Great response...I see what you are saying and generally agree...I have always been very particular about my music so I was not very radical in my musical tastes (Bobby Vinton, Beach Boys...etc)...but you do make a good point...I grew up in the 50s-60s and things were not as bad then...but I am sure music was hijacked as a way to indoctrinate the masses...like everything else in the 60's...I was always a church musician and so I always enjoyed that music...I am pretty ultra conservative for the most part...

Actually, almost anyone could make records, and they showed up in record stores. There's no telling how many albums my father brought home of odd things that the record store couldn't sell until cut to 3 or 4 for $1. I have thousands of records by artists that never made any kind of chart or radio station list. They were never played on the radio at all.

As far as the big record labels, when I was growing up, they signed anyone with talent that might sell records. They didn't just want the next Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley. They knew there was a very diverse market out there. Most of the record companies sold black records when it was a very minor market. They did the same for all the other ethnic minorities in the country, such as Jewish, Hungarian, and dozens more.

You might want to try Sirius-XM in your car, and in a home player or the computer. They don't have commercials, and they have channels for almost anything you can think of. Willie Nelson started a channel, "Willie's Roadhouse," where they play nothing but classic country. On Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM, Riders in the Sky has a show where they play western records and movie soundtrack recordings from the 1930s on. Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, Sons of the Pioneers, etc. They have an easy listening channel that's good to listen to in the car when driving as it helps keep you from going into road rage because of all the stupidity out there. There's jazz, big bands, comedy, old time radio shows, the variety is endless.

If you don't want to pay for a service, there is a lot you can get on the computer for free. For example, Archive has tens of thousands of old time radio shows that you can listen to or download. There are Usenet newsgroups on the internet that you can access with a newsreader software, such as NewsRover. There are millions of files there, old movies back to silent days, old TV shows, radio shows, and all types of music. I have over a million MP3 files I've downloaded. I can set up a playlist of any type I can imagine and have my own person radio show. I have my computer hooked up to my nice stereo system and some huge speakers.

Don't give up.

From 1996 on, sure, with the available music. Pre-1996, though, there was a lot of variety, local stations would be involved in the local music scene, and DJs would get to play whatever they felt like, or people wanted, during non-prime hours, and even mix up the regular playlists a bit. Deregulation brought it back to the old Payola system, just slightly more complicated.