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Apathy is the only thing that may 'kill' music in the eyes the mass consumer. And to be honest it's the mass consumer's own bloody fault though it can be rather frustrating to the rest of us.
Music is a very personal, natural and hugely powerful tool of expression. It's exciting and devastating while also harboring the secret to near perfect and pure happiness. Music knows no boundaries, and therefore holds an innate and unique grip on the relative social harmony of the world. For these reasons, music will always be infinitely varied. It even goes deeper than fashion. (Sorry, I do appreciate it is imperative that you chose exactly the right shade of olive green handbag to compliment your pet chiwowa).

Aside from the often very important social commentary, a natural quest for chronological identity and a desire to change and discover, the main forces affecting the mass consumer's perception of music come from within its system of distribution. During the twentieth century where money became a more movable, gainable and losable commodity, the music industry built itself a platform for manipulation and exploitation.
Let's not suggest that prior to this, social climates were conducive to a freely expressed identity for all musicians. Indeed during the twentieth century, music spearheaded the way for many social identities to be formed. The birth of the 'teenager' at the dawn of rock'n'roll for example. The much needed rise of the 'antisocial arse with a bad haircut and piss on his trousers' as punk made its mark, for another.
The twentieth century saw music revolutionise the world whilst simultaneously be harnessed as one of the worlds most lucrative commodities. What a terrible irony? Well possibly not. We all need a bit of pop in our lives. If only to pick us up when we're in a supermarket, or to shine our opinions more favorably upon music we do deem to have the fabled 'integrity'.
And still glorious developments of technology continue. Us musicians can reach people across the world with our music completely bypassing any money-orientated filtration process. With the birth of networking Internet programmes came yet another way to attract more listeners, and to take on the giants of the industry. Music now is at its most diverse - the world is a melting pot of developing and genre leaping inspiration, and it's really pretty darn exciting.
Fine so the tosh you get on the commercial radio station isn't a patch on Vivaldi, Chick Corea or Captain Beefheart. Look a bit further than that. For those intent on hailing the death of music - well let them go off, buy a shed and do it on their own. For the rest of us though - there's one huge party going on. Switch on your computer, go to your local venue, go to any half decent record store and there's no missing it.

Learn more about this author, Chris Chislett.
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