Hm, not sure where you're going with this new brand of pop thing, but it's an interesting thought.

Most of my purchases in the past year were from veteran artists who had new releases. U2, Suzanne Vega, The Pretenders, Santana, Tori Amos, etc. I don't think I bought a single album from a new artist this year, which is kinda sad. This is probably the first year that's happened, usually each year I find one or two new artists that jump out at me. No such luck this year.