A non commercially motivated piece of music can be a popular one and often is...
All commercial pieces did not have some artistic value though...And this junk dominate many communication chanels...
The writer of these article wrote about the ratio Popular music versus purely commercially motivated music, this ratio resembling more nowadays to a slippery slope toward mediocrity...In the sixties for example he was right, the ratio commercially motivated and musical quality was very good and better than today ON OFFICIAL MEDIAS ... He did not claim that there exist no more good musicians... They are marginalized...And anyway the musical education standard is lower in all scools for money reason and anyway music is perceived to be useless for most people...
This writer will never negateand he did not that the quantity of true great artists all over the world surpass anything in the past...it is a demographical fact....But there is no musical education in general and a total ignorance of any different musical instruments or different cultural styles out of traditional modern popular and/or commercial one in North America... Most young are not exposed to higher quality music, dont listen it first, and dont even know jazz or classical, they have no idea about Chinese, Indian , Persian, Turkisch music too etc...
They dont understand music, they "taste" it like a Macdo burger asking for a Macdo burger till their death...Trump is very rich, guest what he eat?
Music must be learned....
But in the North American medias and channels, no education, no publicity for world great musicians... Have you ever listen to the marvellous sarangi in north america ?
Where and when ?
Dont project your prejudices on the writer of this article try to understand his point....
Yes we are lucky those of us who appreciate music high spiritual meaning to listen now to more great musicians living than in all the past...yes...It is a demographical fact...
But north American masses are keep in chains and in conditioned slavery by marketing and schooling methods of the corporate empire, in all fields of life, and in music too...
We are on the verge of self destruction and some will claim that this is their "taste" and they are free to want it...