Prepped for Pop?

Welcome to my pop blog! One year ago, I could not have cared less about music. Half a year ago, I wasn't even aware that there were (amazing) music scenes outside of the United States.

Suffice to say, things have changed. Now, I can't get enough pop music. However, my late start means that I have a lot to catch up on. This blog is to share my pop music discoveries. Those of you who know pop will probably know a lot of these songs--but not all, I hope. For other novices to the pop world, I hope to be able to, for you, shorten the learning curve I went through (and am definitely still going through). As much as I hope to share music with you all, though, I'd love to hear suggestions or extra information about any of the songs or artists I do post.

I'll be starting off with a feature on "Idol" contestants around the world (only the good ones/ones I know of, though). Reality TV shows are often blamed for harming music, and they certainly have led to some questionable songs getting released, but they've also given us some top-quality music that too often gets lumped into the category of "if it's from reality TV, it can't be good." And what better place to start our exploration of the Idol franchise than the UK, which set the whole thing off? Many of you will probably be familiar with the UK and American shows, which I'll be discussing first, but I do hope to provide a few lesser-heard songs...and please stick around, because it'll get better (and go beyond those two countries)--I hope.