Sure they're doing something about the more underhanded methods of ensuring a company's music is going to be heard, but it doesn't really change the general concept...

The sad truth is that the majority of the record buying public expects (perhaps not consciously) to be told what to listen to and therefore buy. It's not like a large proportion of record sales come from people that have put some thought and research into their preferences. They listen to the snippets of music that have been squeezed between the radio ad breaks and later go home and watch MTV. These media formats will tell them what's hot, and what's hot will rarely be overly adventurous.

Then again, I do on occasion hear/see new material I like through the mass media.

None of the above need necessarily apply to music though; is it laziness, or maybe apathy that causes the majority of society to want to be spoonfed?

Another thought: I like music. It is an important part of my life. For many people this is not the case. I know some people that can't actually sit down and listen to a CD. It's just something they put on in the background. These people will still buy records though. I suspect the people I normally interact with are not a standard cross-section of the music buying population. Perhaps most people don't really care as much.

//The sad truth is that the majority of the record buying public expects (perhaps not consciously) to be told what to listen to and therefore buy.

I think the apathy/laziness call is unfair, and untrue - I think it's more likely that people are conditioned into finding out about new music in particular ways, and to a certain extent conditioned into the kind of music that they'll enjoy. Outside the main centres, and for the pre-18 bracket I think most obvious music options have traditionally offered a pretty narrow range of music, so that's what people get used to hearing. And it's not just the fault of big business - it's environment, society, family, friends, church...you get a kid whose parents listen to campus radio all the time he's not going to be going out hunting for Britney because of apathy or corporate brainwashing.

Anyway, if people don't know what they're missing then they're less likely to worry about looking further afield for something more satisfying. And if they do look further afield - switch to a different station for example - it's likely they won't like what they hear at first, which'll put them off. But it is more the issue of the "background noise" crowd. They listen to particular music not because they like music but because it's familiar to them. Anyone that's really into music has an innate desire to actually explore a lot more - even if they started out liking the ubiquitous top 40 stuff (and I trust that most of us probably did) their tastes are constantly evolving.

yeah, and what Heather said - one of my office friend's fellow-workers actually said if it's a type of music he's not used to, it makes him anxious ... he might not notice it, but it does ... it's asking him to notice or something. even if it's as luscious and friendly and drop-dead gorgeous as Robert Scott's terrific song Fog And Wind, that un-plastic honest made-by-next-door-genius sound isn't heard often enough to be background music for some people.

RE low pay... I know I'm oversimplifying this, but commercial radio is supposed to be about selling airtime to advertisers for the most money possible, right? You would think that playlisting popular/'artistically meritous' music would increase the station's listenership, and therefore the potential value of the station's advertising space... but I guess playlisting itself tends to influence what a listenership thinks is popular or artistically meritous. Easier/safer for a station to be a sheep farmer than a game hunter, but not as fun...

//the living hell of having to listen to commercial radio

reminds me of Lou Reed's career - got a wage (a good one?) writing sickly sweet commercial tunes when he was young - learnt the formula and then subverted it amazingly in writing music for himself - when you listen to a whole lotta Velvet Underground (and not the cool-to-like cool-cat tunes either) you can really hear the sweet commercial sound in the background - a whole lotta pop underpinning and working to do different things other than the usual commercial soylent green sedative pacifier thing.

//literature would evolve from written word to sung

wow - did he realise he was talking about a de-evolution of a type (not privileging anything here) - but of a time when we humans didn't have the written word and used our memories a bit more, putting massive narratives into massive songs to be passed on orally ...

... the Iliad or the Odyssey came out of the oral tradition ... imagine them as songs - mindblowing ... a festival would be set up around them - Big Odyssey Out. or you could ask the storyteller to concentrate on selected tracks ... awesome. storyteller as iPod.

absolutely agree

that's why concept albums are the shizzle - 40-70 minute ruminaitons on a theme

can you imagine being in the ozzie outback and a local native storyteller walks up to you and blurts a bunch of senseless 4 minute tirades in your face frenetically trying to keep your attention - enticing you to spend spend SPEND - and flashing pix of half-naked chicks - and repeating brand-names over and over - and so the metaphore stretches and stretches

and another job - double shifts in a kiwifruit factory in katikati - i'd switch the radio to the concert program and see how long it took someone to erupt into swearing and belligerently march over and switch it back to the rock or whatever the hell it was - man you wouldn't believe the ire it would provoke in folks

long live the kiwifruit season and all the fellow shiftworkers i knew before