Why Music Has Lost it’s Charms (Article)

Commerical music now and then ... Has always been commercial (sellable) because it was what people wanted to listen to of what was available.

For sure you can repeat fact that are not even wrong... And call that the truth...

Or you can try to understand what i spoke about....

When Josquin Des Prez was dead, all Europe was sad....Not because they lost a commercial artist.... Guess why they were sad?

When Scriabin died in Russia it was the same lost all across Russia...

it was the lost of a popular artist idolized for his non economical value...

But you can call the deal with the devil also a "commercial" affair because the soul is sellable...A popular deal in some circle dont make it a commercial affair though ...

Anyway the devil dont consumate souls , he is very picky... Very educated ...He choose...

By definition,commercial culture is the death of culture... Consumerism created by Freud nephew is destruction of human soul and spirit...It was anticipated by Bernard Mandeville, before Marx and Freud , "the master of us all" said the austrian economist Hayek ...

Unlike the WEF said, conditioning of mind by consumerism is not education...

Commercial music is not first and last thought about to be a musical fact and to be produced like one ....It is something created to be sell...It is not created to be "art"....

It is the reason why i distinguish popular music and commercial music...It is not a clear cut absolute distinction for sure but this dont invalidate my point... Bob Dylan is a popular true artist.... Not primarily a commercial product...

I couldn't agree more. I've always loved CCR, Chicago, B,S&T etc.

Now it's time to accept those days are well and truly behind us. To be honest they are dead and gone; never to return. In part you can blame the proliferation of the so called Talent shows; Talent-less might be more appropriate.

There's still excellent music being recorded, but not what might be classified as popular.
 

@sns Yeah, I agree.  The access we have today to music from any era is amazing.  It’s awesome.  I wish I had it in my 20s.

I agree with those that find the popular mode of modern music consumption unceremonious and utilitarian, just an endless, homogeneous matrix of files.

However, no one twists our arm to only stream and only listen to digital files.  One can still listen to music in any format.  I would just like to see something where this more immediate, fluid music commerce of today could also provide artists with better pay!

There is an incredible variety of great music still being created all the time. One just has to keep an open mind and be curious and willing to put the time in to search it out. I find great new music literally almost every day. I also don’t limit myself to a narrow scope of genres. For me there is truly only two types of music - good and bad. I just saw Damien Jurado (incredible acoustic show in a small converted church in Fayetteville, AR), saw Jimmy Buffet in Rogers, AR recently, I’m seeing Ray Wylie Hubbard at Cains Ballroom in Tulsa this Friday, Kaleo in Tulsa soon, followed by Marty Stuart and Junior Brown in Eureka Springs, then War on Drugs again here in Bentonville, followed by Dave Mason & Saucerful of Secrets at The Tulsa Theater in October. May even see Boz Scaggs in VA in early August. I’m all over the place in terms of genres because there is great music to be found all over the map. There are older musicians in the concert mix for me currently, but it’s not always this way for me. I’m just not interested in the mainstream corporate music, but that’s not a new phenomenon. There will always be the Budweiser of music playing in arenas and stadium with crappy acoustics (although I have to say I enjoyed Garth Brooks at Razorback Stadium earlier this year). Anyone that says there is no good music any more isn’t making the effort.

@bigtwin 

"You haven't become your father"

I am 67 as well and when I was in my teens, I not only listened to popular music, but also to old blues guys like Howlin' Wolf, Otis Spann and John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers. I listened to the Mills Brothers, Al Jolson and Patsy Cline.

You know why I listened to them. Because they were great artists and what made them popular in their day, still resonated with me. Good music lasts.

Why are there so many "oldies" stations these days? Because the 60's and 70's were the golden age of popular music. It's not nostalgia, it's that the music was just that great.