True enough, but a far cry from the free market developing America's music (think Sun Records). The music industry is dead. Record labels are dying. Maybe someday it will return to the freedom in which it was born.
BTW, if a home-spun band created a Sgt. Pepper etc, it would still rise to prominence. There are few new bands that produce unique new music (more of a blending of what has come before). I do like Audio Slave and a few others.
Being a musician, I can state that with some integrity. The music scene sucks (outside of Jazz, Blues, old Mowtown redux and geezer rock). Yes, I am a geezer!
LLS
What's happening now is pure free market. I know many musicians and they hate the record labels -- there are only five or six major corporations that produce 99.9% of American pop culture. And they despise MTV.
These aren't old farts like me, either. These are young kids. When CBGBs went under, they could care less.
What's fascinating, of course, is that this is global. Some band from Brooklyn will engineer a song in some kid's basement, put it on line, and it'll be played in a club in Greece or Argentina the next night.