In 1998 I wrote and presented on RTE Radio 1 radio my first major documentary series, The Years Go Pop, a title I hated. Either way, I set out to give in a series of one-hour programmes my view of the history of popular culture from 1945 to 1989. I definitely did not want to tell a traditional history of rock or pop if only because most took a musicological tilt on the tale where I was more interested in pop culture as a socio-political phenomenon. I set out my case at the start, in a half-page article in The Irish Times and at the start of the show, when I pointed out that I would play not just those singles or albums that put the art into pop art but songs that help change the way we see ourselves, the way we dress, dream, engage in sexual politics, fall in love - in other words, the way we live. And I said that even though most rock histories start in 1956 I tended to side with the view of social commentators who suggested that year zero was 1945. Now an abridged version of the series is called, Boom! Joe Jacksons History of Pop Culture. This show was the first and focuses on 1945.