listen

Listening to an album is an emotional experience, as well as a personal one. Emotions and personality are two things that are shunned by a lot of people; for a lot of people, it seems that emotions are kind of like a begrudged aftertaste, something that many have but kind of ignore. and for some reason, a lot of people don't want to be themselves; they'd rather have someone tell them who/what to be.
Which is why MTV doesn't play as much music as they used to. The music is the excuse for the station, but most of what's on it is people talking ABOUT something related to the music or the music itself. I don't know that all works out psychological wise, 'cause I don't go for that, but I know that if they simply played music videos all day every day like they did, a lot of people would not be watching that station. MTV2 tried doing that, and it wasn't as popular as the current incarnation of MTV, which proves what I just said if you need proof... A television station that plays music all day is too similar to listening to a CD, except more erratic, 'cause you're likely to have less of a continuity to what plays...
So it only makes sense that FOX's AMERICAN IDOL is so darn popular. It's a visual aide to the music provided with gossip and the like...there's the whole "scandal" factor, along with backstabbing shockers, and, if you haven't noticed, the performances of classic songs on that show do not have anywhere near the resonance of authenticity that the "original" versions had/have. The Backstreet Boys did/do write their own songs, but there's no real sense of passion in their songs. They sound mopey when they sing the songs of heartache, they sound upbeat when they sing the songs of joy, but they don't sound mopey the way someone sounds when they REALLY FEEL mopey and they don't sing the happy songs like someone is REALLY HAPPY; they sound FAKE. And they sold millions upon millions of copies of their CD(s). As to WHY people have such grotesque taste in music, I do not know. But that's what's happened the world we live in.