Merry Christmas, Lucky...

I don't think your example holds water...The guy on the cruise ship is bringing visceral enjoyment to others. The drug addict, most would grant, is A-likely hurting or harming (directly) only himself...and B-Engaging in probable illegal behavior.

We'd both agree some musicians out there (perhaps me?) should be locked up until hell freezes over, but I digress...

I think quality music, like water finds its own level. To the masses, KISS were a far, far greater musical entity than was Kansas. You ask most musicians, and you get a totally different answer.

You listen to the stars of today's music. I think they have some amazing chops. What I think they lack is mainly the "fill in the blank with the word of your choice" that I'd call "taste." The wild, excessive mutilations of the melody at the end of phrases, especially drive me crazy. I think its mostly style and little substance. Just because you can swoop and vocally riff on some string of notes doesn't mean you should. It seems to be flash for the sake of flash. Brittany Spears, Mariah Carey, etc...they all seem to do this a lot.

But they are vastly more popular than me, Gary, Donnie, Mason, Dave M., Kingfrog, etc. What they do has mass appeal, for sure.

Are they the "standard" in today's pop music...yes and that tells us alot about the audiences...As was said earlier, Bach, Gershwin, Dylan were all told their art was no good...The burden on us is to be open enough to the music of today as to not miss the new geniuses at work. If we can be strong enough musically to put our feelings and loyalties aside and really listen to the music of today, (yes, its painfully hard sometimes...), we may find some pretty cool stuff.

Are the kings like Pavarotti forgotten? Not hardly...But consider who The king of the high C's was working with in the last years of his life...mostly pop stars...

...and that, courtesy of Luciano Pavarotti himself, perhaps brings us full circle...

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Bill in Dayton