The birth of pop: How catchy, disposable songs came to dominate the music industry - Big Think

We forget that pop music is a business first and closely connected to the technology of its time. It wasn't that long ago that there was no recorded music, and the money was made by selling the songs themselves in sheet music form. I am old enough to remember when every home seemed to have a piano so mom could bang out some horrible, soulless show tunes we all had to listen to. Then came the electric organs a few years later for a new level of torture. That was the precursor to the electric guitar riff master's that were a staple of every music store in the 70's playing "Stairway to Heaven". 

Of course, the only good pop music is produced generally between the ages of 15 to 25. I have a feeling that is because that is when we are running at our peak physically and experiencing all kinds of things for the first time, and that becomes the soundtrack to that brief span of life. Then we wallow in the pop culture of our youth like a pig rolling around in slop for the rest of our lives. The music wasn't any better when you were young. You were.