BaronFox

Firstly, music (especially pop culture music) is an entertainment business. Artists who sell their music do not write music for critics, they do not write music for their listener... they simply write their music for their own personal gain. They record music for the same reason architects build houses. Architects don't build houses because they want someone to have a place to live. Furthermore, because it is a business, you may treat it as such. If music doesn't meet your standard, don't buy it (or don't download it). Take your business to another artist. That is how you, a free citizen, contribute to the music industry. I agree, pop music (which includes rock, country, dance, and everything else marketed on commercial stations) has become formulaic and very simplistic. That is the fault of the listeners. The less we demand out of music the less the industry will produce. Why put so much thought and time into a song when it will sell just the same with much less. Maybe even sell better. It is my opinion that the majority of the world uses music for very specific reasons: 1. to make their car ride more enjoyable from point A to point B 2. to cure the awkward silences of a party 3. to provide a tempo to express their bodies. Obviously these are generalizations.. but you get my point. Those three reasons are why music is such a big industry. And if you look at those reasons... you can see why it doesn't take much to remedy a customer's need for music. Why has the population come to demand so much less from song? I'm not sure. Perhaps it is because the public has lost their sense of adventure. No one explores music anymore. It is handed to them through the radio and mtv. One of my favorite bands is a British band called Muse. These men create an extremely intelligent form of rock. They use arpeggiations and soaring melodies to sell very interesting sci-fi theories of paranoia. It is a very unique form of musical entertainment. And I love them. They have just recently been sprinkled about the radio and television. But they have been around for over 10 years. Through those years I would introduce them to people (radio/mtv fans) who had no idea who they were.. and LOVE them. I say this because I disagree with the approach of comparing a person's intelligence to the type of music they listen to. A person's grades and successful ventures doesn't automatically heighten their standard of music. Unless their education is in music. Just as a highly talented musician would not walk into a skyscraper and admire the intricacies of the elevator that got him to the top floor, a music listener does not admire the invention of a song. A song is taken advantage of. A song is bought and used for whatever the customer sees fit to use it as. (back to the subject), it doesn't matter how smart the customer is... he won't buy what he doesn't knows exists. It's not about intelligence.. it's about the desire to explore. You have it or you don't. It seems most people are satisfied with what they have been hand fed by the industry since they were born. That is why the music some of you musicians are claiming have no real value is making billions of dollars. We musicians then have a decision to make. We can make music that our standards acknowledge and hope that people appreciate the hardships and the intelligence that went into every progression and dynamic, or we can make music for their standards and know that it will sell to provide dinner. Unfortunately, while we deal with the quagmire, 100's of unqualified musicians made possible by the advancement of recording technology are making millions from hits aimed at doing just that. So then, who is to blame. Still the public? Or now is it the fault of genius musical engineers inventing products to make their job easier for others to loot and use for a quick dollar. I apologize I'm not a highly educated writer... but i am a thinker... and these were my thoughts.