Alice,

The great difficulty with doing your own music on CD's and tape is the same problem we all have watching someone else's home video. We as consumers have become so sophisticated in our TV viewing that we expect everything that comes from the screen to be "Broadcast" quality. The same thing happens with music. My grandfather worked in a radio station in Bristol, TN. in the early 1920's. I still have some of the "original" recordings that were made at that station of folks like the Carters, and other local folks. If you listen to them, and ignore the limitations of the equipment of the day, you hear musical mistakes, missed queues, and sometimes short bursts of disharmony, coughs, etc. The music however, is real. It is unpolished. In short, it was live. One recording, one time. Would that level of quality be acceptable on CDs, tapes, or radio today? I doubt it.

Unfortunately the entire music industry, pop, R & B, folk, rap, whatever, is all driven by one common element - MONEY. Performers are seldom chosen for stardom because of musical talent, but rather, because of their image.

Those of us here at the Mudcat Café seem to be driven by our love of music. We have all performed for friends and family, perhaps even for the local church or civic group. When was the last time any Mudcatter turned down a chance to perform because they were not going to be paid? Maybe a few of you are in that genre, but most of us are not.

I think the original question dealt more the question of whether or not money would have a damaging influence on what we call folk music. If people got rich with folk music, would the nature of the music change? Honestly, I believe it would.