Why Don't More People Love Audio?

Few people have ever developed a musical sense of sound, especially that of acoustic instruments and their subtleties. I suspect this is because the pop music with which we are inundated in public places and on most radio stations was essentially made for harsh Sony and Alpine car systems w/ thumpin' bass, or for computer speakers, or even for phones and MP3 players. It was conceived of from its very beginning as a sequence of thumps, saccharine riffs, insipid squeaking, anything but a rich and complex mix of tones. If that's what people want to listen to, I certainly don't begrudge them that... but to such people, the refinements of AR and Vandersteen are understandably irrelevant.

We live in a visual world....listening to music requires an attention committment most will not make...many have not been raised to play instruments or love music.

""Audiophile" recording techniques work best on acoustic music, so it's unlikely that many "audiophile" recordings of hard rock, hip hop, R&B, or rap will be produced. These are the kinds of music that appeal to the largest segment of the public today"
wanderingbob Jul-19-02 Audioreview.com

This was posted back when Audioreview was the best audio site on the internet IMO.

It all starts at the source and if no audiophile recordings exist, why spend big $$$ on an audiophile system. EG if you listen to crap recordings, why get a high resolution system which will only uncover more of the recording crap?
Bad recordings sound worse on a hi-res system than a low res system.

Maybe they're watching "us" (audiophiles) and think "we're" crazy!

people do love audio. It is just that peoples definition of what real audio is has changed. When I was a younger fella if you owned a Pioneer reciever with a Dual turntable and a set of J.B.L speakers you were big time. If you sit most people down in front of a $3.000.00 system and put on their favorite tunes they will say that it sounds fantastic, and you know what it probally does sound just fine. Does some lonely audio geek gushing over the improved sound staging that he is getting with his new interconnects that he paid for with all the money that he saved by never dating, sound on his 1950 era mono recording of some classical stuff that he does not even like really represent someone who is really into music.