Why did the last 4T have so much better music than this 4T?

[David Horn]

(03-08-2017, 12:45 PM)Kinser79 Wrote: I would say it depends on what you're listening to.  If you're listening to underground rock, underground hip hop/reggaeton there is a lot of good music out there.  If you're listening to the Top 40, well it's been garbage for decades---at least since the end of the 2T.  There is a reason for that.  Underground music is typically done for the sake of the art itself, the Top 40 is to make as much profit out of selling ad time on the radio and therefore caters to the lowest common denominator.

That being said I've been listening to a lot of salsa lately but that's mostly because I hired a lot of Puerto Ricans.  At least the Top 40 on the Spanish language stations is significantly better than the English language stations.

In a way, that was my point.  The music scene is a music-mall full of narrowly focused boutiques.  Many have really great music, and a tiny audience.  The old model allowed for the building of a Great Songbook; think Cole Porter or the Beatles.  They had wide and diverse audiences that absorbed the music and made it Great.  That's not to say that all of it really was, but that's the meme we've accepted.

FWIW, I grew up on Jazz, and that's always been great.  The audience has never been large.  That takes nothing away but the fame.