Small contribution: I agree with Jon W. about quality or value of the popular music "as seen on TV". I can see that most of that music IS practically accompaniment and background, while melody is not existent, and harmony is extremely poor. When you try to sing it, it is awful and disappointing. But IF this music(?) is business, and is cheap to produce, nobody will care about quality. Then that will be the new definition of music: an extremely strong vibration of air that makes money.

The concept has reached the cyberspace too: try to make a search on serious music (academic or popular/folk) in any of the main search engines (Yahoo for example), and you will not find anything under the title ARTS. You will find music under ENTERTAINMENT.

Andrés Magré - escamillo@ciudad.com.ar