Mike, I knew you would fit right in. So all that being said, I think it's been a strange decade of music, in terms of pop history....I guess the major trend I'm hearing is the continuation and further development of lo-fi (which ties into fewer barriers to making music), and an even stronger return to melody and psych-pop and psych-folk music, often with an undercurrent of sixties song stylings.

And yes, I do fundamentally believe that pop (or folk-based rather than compositional) music is ephemeral. For me, if one is writing the history of music I think it gets a fairly brief chapter. Not to downplay its importance to us (obviously we adore the stuff) or its social power, which is where I think it is most meaningful.

Derek - where are you?

Kyle, re Pandora, you're right that I must have a US-based IP address at BMO. Strange indeed. And too bad for the rest of you, as it's a fantastic on-line service.

In terms of new (or newly discovered) music, I've found a few interesting items on emusic in recent weeks. On the indy-psych-folk front, I'm enjoying the Bo Iver disk (thanks Kyle), and also am liking Phoenix Foundation (from 06). More on the rock side, the Foundry Field Recordings, New Ruins (which Kyle - I think - put on a mix for me previously), The Whigs, and Maritime deserve a listen, and on the light side of pop, the Headlights, Liam Finn, and Oscar winner Glenn Hansard's record all sound worthwhile on the first couple of listens. On the jazz front, I unearthed a couple of great old George Wallington disks, plus a plethora of Joe Henderson (post Blue Note) which I'd never looked into before, and most intriguingly, a cool jazz fusion record by samba jazz guitarist Luiz Bonfa, who unexpectedly rocks out with a large group of fusion stars (Stanley Clarke, Randy Brecker, many others) on a 1973 record "Jacaranda". I guess I'm warming up to fusion, because I quite like this.