I'd got married and wanted to have kids, so had kids, brought them up, did other things, and slowly got back into music. And it feels great, having one foot in the present, writing and covering interesting songs, and having one foot in the past.
My whole career was launched in such sort of poptastic style with 'Kids In America', and I liked - and like - being poptastic. Songs big on melody, high on energy, lots of attitude... what's wrong with that?