Dave writes on his neice's interest in N*SYNC:

>This past year my 19-year-old niece has been living with us.  She has
>over this time become a huge - I mean rabid - N*SYNC fan.  (For those who
>might not know, N*SYNC is one of those manufactured boy bands whose members
>just sing or strum a guitar and look good - all the music is written by
>others.  Not bad for teen pop dance music, but it's not more than that.)
>She spends all her time listening to their CDs, watching their videos, and
>countless hours on-line "discussing" the band.  What I've noticed is that
>her involvement is almost completely emotional.  That is, there's no
>intellectual basis for her feeling that this music is so great.

If I understand you correctly, you observe your niece's emotional thrill as
a sentiment which may have nothing to do with the quality of the music and
a lot to do with market manipulation.  It leads me to this question:

What comes first when a person is just getting hooked to a genre:  the
hyped, alpha-male endorsed chicken, or the evergreen, intellectually
fertile egg?

I've listened for the CM "egg" for so long now that it's hard to remember,
(admit) that sometimes my tastes were emotionally driven.  I bought
Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" long ago not because of the composer's
accomplishments, but because Telarc, the recording company, claimed to
have captured the ultimate in earth-shaking bass drum thwacks.  Reviewers
agreed.  (One could say that Telarc was justified because the company was
selling a better-quality listening experience, but no - for me at 15 it
was all about bass drum thwacks.) It was hype.  The only difference
between Telarc's hype and IN-SYNC's is that the object of the Telarc's
hype--Stravinsky's music--has shown itself to be lasting, but it was the
hype initially that hooked me.

I've been listening "correctly" for so long now that I expect the whole
world to love CM and be drawn to it *for its own sake* and with no industry
mid-wifery.  Unlike a fellow teacher's lament about needing athletes and
rappers to endorse reading and increase young reading audiences, I want
CM's own siren song to be sufficient to attract new listeners, rabid
listeners - but is this naive?

While there will always be those listeners who go for the egg and nothing
but the egg, what about attracting those from the emotionally-driven
market? Whenever the CM industry engages in manipulation, whether featuring
women in seductive poses, youthful aberrations, "against all odds" artists,
or ethnic artists, it could set this veteran listener's teeth on edge if he
allowed it.  Then I remember buying Stravinsky for Telarc's famed bass drum
thwacks.  Did the hype hurt me? No.  It floated my interest long enough for
initially inconceivable music to become conceivable, thus I was hooked and
poised to enjoy much more music of the 20th-Century.

I don't think the CM industry need think itself about market manipulation
in search of a larger audience.  Even God needs to advertise.

John Smyth