[KarlInOhio]

Things have gone to hell since Edison invented the gramophone... and get off of my lawn, too!

[KarlInOhio]

Interesting that he includes Beethoven in his list of good music. Read some of the contemporary reviews of his compositions. Cranky old men like Scruton hated them and bemoaned what music had become: “a caricature of Haydn pushed to absurdity.”

[daler]

I will confess to being a little long in the tooth, but I have been saying for years that every female pop singer (with Adele as a possible exception) sounds to me just like the next one.

They even use the same vocal phrasing when singing the Star Spangled Banner, FCOL.

[Stepan12]

Whether we like it or not, when Johannes Brahms recorded his piano playing, people felt as if they don't need to play piano anymore and maybe they're right: Johannes Brahms playing part of his Hungarian Dance # 1

[DiogenesLamp]

Things have gone to hell since Edison invented the gramophone...

Many a true word is said in jest, and in this case you aren't all that far off.

Edison invented both sound recording and video recording. Before he did this, Actors were considered low class, low morals people who were only fit to consort with gamblers, whores and bums.

Their audiences numbered in the thousands at most, and they seldom had any larger impact on the rest of society.

By making it possible to record their performances, their audiences could reach millions, and commensurate money could be paid to them as a result of their expanded reach. They became influential through their performances, their celebrity, and their money.

What Edison did was empower generally Liberal, low moral gutter trash people into power brokers capable of steering the Nation. For example, Ron Howard and Henry Winkler making a "Happy Days" commercial urging people to vote for Obama.

So yeah, by giving these generally immoral, Liberal people a means to acquire power and influence, it is indeed Edison's fault.