Quote:
Originally Posted by Surell
I have to agree with listener101, though i hate the 80s, it was an fairly diverse genre what with hip hop becoming more popular and therefore opening up the charts a little bit. It seems like up to a certain point musical exposure is fairly black and white, in the most literal sense. White people only liked their Rock and R&B, and certain black singers, and the Black community had Soul, Funk, and so on. That might be too much of a generalization though, I know some artists were certain breakthroughs or crossovers, but there seems to be a sort of barrier in popularity.
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I was actually thinking about the demographic angle not long ago.
Back in the 60's whites were a bigger portion of the population than they are now - and their music buying power was undoubtedly greater proportionally still. Since they tended to like rock/pop music (plus jazz and classical for the older generations) that's going to have an effect on what sells the most.
Nowadays you've got a more diverse population, and as a result, you've got a wider variety of what's the most popular - and more fragmentation in the industry too.
Back when I was a kid and teenager in the 70's, if you listened to or were aware of maybe about 30 bands, you covered probably what 70% of what the general music-listening population out there listened to. Nowadays the top ~30 bands are probably going to be familiar to maybe only 40% of the listening population (or even less). At least that's the impression I get.
Of course the internet has had a big effect too, but I get the impression the industry would still be more fragmented even without it.