Taylor Swift's lyrics are poetry as well, no matter how ****ty they might be. Saying it's not is like looking at a poorly made chair and saying "well that's not a chair, look at this, THAT's a chair."

That proves my point, it is cheaper to make...for everyone. But cheaper doesn't mean good and when cheap means it doesn't take talent to produce it, there is something wrong there. It takes the talent out of the picture, talent is expensive.

But, but, but the externality is that good films are funded through the money made by blockbusters...so, the money spreads into more artistic endeavors.


I play guitar and piano. I am not referring to rock but music in general. My tastes are R&B, Soul, Blues, Funk...etc...a guitar isn't mandatory for good music.

Cheap also doesn't mean bad. Your music thinking is extremely music noob, my friend.

How wonderful, we agree on something. My point still stands that price has nothing to do with the quality of the music.

Well, we are on different wave lengths. I feel no need to be a shill for the record company. Look, something the younger generation doesn't understand is getting ahead doesn't require anyone to sit, down, shut-up and be complacent. There is money to be made and innovation to create in rebelling and fighting against things.

Shill is a cute word, reminds me of all the time I've spent reading anti-science articles and comments, who use it as a code word for "someone I don't agree with yet can't prove wrong". You can listen to thousands of releases from this year alone that have no connection to record labels. You're talking about not wanting to be a shill for record companies, yet you still want to turn to them for music?

And that is something that is more prevalent throughout the music world today than it ever has been.

Oh, Steinbeck! How I love thee! (I guess it's about time to re-read "East of Eden" for the umpteenth time.)

I agree. There have always been people who try "prove" their opinion that music was better in the good old days.

The majority of music purchases these days are downloads and as a result there's far less money lost on production and shipping costs. So this is kind of a non point.

Are movies better now than they were in the 80s or 90s? Is that your argument?

Excuses for who? If I like music, I listen to it, go see it, and generally support it. If I don't, I don't. It's not very complicated.

Well, for anyone still lurking who sympathizes with the idea. I have a feeling the problems with music will be fixed in the next ten years. Here is what I see as the solutions that are going to happen.

1) Greater localization of artists will influence mainstream music. What I mean by this is music will become very regional. If you live in an area with a music scene, the music scene will become ever more vibrant with more and more people seeking it out. This will spill over to the mainstream.

2). The middle class artists will emerge. As music appeals to smaller markets the goal of the musician will move away from making it big to a more reasonable goal of just making a middle class living. This will lead to a greater diversity of artists for the mainstream to use.

3). More and more companies like Tidal will emerge and become competitive. As the trend to pay artists more continues the price of music will increase with the trade-off is that it will be better, more expensive music. This will spill into the mainstream.

Regionality is definitely not going to become more prominent because of the Internet.

The internet will go out of style in the next five years.