One noteworthy sign of a moribund culture

Post-American society can't find any music being currently produced worth listening to:

Music Business Worldwide reports that it is the first time catalogue releases have sold more than new albums over the course of a full year – with a previous victory for old records during one month in 2012 considered a "momentary blip."

One example of a catalogue album selling well is Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits – originally released in 1993 – which is currently in the iTunes top 100 albums chart. 

Industry expert Tim Ingham says it's a worrying trend for the music business and adds that it's only a matter of time before catalogue records outsell new releases on physical formats such as CD and vinyl as well as online.

He says: "Such data asks two very clear questions of record labels: are people merely starting to consume their new music on streaming services rather than buying it in album form? Or are they increasingly less impressed with the new album releases that arrive year-in, year-out?

"One thing looks certain. It now only appears a matter of time – very possibly in 2015 – when catalogue albums outsell new releases across all formats in a single year.

"If the decline in current album sales continues at its current pace, catalogue albums will almost certainly outsell new albums on all formats by 2016, and possibly even in 2015."

I know, I know.  The kids - even the young adults - hell, even the old adults - are tapped into sources of   music that give them exactly what they want, often for free, and a large portion of that consists of strong followings for various kinds of "musical" acts that are out there busting their asses to build followings.  And none of them are worth your time of day.

The fact is, everybody sees that the emperor is naked.  None of the crud being "created" today, from electronic pop to "roots Americana" to esoteric "jazz," holds a candle to what was created up to about 1970.

I am an adjunct lecturer in rock history at our local state university campus, and last night, I posted a lengthy collection of recordings by artists performing tunes composed by Brill Building songwriters in the late 1950s and 1960s.  I literally wept as I did so.  The craftsmanship of the compositions, the arrangements, the vocal delivery are, by comparison to anything that has come down the pike since, is so exquisite, so expressive of a deep understanding of the human condition, that it's no wonder it survives and Nine Inch Nails doesn't, and  Katy Perry won't.  And then consider that 50s and 60s Brill Building pop was a mere emulation of the artistry wrought by the previous generation of songwriters to occupy the Brill Building and similar haunts along Broadway - the works of Harry Warren, E.Y. Harburg, the Gershwin brothers, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, Cole Porter, et al.

And the thing that most makes me feel like weeping is that these sales of "classic" "music" consist of fairly recent mediocrities such as the above-cited Tom Petty.  The culture had been lost for a good long time by the time he was deemed worthy of any kind of recognition.