Interesting this, and people's attitude to pop musicians like Lilly. She's not talentless; if she was she'd just be doing kareoki retreads of other old songs, and the fact her voice isn't the strongest is also irrelevant. She appeals to a segment of the market and is reaping the benefits thereof. The problems for talented musicians start with record company people listening to a new album that has been months in the making, then saying "sorry, we don't hear a hit single, so we're not promoting the album", but refusing to release the artist to go elsewhere in case she has a hit and they look stupid, carrying on the fiasco for three years. That's what happened to Aimee Mann. When she finally got her own label together and started to use the Internet she actually started to make more money than at any previous time in her life. I'm managing to discover more new music at the moment than I can possibly afford to buy, just through magazines like The Word, BBC 6Music and support acts with bands I see live, like Courtney Tidwell, who was supporting Andrew Bird, who I first heard on 6Music, and The Joy Formidable who were supporting Howling Bells, who I also first heard several years ago on 6Music. Last night I saw Metric, a truly awesome live act, who I first heard several years ago, where else but 6Music, along with Stars, Arcade Fire, Death Cab For Cutie, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Black Mountain, The Dears, Broken Social Scene, and loads of others. Heidi Talbot, who I saw on Wednesday with Eddi Reader I heard on Bob Harris one evening and bought the album, and other recent purchases as a result of a chance radio play include Sunny Day Sets Fire, The Seal Cub Clubbing Club, (really, bought in Fopp yesterday), Monkey Swallows The Universe and School Of Seven Bells. There's also Wolf Parade, Baskery, Asobi Seksu...
The point is there is staggering amounts of quality music within easy reach, a lot of it doing very nicely via word-of-mouth, before the t'interweb gets involved. Of course, some find it more difficult if their music occupies a smaller 'niche', but the biggest problem has been down to this governent and it's stupid music licencing policies, which at long last people are waking up to and belatedly trying to do something about it.
On a serious note, it does annoy me the talentless likes of Lily Allen, but the general population isn't into the niche artists others appreciate.
