Ok - I'm not getting into the Rap/Hip-Hop vs. Rock 'n Roll debate, here (I happen to like Zeppelin AND Eminem… so I guess I'm a fence-rider)
Popular music is where it's at today because of one thing - exposure. Whether it's MTV, Top 40 radio, CMT, whatever… popular music is popular because it is given a huge audience through whatever media channel you'd like to point your finger at.
To me, 'American Idol" is the perfect example of this. The fact that TV can take the best karaoke singer in American and turn him/her into an overnight "pop" sensation that sells 1 million + albums in one week, and has the #1 video on MTV, just goes to show how much sheer exposure influences people's opinions on music - whether it's good or bad… it's popular, which means that it's not going away (as much as we may like it to) This, to me, is really no different than the way things have always been - Record labels, TV shows, and radio push whatever "genre" of music they think will make them the most money. It's been done that way since the advent of the record album - There's just more media outlets today that are there to pedal the hype the machine.
I also agree with franscar's post - The number of outlets available today to find good music is more than ever before… And if you find something that sounds good to you, then it doesn't matter if it's popular or not - It's still good music. Just because a particular type or genre of "good" music isn't selling 10 million albums or plastered all over MTV every day, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist - you just may have to look a little harder for it today than you did in the past.
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Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start… Just because we use cheats, doesn't mean we're not smart.
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