Musings on Totes Bril pop music

So to prevent this from becoming solely "The Emily Show", I have returned. With some pretty deep stuff. While watching The Devil Wears Prada.

While switching cds in my car, it occurred to me-What is it that makes a perfect pop song? I'm not talking about certain masterpieces like "Take On Me" or "99 Luft Balloons" or things of that nature. I also am excluding Prince's entire catalog, basically because I said so.

So back to the question at hand-what makes a brilliant pop song? And what are some of my favourites?
Having grown up in the 90's, I too, have come out the other side a boyband survivor. During those adolescent days I sat around listening to the geniusness of it all and sighing, wishing that some dreamboat like AJ McClean would come to my inevitable rescue from like...ninjas. (I didn't know the power of the ninja when I was 12-I was a sheltered child)

I narrowed down my selections to two choice songs. Having been thrust into the boyband phenomenon through the sugar sweet melodies of the Backstreet Boys, I am always predisposed to love I Want It That Way. It's so catchy. It's so sweet. I have no real idea what it's about, but it graced VH1's countdown of the top songs of 1999, meaning it had to be pretty darned awesome.

On the other hand, my attachment to the post-BSB group of equally good looking young men with potentially questionable hairstyles (AKA *NSYNC), is pretty deep. I was ill with an ear infection, watching their concert on the Disney Channel when they stole my heart. I then and there picked Lance Bass as my favourite, because I thought he dressed slightly less stupid than the rest of them. I really should've seen the admission of "gay" coming. But I didn't and that's a different story.

So their catchy little ditty I Want You Back is catchy in the way I Want It That Way is. You sing, you dance, you commit totally to it when it comes on the radio in your car. One point in *NSYNC's favor is I actually do know what the song is about. Otherwise, I feel this is one of those moments in history when you go "Which goes deeper, my love of NSYNC or my love of BSB?"

These are not questions that can be answered easily, or succinctly, as proven by my charming little ramble. Regardless of the implications, I feel I have posed a question for the ages. I Want It That Way or I Want You Back? Both have catchy melodies, reasonable lyrics, notes that most everyone can hit while driving (or such) and a connection to those delightful 90's. May they live on in infamy. And my cd player.