The old man grasps air in record numbers (3,5)

I believe the answer is:

pop songs

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'the old man grasps' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'air in record numbers' is the wordplay.
'air' becomes 'song' (I've seen this before).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'record numbers' becomes 'pops' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'song' going inside 'pops' is 'POP SONGS'.

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I've seen this clue in the Irish Times.

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