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Originally Posted by beyondnerd
I wonder what your thoughts are in regard to the reason behind why certain music fills the bulk of the airwaves and other music (e.g. prog) is marginalized to venues such as "the internet and related technologies". Are you of the opinion that a goverment/megaconglomerate controlled/influenced marketplace shapes the tastes of society or are you of the impression that some of us are born "bees" and while most are born flys.
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BN: Excellent question. Like Neo realized in the last Matrix movie, the matrix can control virtually our entire lives, but it can't ultimately remove human choice from the equation. Now, if the "powers that be" were unable to influence the listening populace, the art of propoganda would be non-existence. The fact that there is such a thing as propoganda is testament to the influence a broadcaster can have. Given that, are they actively trying to influence our tastes? I believe the answer to that is yes, personally. It makes the market more predictable for them. They don't have to work as hard.
This does not exempt us the consumer from our responsibility. If we choose to be blind sheep, shame on us. Now, if we had a true free market in broadcasting, the medium would be much more likely to meet a diversity of tastes. Though we have not traditionally had anything close to a free market, the listener must ultimately be held responsible for their tastes.