For years, rock critics have been labeling 1950s pop music has juvenile and formulaic - think cheese pop standards like "Where the Boys Are" and "How Much is That Doggie in the Window?" But Karen Schoemer, who writes about artists like REM and Lucinda Williams for publications like Rolling Stone and The New York Times, was determined to find cultural significance in a pile of dusty LPs. The result is her new book Great Pretenders: My Strange Love Affair with '50s Pop Music. I started our conversation by asking her how she found herself attracted to this stereotypically bland era in rock'n'roll history.