[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Streaming audio is truly revolutionary in many respects. That, coupled with the immediate access that most everybody can have to the Internet these days, (as opposed to running out to the record stores - which will also eventually be obsolete in my book - except for the 2nd hand ones ;-), means that music can be readily accessible and available.

And yes, that makes us listeners out here instant critics ;-).

I remember thinking a couple of decades ago "who the h@ll would pay money for a POS music like "My Sharona"" [one of THE most annoying songs to my taste EVER ;-], but enough people did to make it profitable for the songwriters.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I remember thinking a couple of decades ago "who the h@ll would pay money for a POS music like "My Sharona"" [one of THE most annoying songs to my taste EVER ;-], but enough people did to make it profitable for the songwriters.

To paraphrase: "No one ever went broke under-estimating the taste of the American public."

I'm a big Howard Stern fan (see above), and every so often, Howard will play clips from the Billboard Top 5. Invariably, it's some of the most God-awful music ever produced by man or machine, and it all sounds exactly the same, yet it sells. Evidentally this garbage is worth something to someone.

Same thing with American Idol: who the hell is watching that? Who the hell thinks what they do there is music? Someone does, I guess, because those clods aren't going away anytime soon.

So this, in a nutshell, is America. We all like to think we have some taste, but really, the lowest common denominator is where the rubber meets the road.