This kind of surprised me, I was expecting some low-budget video with underground kids slamming the industry but in fact was filled with well conceived statements on the current state of popular music. I will agree with other posters that if one has the means and better yet lives in a town with a vibrant music community they will never want for corporate radio to shine a light on the best new talent. The current environment of PTP trading and music blogs gives far better choices then the current incarnations of Rolling Stone or Spin or whatever the current rags are. And the independent music labels are taking advantage of this and, in their own small way, thriving for it. Just like the myriad of labels that existed before the great consolidation gave us so much great music. My only problem is the "Internet will save American music" idea.
Having grown up in a rural area I had no Idea what I was missing until I moved at 19 to Chicago and later New Orleans. I don't think I even heard the Velvet Underground until I was 20. All I had was the boring top 40 or the classic rock station, both of which in the beginning of radio consolidation just looped the same playlist every two hours like Stairway was the only song Led Zepplin ever recorded.
If one wants to find new music they first have to know where to look, and nobody was giving my 16 year old a** any hints. And if one wants to actually listen to it they will need first a computer (probably need to spend at least $500 here) and a DSL connection at minimum ($30 a month) which, if one is rural or poor (or like I was both) is not even an option.
A radio on the other hand can be had for $10 or less, picking up stations miles away (many, many miles if AM.)
I'm not saying all radio stations need to be some avant garde mind-bender but if DJs were at least allowed to play what spoke to them as opposed to what their corporate handlers were forcing on us Americas youth would be much better off.
My only hope is with the current state of radio the bosses will realize no one is listening anymore and their cash-cow is milked out. Then the indies can step up much as they have following the implosion of the recording industry.
I should point out that on the label front they didn't need to step up at all, they've been with us the whole time. There was and will always be a thriving (if hungry) underground, I'm just saying that pop music doesn't have to (and didn't always) suck.