I just noticed that there is a barely-noticable, but obviously affecting, super-high harmony on top of the chorus in the Veronicas' "4Eva" - above the main two voices. Is it a harmonic? I'm not sure. But it made me think of this rather incredible interview I read a few weeks ago about Mark "Spike" Stent, who has mixed - well, every giant pop star, really, including Gwen Stefani, the Veronicas, the Spice Girls, Britney Spears, Bjork... and Madonna, of course. There is a science of pop-music. Those three minutes that blow you apart were put together on equipment worth hundreds of thousands of pounds by people that have the sorts of technical skills otherwise necessary for building robots to reach Mars, to perform micro-surgery via the internet. But instead, they are compressed and, via the structures of music, they are used to deliver so many hits to your aural senses in every second that you are left only with confusion, and emotion. It all goes too fast for intellectual breakdown and comprehension - much like a simple thought for someone who is stoned. The elements go past so quickly that it seems profound, immense.

Addendum: counterposed to Stent's method and that article are these comments by Burial in this interview. All the same, note how both Stent and Burial emphasise 'feel'. Don't be fooled by this talk of science, ladies and gentlemen, we have Romantics on our hands!