Pop music is dismissed today because it is more commodity than art. Today's pop music is like facial tissue: we don't think about the brand, call it all Kleenex, and throw it away. Of course the music is disposable! It's only there to provide a beat for the strip show. I wonder which is more difficult: staying in tune while wearing clothes or staying in tune while simultaneously taking them off. It must be the latter, as many elaborate stage performances use canned vocals. In a world where Fergie can pass for a pop star rather than an unfortunate-looking stripper, it amazes me Norah Jones sells any records at all. So what's the big deal? Why should we take note of someone just because they can sing with their clothes on? Journalism 101: it's not news when dog bites man, it's news when man bites dog.

I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong. I'm not a 74-year old Republican who wants to outlaw the miniskirt- I'm a 33-year old married guy with four beautiful nieces, my politics are my business, and there is a place for miniskirts (not on my nieces, though!). The girls are 2, 6, 8, and 10-years old. I want to confiscate all of their Hannah Montana and Cheetah Girls CDs (and whatever appalling music they listen to these days) and hand them copies of these first three albums from Jones followed by the famous parent speech, "You won't understand today, but you will thank me down the road."

Maybe they will thank me because it helps them to see that you can be your own person and still succeed. Maybe they will thank me because it helps them to see it is possible to succeed in life without slutting yourself up. Maybe it well help them understand that what is popular is not always best, but that sometimes excellence triumphs over flash. Maybe they'll thank me because they fell in love with Norah Jones' music, too.

There is a place in the musical universe for songs that are fun and disposable. I tend not to like them and while commercial success might not justify them as art, the popularity of this kind of music does say something beyond the obvious, that too many people have bad taste in music. Fergie and her ilk will sell a ton of records today and nobody will remember it tomorrow. There is a timelessness to Norah Jones' voice that makes her music transcend the trends and the eras. This is a voice that belongs in the same category as Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald.