The Facts* Of Pop: No. 1 - Busted Caused Landfill Indie

Busted were to blame for Landfill Indie. This is a fact*.

In September 2002 Busted released their debut single, 'What I Go To School For', and it went straight in at Number 3. The following years saw them experience huge success, right up until their split in January 2005. The likes of Son Of Dork and The Noise Next Door tried, but ultimately failed, to fill the gap they left and that, seemingly, was that.

Only a few months after the split The Kooks had their first Top 40 hit with 'Eddie's Gun' (?), and a year after that they had become a major commercial proposition along with countless others including but not limited to Razorlight, Hard-Fi, The Courteeners, The View, The Twang (remember them?), The Fratellis, The Wombats, The Enemy, The Pigeon Detectives and Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong. Actually maybe not Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong but you get the idea.

And why did this happen? Well it follows (or seems to follow) that fans of Busted during their pomp - 10-14 year olds - were, by 2007 - probably the height of Landfill - aged 14-18. Thanks to Charlie and co they had decided that they wanted guitars in their pop music and, being slightly older, had also decided that they didn't want to be told it was pop music, even though that's exactly what it was. It's the kind of training school hipster philosophy that Radio 1 employ to this day.

Thankfully, that period has long since passed, proving itself to be something of an ephemeron (yes, 'ephemeron'). A new generation of teenagers have arrived and, like most previous ones, are, in the main, pop fans. Even if pop now means Guetta House. Hurrah.

*Not a fact per se, or even a fact at all, but apparently it's good to be assertive with these kind of things so that's what's it's going to be. If you like, it could also be elaborated on to explain the even more fleeting mainstream popularity of emo. Or, conversely, not.