Over the last couple of weeks I've been scanning the economics blogs, reading debates about stocks and stimulus and credit swaps and unemployment and whether or not the current recession (or potential depression, depending on who you're reading) has bottomed out. Here, in the rather less significant world of pop music (a world that seems to get less significant by the moment, though it's spawning its own massive unemployment numbers), it's fair to say the bottom has been reached. I know, just a couple of months ago I was saying that the bottom had fallen out, and that may still be true, but it may also be true that we've reached a new bottom, and things will begin to level out from here on in. I say that not because I'm an optimist, but because I can't see things getting any worse. The first three months of any year are slow for pop music, but this year has been something more than slow. Three months in and, with the arrival of Carrie Underwood this week, only eleven new songs have appeared on the top ten, the slowest pace since 2005. This year feels slower, though, because in 2005 the records were better. So far only Kelly Clarkson has managed to rise above mediocrity, and there are already three contenders for the worst of the top ten list ("Poker Face" being the current number one seed). It can't get any worse, can it? Wait, what? Green Day wrote a rock opera? Shit.