you have to facter in all the access there is to music today and the ad machines that promote it. we never had the ability to download anything or just buy one song (except 45's) so the industry has changed dramaticly in 20yrs. i think they need to change what qualifies as gold or platinum these days. GFR was one of the best selling bands of their era but have never been inducted into the hall of fame??? when the bands of yesteryear were hot and recording we had to save to buy albums and they were'nt cheap (relitively speaking) so it was a lot for a kid to buy one, today its as easy as $0.99 to get just about anything and the kids today buy into the hype. we had AM radio which only played a select small portion of the music that was available and then came FM which promised to play the things we wanted to hear and now there is so many outlets that its no wonder the sales are up. it seems that anybody with the right machine behind them gets to be famous. SAD!!!!! there was a time when you had to be something special to get a deal and it seems nowadays anybody, no matter how bad they suck can get a deal. so it comes as no suprise to me that the music biz is where it is today. some of todays music makers would have been one hit wonders a few yrs ago. i am thinking of people like katie perry and there have always been biebers (think bobby sherman hahaha) but the machine keeps them alive. its always been about the $$$$ but it is very sad how it has gotten. i think in some ways it just another form of the payola days of yesterday. dont get me wrong, just like then today there are some that deserve to be where they are but there are some that should make one song and go home and as it has always been there are some that sould not have even been allowed in the studio. but it boils down to publicity and the machine behind you. my father would never give me money to buy music even though our house was full of it and today its nothing for a kid to buy anything he/she wants thanks to mom and dad. Bands like zepp wernt recording trying to make hits they were recording what they felt that they and their fans enjoyed. bands like GFR were writing songs that were making statements trying to open peoples eyes to problems not planned top 10 hits. today its all run by the hitmakers. John Maher(sp) is a fine example, he came to us first with radio hits and once he got his name out there he started recording songs that he liked that were'nt planned radio hits (you dont hear blues on reg. radio) but he new how to play the machine and he did it well.
