTHING special about them or their music. Their status comes from exposure, nothing more and nothing less.

Yes, but the Jonas Brothers a pop group that are doing everything in their powers to not come across as a pop group, which is clearly what they are. I agree that they're shit, but the fact that they're styled in such a way, and they have 'real' instruments and move like a 'rock' band is entirely the opposite of pop music just being pop music. You see?

Well...I don't think anyone HONESTLY thinks the Jonas Brothers are a real rock band...

I actually saw them earlier this year, and a lot of the audience didn't care. Admittedly, a lot of that audience was around half my age (I'm 26), but they seemed to enjoy it, so fair play to them.

An important thing to remember - the notion of authenticity in music is usually only important to lonely, single, male teenagers.

i only expect rob instigator at one point appearing on this thread to tell everyone that this shit doesn't rock. i think i have smelt the essence of this dump once more. it smells of piss, the piss you take out of these bunch of mentally retarded, narrow-minded music snobs.

I'm not afraid to admit that I like some of Maroon 5's stuff. If anyone refers to them as a boy band, I tell them that at least Maroon 5 can actually play instruments and write their own stuff, which is not something N'Sync or the Backstreet Boys could ever claim.

Actually, the Jonas Brothers (I keep nearly spelling it "Borthers"-what does that say) are just the latest in the teen pop cycle that repeats at the end of every decade:

End of the 80s- New Kids on the Block, Color Me Badd
End of the 90s- Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, 98 Degrees
End of the 00s- Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana

We had Take That over here, who were amazing. We also produced the Spice Girls, so... sorry about that. Backstreet Boys had some alright songs, N'Sync a few more. Britters and Justin produced some superlative stuff.

I can't abide Maroon 5 meself, but fair play to you.

LOL Apology accepted

I feel nothing for all this tedious pop music of which you speak.

And I feel nothing for it in a completely unironic way.