Let me know the next time you hear Spice Girls on a classic rock/pop station. The music people went in for the quick kill with them, Brittney Spears, etc. Bruce Springsteen, if he was starting out today, would never succeed in today's music industry. They are looking for someone who starts out hot, with no effort towards growing someones career.

The beancounter effect in the music industry.

>That sounds like so much piffle. Our grandparents, getting down to songs like "Shine on Harvest Moon", "Some Enchanted Evening", etc., etc., would have said the same about the young upstarts like Glenn Miller, Judy Garland. And so on through the generations.
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>Yeah, we might like to sing along with the Drifters, Elvis, Neil Young, (heaven forfend) Bruce Springstein, The Bangles, White Snake or whatever, but who's to say which will or won't be classics. Besides, with the exponential growth of the musice industry and new bands, there'll be more to choose from.
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>In the UK BBC Radio 2 is the bastion of "yesteryear" music - such that the kids' parents will listen to. Back in my 20s I'd never have admitted listening to it, and indeed it didn't feature much of my then current taste. Now they play tracks that would have been totally outlandish back then, i.e. tunes of MY era. I noticed that even back in the 80s, the likes of Billy Joel and Billy Idol were already creeping in.
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>If one of these young upstarts suddenly brings out a cracking tune it will stand on its own merits as a classic or not, probably outliving the group/band/artist itself. Just look at the long list of one-hit-wonders around that are classics: Oh, I don't know .. Uptown Top-Rankin' springs to mind.
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>>I read an article in the LA Times calendar section about the music industry a year or so ago. Many industry executives were conceeding that most of today's music is throwaway. Very few songs of today will show up on the "Classic" stations of tomorrow.
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>>>Mike,
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>>>> a show that is watched by 30 to 40 million viewers per episode.... Out of a claimed 50 million votes
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>>>40 million person hours to watch the show, and maybe 100 million person minutes spent voting.. what a waste of human potential.
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>>>>Thoughts? Predictions?
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>>>Who of any of these people involved will be respected musicians 50 years from now? I doubt that any of these "manufactured by the industry" performers will be around in even 10 years. The whole concept of this show has really irked me from the inception. .. trying to decide which of my CDs originally recorded in the 60's I'll pop in the player... or what band I might go downtown to see play at a club or festival this weekend. hmmm Ruthie Foster is playing a free show tonight at Unplugged at the Grove might just have to start the weekend early.