"At least up until 1980, the most popular bands were the most talented. " -mr miller something interesting to add to the discussion on obscure vs mainstream music: a friend of mine works in the film industry, showing films before they are released in the states and gathering audience reaction. then movies get re-edited to please the audience. apparently a lot of movies are better before they get through the process, and get butchered. hence the "director's cut" film versions so popular now. According to him, here is how they figure out what songs to place on American mainstream commercial radio. They test it like they do movies. People rate them from one to five, and, get this, they only place 3s and 4s on the radio. because the songs may not wow anybody, but you're not going to turn off the radio either. Music rated as a 5, I think, is considered to be not "general" enough; any song that one might rate as a five is obviously too appealing to only certain types of people, and radio stations want music that will attract broad numbers. freaky, huh? cyn ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+