[harangatang]

When Elton John was asked about his thoughts of the Ashlee Simpson lipsynching inident a few years his answer was the best description of the modern music industry. His response was that music industry no longer exists as it has become strictly the entertainment industry. There are good musical artists out there today such as Michael Buble but they don't reach the mainstream. In the mid to late '90's music itself started to push back with the onset of punk-ska and neo-swing genres seeing brief mainstream success. Ska-punk bands like No Doubt, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Reel Big Fish tore up the radio with punk, reggae, and ska elements with catchy horn riffs and upbeat guitars. Neo-swing bands such as the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy started playing upbeat swing with horns, piano, etc. The lack of sustained mainstream success can be attributed to a couple things. First of all the lack of depth of the quality of bands attributed to an overall infiltration of the radio. The second and most important thing was the lack of the demand of the quality of music by the consumer. Most people these days don't want music. They would rather have the Britney Spears type acting like she's all innocent or a rapper rhythmically reciting erotic lyrically poetry to a 10 second cut of a Stevie Wonder song. It's really ashame that music hasn't improved with technology and it's kind of weird to note a retrogression in the quality with improved technology.