is pop music any good?

What you should do is ignore such stylistic posturing and just find loads of music you enjoy - everything else is just bollocks.

Maybe that's what having a pop ear is: to just find loads of music you enjoy. When I was a kid, it was simple: I liked what I liked. Then I became an adolescent, and everything became more complicated: I mistrusted anything that was commercially succesful or commercially driven (at least for a couple years). The plus side is that I learned about a lot of interesting music outside of the main stream. I hope that now I give myself the freedom to like what I like, whether that means Brazilian influenced Hector Lavoe songs from the 70's or abstract not so abstract piano solos by Sun Ra. I'm so wonderful and eclectic I can hardly stand myself.

On the other hand, sometimes a new type of music does require a new "ear." There is plenty of music I like now which it took me a while to get. I wouldn't want to make a rule that I shouldn't give something more than one or two listens before deciding whether I like it (though this is all I give most things these days), or that I shouldn't take into consideration the fact that a zillion people like a certain album, so maybe there is something to it.