The Prisoner Song and the Wreck of Old '97 were multi-million selling hits in their day, regarded by many people as that "bad music that is selling like hotcakes these days", who then bemoaned that kids had forgotten the good stuff like Billy Murray and the Peerless Quartet, or the original charttopper, John Phillip Sousa--that had been equally popular, a generation before--"How Long Blues" by Leroy Carr and Snapper Blackwell appparently sold millions as well--The same is true of many other old songs--the were once wildly popular, in that same "music machine" that some of you are now mercilessly trashing--it's just that now times have changed, and people like something else--
The same with "classical" music, it was once "popular" music, if you don't believe me, go read up on Johann Strauss, and the crowds that descended every night on the cafe where his orchestra played--and they danced all night! Not to mention the tradition of Opera--talk about playing to the teeming masses!
I love "traditional" music, and think that the community that has built up around it is wonderful, because it preserves music that is fun and sometimes great, and because continues a tradition of performing tradition that seems at times to be in danger of completely disappearing--
The one thing that disturbs me is that there is an almost ritual habit of making vicious and hateful attacks on other music forms, justified, I guess, because they have big audiences and the artists seem to generate a lot of money--and made more troubling because contemporary music has such clear and strong roots in traditional music--
The folk and traditional music scene and shouldn't be compared to the pop music world--if you want to make a lot of money with your music, you should cross over to it and do what it takes to succeed there(as many have) and not complain that what you're doing here hasn't been embraced by the world at large(please note--most folk and traditional performers don't do this, at least not much;-))-- Today's pop music is, after all, the traditional music of tomorrow--
End of sermon