Firstly, if you see Ondi Timoner’s film ‘Dig!’ – she shows how an indie artist (Anton Newcombe) created his debut album ‘Thank God for Mental Illness’ for a budget of 17 dollars, production costs – and that album can be found in record stores and public libraries in Wellington or Sydney. Its not a brilliant album, but its got a few strong tunes, and its inspirational that his work is available, and isn’t the product of corporate marketing.

That said, since the ‘great democratization’ of the internet supposedly put the system of production for consumed media in the hands of the creators themselves, what its really done is create a market where nothings for sale and nothings worth anything. Lastly, far more major new artists in this decade come from privileged, monied backgrounds than they did in the 1990′s, and in the meantime the US social system has turned into a plutocracy.