Dylan wasn't a slickly marketed package in the early days when he first played little coffeehouses in Greenwich Village. He was a very hardworking young man who learned a tremendous amount of traditional blues and folk material from a tremendous variety of sources. He played music constantly, played everywhere he possibly could, often for no pay, and soon was writing songs constantly. It was the songs he wrote which made his early reputation and which made his career. The "slick marketing" came later, under the tutelage of Albert Grossman, but the early groundwork that made it all possible in the first place was done by the young Bob Dylan himself. His talent got him where he is.

Now, regarding these "pop singers" who are marketed so effectively and whose audiences go nuts when they walk out on a stage...yeah...we're all familiar with the phenomenon. It's kind of the opposite situation to a small folk club.

The fact is, though, that most of those people are darned good at what they do. They wouldn't have got as far as they did if they weren't.

"Do they really deserve such an elevated status?"

In one sense...no. They're not gods, after all. In another sense, though, they do usually deserve some respect for how well they've mastered their craft.

Celine Dionne comes to mind. She's definitely a pop singer, and one who's been brilliantly marketed, and her audience goes nuts when she walks out on the stage. Well, I was never the least bit interested in Celine Dionne...but I accidentally saw some video of her in live concerts a couple of weeks ago....and boy, is she good at what she does! She puts on a great show. She has a lot of help to do it. But without her, it wouldn't be happening, and she is one heck of a fine singer and performer who has worked hard to get where she is.

So I have to respect that, even if she is in a general style of mainstream radio music that I normally pay little or no attention to.