[ClearCase_guy]

Yeah. And there's always been bubblegum. Look at the Monkees -- they were manufactured bubblegum too, so this isn't totally new. But at the same time the Monkees were singing tin pan alley songs, you had Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and many others who were really trying to do something with their music.

Now, the Jonas Brothers are about the best we can do. Monkees with less talent.

[wbarmy]

I take personal offense at the slander of the Monkees. Some of their songs hold up far better than any of those other guys you were putting on pedestals. “Take the last Train to Clarksville” was a really good song and talked about a soldier being deployed to Vietnam. Only those people who knew what Clarksville was got the song.

[GOPJ]

Monkees with less talent.

LOL - great way to turn a phrase...

Here's what I think happened: the baby-boomers blocked out the culture when they were coming of age - what they thought was great - WAS GREAT. And being young - boomers wanted music. That caused the most talented - to move toward the power, prestige and influence of music.

A few decades later, the most talented moved toward computers. Many decades before it was exploration - before that "art"... and on and on. The best and brightest find what's hot - always have. Look at the quality of film makers in the 20's and 30's... a time the industry was being invented - the best were pulled in.

People with the intellects of a Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, or Paul Simon move to where the competition is keenest and the fields wide open. In today's world, I doubt any of them would have gone into music.