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To me, the most important part of rock & roll, and by

extension pop music, is the emotional content and
excitement that you connect with the record. When I
was a kid I listened to "Theme From a Summer
Place," which is far from a rock & roll record. It was
so romantic. It was this great theme from this
romantic movie. When you have that type of thing
coupled with certain artists—the traditional pop
artists that were idol types like Bobby Vee, Paul
Anka, Bobby Rydell, Fabian, Frankie, Elvis
Presley—these were life changing events. These
became things that when you heard those songs later
in life—it could be a year later, or thirty years later—
you remember everything about what was going on.

Nothing can touch you like music does in terms of

bringing back memories and transporting you there in
a time capsule kind of way. Pop music has this
unbelievable ability to transport people emotionally
and capture their imagination. There is nothing like
dreams. There is lots of music that has a social
commentary, that has an edginess, that has something
to say. That's all fine. This is different. This captures
people's dreams and emotions, and you never can get
away from it. The basic you-me, boy-girl, new love,
found love, lost love, rekindled love thing works.
Those are emotions that people are interested in.

One of the reasons that I think Country music is so

popular is because it conveys those emotions. There's
enough sadness and enough ugliness in the world. If
you can escape for a few minutes with some romantic
song or just imagine that a singer is singing just to
you, I think it's great. That kind of music may be
thought of as being kind of sugary, or fluffy, or not as
meaningful. Well, I would challenge people by
saying I think those songs are more meaningful
because they stick with people forever. They become
part of your life, as simple as that.
Female perspective:
"I wanted to be part of that group. I wanted to be in
this life. I wanted to see what they were seeing, in the
way they were seeing it. It didn't necessarily mean I
wanted to be the singer, the guitarist, or the center of
attention. I just wanted to know where that came
from, where that power came from, where that
passion came from.
"For me, it came from words and the way they
blended into music in my head. It's so powerful. And
as a girl, I couldn't talk about it to anybody. Guys
could talk about this stuff."