Well, as someone who makes their living in the music industry, I'll tell you that we've had these discussions over and over again, but if you step back, little has changed in the last 35 or so years. People always remember the 'gool old days', but forget the number of horrible artists and one-hit wonders that were around then. "
Horse Manure !! Since the deregulation of the radio stations people like Disney and Clear Channel have swooped in and bought up all the great stations that had any credibility and completely screwed them up.
Example: I have a good friend, Geno Michellini who was THE most popular afternoon DJ in L.A. He worked for the classic rock station KLOS. Disney bought the station and fired all the high dollar personalities and hired some college kid, minimum wage workers to spin records using their format. The way the rating systems work, it took them 2 years to figure their system was in the toilet so they hired Geno back but would only let him play the songs they listed. And get this, if he plays one out of order by accident, they'll stop him and make him start over. It's such controlling horse manure. It totally cuts the artist out of the process.
Very much has changed my friend. Your response reminds me a lot of most of the industry execs I've heard in the past 2 decades. "We're just giving the people what they want", is there mantra. More fertilizer for the lawn. Hungry people eat what they're fed. Yes there were the "Disco Ducks" and other one hit wonders back then but they actually were "Good Old Days" because the music wasn't controlled and it didn't suck. I could live with that small percentage of fluff as long as I got the other 99.8% of great music.
