A digest of the top blogger thoughts and ideas - The A listers

Dave Pell points out that, at about the same time that MTV and VH-1 stopped showing music videos, music sales declined.  Are sales of music directly related to "key drivers" as Dave suggests?  In the 50s and 60s we had charismatic DJs who decided what music was popular and drove demand.  In the 70s and 80s MTV "killed the radio star" with the ability to actually watch performers play their music.  (With Milli Vanilli excepted)

So, now that MTV and VH-1 have gone almost completely over to reality-TV programming, is there an absence of a key drive for music sales? 

I think so - the internet has just exacerbated the main problem by provided access to indy artists and introduction to music that would never be played on mainstream radio (or video).