So you listen to music just because other people like it (based on corporate provided and manipulated sales figures)?
So if tomorrow I somehow managed to get the sound of me shoving a microphone up my arse to the top of the charts you would think that is awesome just because it is at the top of the charts?
Are you also like "MY COUNTRY RIGHT OR WRONG" and "YOU CAN'T CRITICISE THE GOVERNMENT BECAUSE THAT'S TREASON" because seriously.
Also, musico-intellectual profundity? One minute I'm getting denounced as a phillisitine because I don't think it's necessary for people to learn music theory to make music, the next I'm being slammed as a blue-blood elitist because I don't think that listening to Pussycat Dolls is somehow part of the social contract. I can't fucking win, can I?
You misunderstand, I'm not calling you anything. I'm saying that if there is a thread where folks want to suck the cock of the big four record labels knowing full well what they are doing as consenting adults, they should be permitted to without recrimination. And I'm suggesting that if you find that mentality genuinely difficult to comprehend, you can rationalize the thread as a diversion of those with whom you brook little common ground from other threads. Of course, if you are just spoiling for an argument for the sake of arguing....
In any event, the Paris Hilton album was more or less the aural equivalent of you shoving a microphone up your own arse, and yes it sold. Demonstrating that plenty of folks will buy an album just because other folks are buying that album. This phenomenon is one of great interest to media studies folks because the so-called "long tail" has failed to manifest. In other words, the greater diversity of choice available through the internet was predicted to end the blockbuster, and it hasn't. Instead we see a further stratification of the media market into the blockbuster and the niche product. Why has greater choice failed to kill the blockbuster, despite the fact that logically it would provide more media products closer to the particular tastes of each individual? Because, ultimately, a great number of folks simply want media that other people also want, so that they can discuss the media, experience it together, have a sense of belonging and common ground.
I'm not saying that this is why I, or you necessarily listen to music. Nor am I saying that this is a necessarily worse reason to listen to music than any other. But can you, with a straight face, deny that this is why many people who comprise the majority of the music buying population listen to music?