I mentioned in a "Paul is dead" thread about buying a 10 CD compilation of Detroit radio going from 1956 to 2011. Having listened to the whole thing, I realize how far radio has fallen. I think more kids today go to YouTube for music than turn on the radio--and who could blame them? Commercial radio is just that--commercials in large blocks separated by a song or two. This is just blatant money-grabbing. There is obviously no concern for the music, just play the commercials and get paid for it and play just enough music to justify your existence. They'd play commercials 24/7 if they could get away with it.

YouTube is a double-edged sword. An excellent repository of music but also home to a lot of mediocrity. Not that that is bad by itself--it gives anybody a chance to be heard--but, according to a source I read, the most watched video clip of 2011 was "Friday" by Rebecca Black. I guess I didn't help by then watching it myself, but how do you know how good it is if you don't? I didn't get more than 45 seconds through it and turned it off. It was terrible. Rebecca Black makes me look like a musical genius but evidently a huge number of people disagree judging from the number of hits she's gotten on that clip. You can count mine on one hand. But her song is horrible--it stinks. Same with her singing. I mean, I've seen 9-year-old kids at singing contests that could belt it out with amazing skill and talent and yet this horrible song and it's horrible singer gets to have the most watched video of 2011. I heard kids who love it and think it's music and I don't know what to say.

Rebecca Black couldn't have made it on the radio. Her popularity is unique to being on YouTube. But because radio has made itself unlistenable, people tune into this stuff and then the radio is forceed to play it to compete. And so there is this downward spiral.

"American Idol" and "America Has Talent" are also culprits as is the entire reality TV genre which elevates the mediocre and outright rotten performers the coveted rank of "celebrity." And it's disheartening but not all that shocking what behavior people will stoop to get themselves on TV. If eating cat turds out of a litter box would get someone noticed on TV then someone will do it.

But the real problem is that this is no longer the exception. William Hung was a joke when he first assaulted our ears on TV but frankly I don't find him any worse than Rebecca Black.

Radio once acted as a barrier to weed out the talentless wastes of time who crawl willy-nilly around the lower rungs of the recording industry like cockroaches hoping to find their way up. But now radio has driven younger listeners to those roaches and have opened the door for them. The kids love the cockroaches today.

When I was 13 or 14, I still knew what good music was. The first record album I ever bought with my own hard-earned money (delivering papers) was "Nilsson Schmilsson". Why? I heard it on the radio and I liked it. My next album was "In the Court of the Crimson King" because, again, I heard it on the radio and liked it. There is nothing equivlaent for younger listeners of radio today who have to wade through 10 minutes of commercials to hear 3 minutes of music.

Kelly Clarkson isn't a bad singer--better than I'll ever be--but she is no Laura Nyro, no Janis Joplin, no Judy Collins, no Joni Mitchell. Some will no doubt dispute it but to me I don't think there's any denying these aforementioned ladies are several cuts above Kelly Clarkson. And the idea of buying the CDs and seeing the concerts of someone who made her name winning on "Idol" is just downright creepy.   Talk about media manipulation! And don't you Brits start on me--you have Susan Boyle and she's even worse.

Same with what's left of rock music. Green Day sucks. So does Radiohead and Coldplay. But they are the top rock acts. Why? Because they are pretty much all there is to choose from. And kids today accept this because they not only have no choice, they aren't even aware of how bad it is.

Why are in a downward spiral in so many ways all at the same time. It's quite remarkable. But when and how does it end??