Quote:
Originally posted by wolf
90% (or more) of it all is still crap, but it's crap that somebody out there likes.
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And 90% of everything is (and was) crap, to quote the immortal Sturgeon. Of course, Sturgeon also noted that the other 10% is worth dying for.
Nostalgia has a tendency to make people remember the best and worst bits of an era, but pass over the mind-numbing waves of mediocrity in between. The music industry has always had its share of corporate-manufactured one-hit-wonders, genre bands and albums with two decent songs and ten filler tracks. It's not a cup of coffee; neither the cream nor the scum necessarily rise to the top.
The Internet has had a moderate effect on this, in that discerning consumers have more free access to music beyond what gets on MTV and the radio. Going D-I-Y is easier now than ever before, if you're not particularly worried about big label-level sales figures. You don't have to spend night after night in the clubs hoping that someone cool and yet-unknown will come to your town, or hope that your local college radio stations will play something different.
Once in a while, artists will come along that just don't give a fuck but become a success anyway, mostly by playing by their own rules and finding their own particular niche. Frank Zappa comes to mind. The Grateful Dead. Jimmy Buffett. They amassed huge followings with minimal (if any) radio airplay. (Zappa released 80+ albums and only broke the top 50 on rare occasions. We all know about the Dead. Buffett has a few tracks that have become standbys like "Margaritaville," but has gone years at a time without anything NEW of his getting airplay.) Today's artists could learn something from those examples.