21st century music

I think during my lifetime, music has always been a huge industry. Not only the buying and selling of music, but the use of music to come up with new television programs. Gosh there are about a million "musical talent" shows out there now. American Idol, America's Got Talent, Singing Bee and Don't Forget the Lyrics are just a few of the more popular ones. American Idol is probably one of the most popular television programs today. The audience gets so involved in the show and can even vote on who they want to win. It is a huge industry and one that helps get new artist out there and known. Shows like Don't Forget the Lyrics don't actually have anything to do with musical talent. If you have never seen the show, contestants come on the show and they have to know the lyrics to the songs to win money. So the more music you listen to, the more likely you are to win. I personally never would have come up with this one. I guess they are starting to run out of ideas. This again is another example of using music in the television industry.

I think it is safe to say that the further you go back in time, the more music was played for fun and pure love of the music. Being an artist was more of a hobby than a profession. Now, in the 21st century, artist use their talent to support themselves. A really talented artist can make enough in their career to support themselves for the rest of their lives, even after they stop performing.