Pop music is an interesting study. I don't know if I think less of Adele and Taylor Swift, both of whom write great songs and are good vocalists, but only nominally play guitar, and more of the 60's poppers who weren't allowed to play in the studio. Frankly I saw great musicians in the 60's, few though they were, all the way to today, where monster guitarists are everywhere you listen, still playing for peanuts. I think the currency is so devalued today that you have to be willing to starve your entire career, or have some look that can be exploited by the same old machine that has controlled music for 100 years.

All that said, there is an amazing music scene in east Tennessee if you take time to find it. The problem I have is promoting to a fractured market ad getting a crowd on a regular basis big enough to pay good artists.

captainkona, your racism is showing

Indeed.

In fact, there's so much extraordinary music being made now - in all genres and from throughout the world - that I think we're living in the midst of a very rich, fertile, and deeply creative period for music.

The challenge these days is how to discover it - simply because there's so much and you don't have the limitations - and the "filter" - imposed by production and distribution controlled by a limited number of record companies and media outlets. But, as Somebody points out above, there was plenty of fluff around in those days - and much of what we love and revere now, seldom if ever hit the airwaves in its heyday. I remember when hearing the "long version" of "Whole Lotta Love" on the radio was almost revolutionary - and artists like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young didn't hit the mainstream radio airwaves until their third or fourth solo albums, much less Cream, Zappa, Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, etc.

There's some truth in that video but some of the conclusions drawn or the so-called "analysis" presented is pretty suspect.

Thanks for the Big Ears nod...there's wonderful music to be discovered there by anyone willing to dive in.

Cheers!