Good article. I'll be sure to watch the documentary Before the Music Dies.
TheYoungPolitician wrote a good post explaining that since 2007 radio ratings are determined by a Personal People Meter (PPM) that people wear. Turns out people mainly listen to stations that are safe.
http://www.thecoli.com/posts/8922697/
That's good info.
It's seems that as technology has evolved researchers have been able to fine-tune their understanding what the masses want to see and hear.
Youtube provided a ratings system that the entire public could see, and, to no surprise, the most highly rated youtube music is virtually the same music that has been popular for the last 60+ years-- Non-threatening music, catered towards young women with a beat that is easy for women to dance to.
Rap City, Yo MTV raps, Headbangers Ball, and other shows were axe'd, with the quickness, when the big Corporations took over those channels. They most have looked at their ratings/Margins for those shows and saw that they needed to have been canceled a long time before the Corporations took over. Those are the shows where I discovered Black Moon, Wu-tang, Artifacts and the like when I was a kid. It's unfortunate that they went away in the late 90's, but it is what it is.
However, people that are passionate about Heavy Metal, or underground Hip-Hop must have not realized how unpopular that music was (and is) with the masses. Passion kept those old shows alive and were able to spread the music, but passion doesn't make money unfortunately.
I am willing to take a bet that, in today's world of very slim Margins in the music industry, any male-dominated music form (in its audience and appeal) will not generate enough sales dollars to make any sustained impact on American's cultural landscape anymore.
