The power of pop

Pop music is dependent on repetition, fleeting fashions and youthful idealism - but has an immediacy like no other art form.

I’ve always been slightly envious of those who were educated in the generation before mine. The rigour of the O level system meant that pupils couldn’t just rely on their natural intelligence to get through, unlike the GCSEs of my school years for which many of us barely revised. When my parents were at school rote-learning was standard practice, which …