I guess it wasn't really championing. But it's just the general positivity towards these kind of bands from one or two people at DiS that confuses me.

And rspce - I like melodies, and I like pop, I just hate idiotic muppet boys pouting into the camera and aiming for the front of Smash Hits and churning out horrid, conceited, manipulative bubblegum pop crap that is made to appeal to certain demographics and rake in tons of teenaged pounds. It's the big mac of music (i.e. it might taste OK, but everything in it is fake and generally not good). I stopped eating big macs ages ago. This kind of shit music isn't worth thinking about, never mind clapping your hands when thousands of young girls propel it to the top of the rotten, bloated horror that is the UK pop charts.