Indeed, your point is unassailable, as usual.
Now
that's just crazy talk...
I'll return to Frank, who said, "If you celebrate mediocrity, you get mediocrity." When the Grammy Awards, etc, hand out those little statues for the truly mediocre, every schmuck watching thinks, "Hey, I could do that!" Of course, they are right - they could do that, but should they?
I agree with your assertion that the democratization of music via advances in technology has resulted in a sea of crap that should not have been made through which one must wade in order to find the jewels (technology helps with that process too). My point is that without the advances which gave a potential audience to those who (in my opinion) shouldn't have one, those who truly should have one probably wouldn't.
Yup - fine line, innit?
And further to my thought that the problem spans all genres, it exists at all levels, too. Turn on a college radio station and you'll hear some cool stuff but hoo boy, you're gonna hear some stuff where you can't believe that a) someone would think it was actually worthy of airplay and b) whoever created it wouldn't be flung into a shame-spiral by the act of hearing their own fecklessness exposed to the world at large. On the other end of the pipe you have legacy acts cashing
out by ladling out goo that doesn't even approach the standards that they themselves have set. As 10CC's Godley and Crème said: Art for art's sake, money for God's sake.
So we wade on...but it sure makes it thrilling when you actually
do root up the odd truffle, doesn't it? Kinda makes it all seem worthwhile...
D.D.
