Junk has been made in this country for a long time and has done nothing to stop people from buying more of it. Nothing may be more evident of this then how much of the US Population stick processed, fat laden, anti-biotic injected food into themselves. American waistlines, fat clogged sewer lines near many resturants (national recognized problem by those who scratch beneath the veneer of marketing), and fat clogged veins is some of the proof. I am sure the marketers at McDonalds did not consider saying "get your weekly allowance of fat in one meal" and "impress the heck out of the opposite sex by becoming a big, fat, slob that is dramatically more prone to heart disease and cancer by making us a habit". Rather they divert the USA public's attention on what the eating experience "should be" (translated - "think like this about eating") and to their credit "they have been successful" in the US yet attacked for the same message in Europe. Why is it McIntosh reportedly sells more of their 2-channel high end outside of the US and more Home Theatre in the US ? I think there is a "related" McDonald's marketing strategy in here somewhere. Just so the big picture is not lost again: The big multinationals, some of which are a completely connected dictator of our consumer choices: by owning Motion Picture Studios (by no means an accident), movie software, and the movie hardware. Speaking of movie hardware the big boys when they will be releasing Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Digital, Dolby 5.1, Dolby 7.2, Dolby Digital II (usually shortly after the small guys are too heavily invested in a previous format). No one asked us if we want nine-speakers (7.2 format) in our living spaces but the marketing people created "new" ways of thinking, ala McDonalds type schemes, about movies at the very time they recognized the dramatic shift in Americans leading a active life to one of the "couch potatoe" virtual life. Heck, even ads making the biggest joke of all about this. I can imagine some CEO saying "Stupid Americans we'll even show you what happens when all you do is watch TV/movies and, they must be laughing, you'll like it and we will to all the way to the bank": The ads on TV almost always put an soft, overweight man in an even softer, easy chair. The man demonstrating as much activity as a person recently back from major heart surgery. They must have tag teamed with McDonalds on this one.
I contend the big multinationals know that the small niche firms that design equipment for people who love music will always be around unless the marketing team can make American's "rethink" home entertainment such that all the small companies and the small stereo shops, that cator to the savvy consumer, will be crushed trying to keep up with constant format changes. Once crushed they can then sell direct via the WEB or "brain-dead" sales people stores like Circuit City and Best Buy. How many audio stores with caring people have closed down around you? Then with the American public believing(like they did with the marketing generated shift to high fat, chemical laden food) will no longer have a readily available reference point to compare to then can totally dominant the electronics market. If you don't think this is the likely scenario being played out then try to imagine how much technical depth the Editors of Home Theater (March 2002 is an excellent example) think you (the consumer) want? The March 2002 issue looks like it is pandering to children (in adult bodies) who have yet to develop any sense of how information can be used to make better choices. Most of the technical articles are focused on Features and many of the convenience features (so you don't have to lift your fast food body out of the easy chair) rather then any "in-depth" review of the features and the objective/subjective need for them. Compare the amount and mega-size of the Graphics, that presumably "say it all" but say nothing at all (I am sorry it says everything about the approach to the American consumer I refer to above). It is not just a matter, as a commentor states above, of me just stop renting movies and buying movie hardware if I don't like them. I can not visit my old trusted friends who spent hours/days of time with me assisting me with purchases of hi-end audio, went out their way to hand deliver and set up trial pieces of equipment that cost about 1/20th of a hi-end video projector, and spread the consumer dollar in more places around the community rather then concentrating all dollars, yen, etc in Multinationals in some far off city or country. The people making this stuff is even a sadder story. What you purchase and from whom you purchase it has profound impacts on the quality of life for the whole planet.
Another, and I contend intended, benefit of a less discriminating music listening audience is that, with the help of FCC Chairman Michael Powell, they can, through their ownership (ALSO) of nearly all FM Stations push cheap compressed digital signals (signals that travel farther but have less sonic quality) along with advertisements of their products. Then without people understanding the benefits of local community based radio (big national/mulitinational firms lobbied extremely hard to take away any discenting views via local community owned and operated FM, see various articles on this at www.fair.org or see www.fsrn.org) the big multinationals can push satellite radio that have no discenting commentary (on anything). With no other way to new and diverse music in mobile form (car radio, where most people are when going back and forth to work to save money to buy their newer SUV and mega-thousand dollar Home Theatre) the multinationals can then push their own limited number of musical artists pushing out the largest amount of precanned, me-too, music. (Think big multinationals trying to own all the bases, and then some, is paranoid? If you don't want to take the time to go to the links above can you say ENRON?) Maybe 911 will make, but not likely, the US population more aware that a world exists outside their Home Theatre door that was not created in La-La Land aka Hollywood.