Secrets of the Pop Song, BBC Two

There's a mistake in the first paragraph. Culture Club's song title is "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", not "If You Really...".

This first installment was brilliant, is 'World War Three' going to be released?

If this is meant to be an 'arts' website, ie dealing with the best, most creative things we produce, then I find this review to be extremely uncritical. From what I can see, and from my experience of similar shows, they're dealing with some of the most superficial and throwaway music going. Surely a ballad (in the modern sense of the word, at least) at its best, should be something that really moves us, emotionally? And like good books, the best stuff out there rarely makes it to the top of the Best Sellers' list. But no one ever suggests we take, say Katie Price's autobiography seriously, so why should we do the same with the throwaway music that tops the charts? This ( http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=carl+hall+you+don%27t+know+n... ), for example, is my idea of a ballad - and like much great music, it wasn't commercially successful. Throwaway pop is all very well, but I'd have expected something a little more critical from an arts journal, else I might as well go buy a copy of Smash Hits.

Sorry, that last link doesn't work. For anyone interested, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMHdI-mSAr4

Just caught the second programme and whilst interested in the first part and the 'spliced in' historical stuff containing the usual 'seen before' footage I just felt that some of the serious composition sequences came across as a bit pretentious...I'm trying to be polite here...it was all a bit too smug as if music has just been invented...still good luck to those involved - musics music after all - keep strumming those chords.