Before the twentieth century, and even today in some parts of the world, music wasn't something you buy. It was something you participate in. Before the invention of the phonograph, people would bring instruments to parties and play music themselves. It took time for this tradition to die out. Even in the 40's movie theaters frequently showed sing-a-long shorts! While recorded music has brought first-rate professional performances to the masses, it has robbed untold millions of musical expression. How many of us learned to play some instrument or another as children, but never bothered to keep playing because we didn't like the music we were taught to play and didn't think we could ever play well enough to be worth listening to? Odds are most people reading this are much less musically accomplished than their great-great grandparents were.

For a substantial portion of the twentieth century, technological limitations made recording and distribution expensive. You could make a lot more money by promoting a star and making everyone want a small number of records than you could by recording everything under the sun! Some of those stars were just gifted amateurs who had mass appeal the moment they walked in from the wilds. Those were rare enough that we soon learned how to manufacture stars, and the methods have reached a level of sophistication where musical talent isn't even necessary anymore (see autotuning).

The internet has practically eliminated the costs and difficulty of distribution. The moment you record something, you can send it to the other side of the planet almost instantaneously to as many people who are interested in it exist. Recording still takes some knowledge, but the equipment required to do professional quality recording is now easily accessible to hobbyists. Natural prodigies are still showing up now and then, and stopping them from recording great music would be more challenging than allowing them to do so! It's the manufactured star system that's collapsing. It costs a lot to do research on what should appeal to teenagers in a few years, hire professional writers to design songs matching your research results, hire somebody who looks good in a latex bikini to record those songs, shoot videos, etc., and finally have a team of professional audio engineers digitally massage her horrid caterwaulings into something that doesn't sound horrible when blasted through iPod earbuds at top volume.

Manufactured music superstars are a dying breed, and good riddance. My playlist is devoid of them and full of gifted amateurs, and I couldn't be happier with the change! The global musical monoculture is ending and a diverse, global party is replacing it. We are working towards the point where music can be created by anyone, anywhere, to be shared with everyone, everywhere. Perhaps, as we listen to superstars less and to ordinary people more, the pressure to play like a superstar or not play at all will drop away and we'll reclaim the tradition of participatory music that we've been robbed of. Perhaps, one day, people will start bringing their instruments to parties again!