Meat Loaf & Jim Steinman - Overview

Carlos Santana is playing better than ever, I can think of two bands that are excellent, ok, make it three bands that would have been big back in the day (Icons), but now have a problem finding an audience, King's X, Gov't Mule, and Dream Theater. I'm sure there are more but those three come to mind first. Musicianship is not "in" nowadays, people are being fed a load of garbage and they seem to like it. Maybe they are to busy to listen, thats why high end is not more popular and the mass market thinks bose sounds great? I don't know, same problem with jazz and classical. TG

There is no new talent out there. Thats why the great bands of the 70s & 80s keep getting resurrected. Thats why Santana,U 2,Journey,Rolling Stones, and of course superstars such as Sting,Meat Loaf,and even Cher continue to this day. The new talent just can't stand and deliver. I know I have omitted a lot here. But the question Where's the talent??????????

Ferrari,
I hear what you are saying but......you need to put everything in context.
Bat Out Of Hell was imho a classic album,over the top sure but it contained a great set of songs and don't forget the classic production of Todd Rundgren.
It was/is a pretty derivative piece of work however,classicly done maybe but it did recieve a lot of derision because of it.
Steinman did go on to write the odd other great song (Bad For Good was THE lost Meat Loaf album)but Meat Loaf imho has been living off the back of one classic album therefore not an artist I would hold up as a shining light against the ills of the current music business.
99Golf on the other hand has just made a very crass generalisation.
Whatever the state of the current music business there are some great young talent artists out there,you just need to search for them or be informed.
The Strokes,The White Stripes,Coldplay just for starters.
Cher? Good grief is that truly so far away from Britney Spears?

I hear what Ben is saying and I agree somewhat on the Meat Loaf issue. But the resurgence of the great bands of the 70 and 80s is a pure lack of new talent in contemprary Rock N Roll. The record companies are not totally dumb. People buy the records of these groups,as oppose to the free downloads.To me that speaks volumes. One is worth buying,the other is not. Why the record companies didn't really go after the Napster sytle of business is still a mystery to me. Just another form of piracy and when at CBS we went after the pirates with an intensity that is hard to describe today. Although Columbia is no longer a CBS property. Not only Columbia but RCA as well. We were not always successful,but the determination was there and in the end severly crippled the piracy movement. In another vain todays business relies far to much on agents to bring in the talent. The days of a group submitting a demo to a label appear to have vanished. Just no way to get in today unless one has an agent. If Santana,Aerosmith,Peter Gabriel and others just starting out submitted a demo to a label,it would never see the light of day. There is just not any personal contact between label and artist. The only possible exception is Clive Davis with Arista. Now there is an Icon of the music business. But I see no one to take over from Clive Davis at the moment.