Why does "crap" still dominate the radio?

WOW! Its been so long since I updated this. I have been terribly negligent, and for that, I apologize. I have so much going on. I have been working at the studio, building www.zsteele.com, and trying to get more freelance work, all at the same time, on top of a few other endeavors. But enough excuses…

I have been receiving some very good questions via email, facebook, etc. I will respond to as many as I can via this blog and Youtube. I am starting with this question:

Why is the radio still dominated by crap?

There are several answers that make sense to me. It is easier to make music with little or no budget. It is easier to promote music to an enormous audience with Internet marketing becoming increasingly important.

There is also the idea that it doesn’t matter what you know, it matters WHO you know. Crappy artists get signed to labels that have a lot of pull on radio stations. Blah.

I think all of those answers are irrelevant in comparison to this one:

The music you think is “crap” is greatly enjoyed by millions.

Everybody has different experiences, and evaluates their music, along with the rest of their life, through a different lens. Some people identify with the energy and style that Soulja Boy presents. Most of these people are teenagers, and I’m sure a great deal of them are girls. So if you don’t like it… you aren’t really supposed to.

Then there are other people who live a completely different lifestyle, and can’t identify with that music at all. Maybe they can identify more with a rock band that is angry at the world.

In addition I think there are a few different things that people like about music, and everyone’s criteria is different. Do you like music with a good beat and could care less about the lyrics? Do you like music with thoughtful or poetic language? Do certain songs just speak to you, and you have no idea why you like them, and feel like you probably shouldn’t tell anyone that you like it because it is someone who you and your friends have a general distaste for?

Long story short, different people like different shit. In fact I think I like a lot of the music I hear on the radio. There, I said it.