>
> ... it has been increasingly difficult for musicians in these
> genres, who enjoy great popularity and marketability in
> Europe, to gain a meaningful foothold in the US,
> notwithstanding the growing immigrant populations and seeming
> creative fecundity of mainstream American musicians.
By "marketability" you mean "radio play," right? With radio, the old saw "the customer is always right" fits. Who's the customer with American radio? The listener, who gets the music for free? No, the paying customer is the advertiser. The big fear is that a listener might hear a song that's unfamiliar and off-putting and switch channels before the advertisement starts. Thus they don't ever dare to play anything new or different, that is, untested.
How does it work in Europe? The only European model I know of which is not funded by advertisers is the BBC, which taxes receiver owners - at least I know they tax TV owners, and, this is a great detail, they charge two-thirds less if you own a black-and-white teevee than for a color set! per:
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/international/bbc.html
I didn't know anybody even made b-n-w teevees anymore. But since the BBC, like a club DJ, is being paid by someone other than LOKEY MOTORS!!!1! FOR THIS WEEK _ONLY_OFFERING _ZERO_ (eroeroero) PERCENT INTEREST ON _BRAND_ NEW MITSUBISHIS!!!111 COME IN TODAY FOR THE DEAL OF YOUR _LIFE_ (ifeifeifeife...) maybe their Beebish Programme Directors strive for a more vivid mix, for some kind of hi-quality DJ-style excellence rather than the assured non-offendability of the US's omnipresent advertising-driven Kleer Channel.
Yours WDK - WKiernan at ij.net