Why Music Has Lost it’s Charms (Article)

They made music because they were paid to whether by church or as often nobility. For money, the definition of commercial. No one else could afford such frivolities to commission work. However, it was also consumed by the masses .. so popular and commercial though of what competition I can’t speak.

You are beside the main point...

There ALWAYS existed commercial aspect to any activities in all centuries..It is a common place fact...

But my point was that commercial music consumerism is a late affair... It is born AFTER playback system of Charles Cros and Edison...

Popular music of the past is not commercial music in the modern sense of the word...

Popular dont equal commercial in music culture....

In the past music was an education toward spirit and religious matter or toward beauty and superior values... This word "beauty" is cancelled today....

This dont exist no more in commercial music...

Nowadays Bob Dylan is a popular poet for example not a commercial object first and last...

If you say to Dylan that he is  merely a commercial product , he will be insulted...

If you say that to some commercial artists they will be glad and will try to improve their packaging and they will ask you how to do it better....

Then saying that Vivaldi one hundred operas were "commercial" music is not true...

Popular yes... Commercial not....We cannot read the past projecting onto it retrospectively our own categories sorry...Historians wrote entire  books about this error only....

Forrest for the trees.

Commerical music now and then ... Has always been commercial (sellable) because it was what people wanted to listen to of what was available.

@tylermunns  Couldn't agree more! I've given up on major film releases. The best movies are now on various streaming services in the form of the mini series, you get some damn character development. I much prefer the classic movies/film on TCM, I guess people don't care about story lines anymore, action and escape from reality is what they seek. I don't care about the tenth remake of some lame movie which seems to be profit model for theatrical releases these days.

Contemporary music nothing like this, major studios don't control the music business like they did back in the bad old days. There is so much obscure never heard of artists out there via streaming services, how one couldn't find some wonderful music is beyond me

Commerical music now and then ... Has always been commercial (sellable) because it was what people wanted to listen to of what was available.

For sure you can repeat fact that are not even wrong... And call that the truth...

Or you can try to understand what i spoke about....

When Josquin Des Prez was dead, all Europe was sad....Not because they lost a commercial artist.... Guess why they were sad?

When Scriabin died in Russia it was the same lost all across Russia...

it was the lost of a popular artist idolized for his non economical value...

But you can call the deal with the devil also a "commercial" affair because the soul is sellable...A popular deal in some circle dont make it a commercial affair though ...

Anyway the devil dont consumate souls , he is very picky... Very educated ...He choose...

By definition,commercial culture is the death of culture... Consumerism created by Freud nephew is destruction of human soul and spirit...It was anticipated by Bernard Mandeville, before Marx and Freud , "the master of us all" said the austrian economist Hayek ...

Unlike the WEF said, conditioning of mind by consumerism is not education...

Commercial music is not first and last thought about to be a musical fact and to be produced like one ....It is something created to be sell...It is not created to be "art"....

It is the reason why i distinguish popular music and commercial music...It is not a clear cut absolute distinction for sure but this dont invalidate my point... Bob Dylan is a popular true artist.... Not primarily a commercial product...

I couldn't agree more. I've always loved CCR, Chicago, B,S&T etc.

Now it's time to accept those days are well and truly behind us. To be honest they are dead and gone; never to return. In part you can blame the proliferation of the so called Talent shows; Talent-less might be more appropriate.

There's still excellent music being recorded, but not what might be classified as popular.