All of them I think.
There's lots of interesting stuff out there now. I don't know if there is a Bach or a Mozart toiling away outside the top 20, but if there is, he can get to us via the internet now if the big production houses turn him away.
With the availability and expansion of internet radio, I'm listening to Paris radio stations, Argentinian radio stations, you name it. The other night I parked on a Bosnian station for hours. Just folk music, but I was absolutely captivated by it. The time just flew by. I never could have done that with this kind of fidelity just 10 years ago.
Beyond that, I'm finding old ditties that my grandfather used to sing like The Night Pat Murphy Died. I didn't find that being sung in the background in a Ken Burns period piece on PBS, I found that on ITunes of all places! Unbelievable.
I do agree that the Beyonce type media constructions are forgettable. They could be CGI for all we know. The performances of those stars remind me of workout shows.
Britney Spears. Remember her? You couldn't get away from her name, it was EVERYWHERE, but I couldn't remember a damn thing she sang, nor could I recognize her voice from any of a dozen others on the radio at the time.
But that's all top 20 stuff. Those lists are ruled by kids. Kids have entertainment money to burn. Their taste is rebellious and loud and centered around sex. That's fun as hell when you are 16. Nothing wrong with it. We used to crank Metallica and Molly Hatchet. Our elders looked at our leather jackets and long hair and musical taste and called us thugs and losers. Metallica has stuck around and I cut my hair and got a real job, but I last saw Molly Hatchet playing to a small throng of 40-something people in mullets and acid washed jeans at a local fair. Dreams I'll Never See came to mind, but was not on the playlist.
Richard has a good point. We sound like old people. My grandparents thought Buddy Holly was a cute kid, but not very talented. They were used to big band guys and personalities like Louis Prima and Satchmo. Coming from that, I could see them questioning the spare, seemingly simple work of Holly. My dad thought 70s music was awful. All of it. No melody worth remembering and mostly noise. He once did some telephone work for "some scruffy looking guy named Dy-lan in Woodstock." He didn't even recognize the name! Now, he listens to the Eagles as if for the first time. "Where were these guys?" he asks. "Geez, EVERYWHERE" I reply. I forget that he was working overtime then and the little that could make it into his consciousness at the time all probably sounded the same. Everytime he turned on the radio he probably heard Blowin' in the Wind, More Than A Feeling or Afternoon Delight.
In modern pop I find interesting people. The Carolina Chocolate Drops are incorporating old folk - hornpipe and reel type stuff - in their music along with modern rhythms and instruments, just create music; Mumford and Sons is acoustic and about as far as you can get from the top 20 sound, but they've created a popular following with their intensity; Zac Brown is fun country music, but it sticks to you and their enthusiasm is infectious; Adele put an adjustment on the expectations of what you can do with popular music with the album 21. I didn't bother to sample it for quite a while because I thought she was just another marketing creation. Whoops.
And I'm not even mentioning virtuosos and artists in Jazz, Blues and instrumental genres. Or discoveries, like Susan Boyle, who may not be an artist, but who serves to remind everyone that talent isn't restricted to those who look like Beyonce and the internet age can find you an audience that 20 years ago would have been off limits.
I love the age we're in. The best of the past is available in a variety of formats and current music from all over the world is more discoverable than ever.
