We live in an age of music for people who don't like music. The record industry discovered some time ago that there aren't that many people who actually like music. For a lot of people, music's annoying, or at the very least they don't need it. They discovered if they could sell music to a lot of those people, they could sell a lot more records.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the commercial music industry’s focus on profit over artistic value.
T Bone Burnett highlights a troubling reality in the music industry where the emphasis has shifted from creating music for genuine appreciation to capitalizing on a larger, indifferent audience. He suggests that many people consume music not out of love for it, but rather as a background noise or commodity, which reflects a deeper disconnect between art and its appreciation in contemporary culture.
In practice
In a discussion about the impact of modern music on culture, one might refer to this quote to emphasize the shift in musical values.
People say to me, 'You seem to have made this conscious decision to do independent films'. In reality, I haven't. After each movie, I always think, 'how different can I possibly be? Is this going to challenge me, is this going to inspire me, and is this going to make me love my job more than I already do?'
I got out of the Army - in my world - I came to New York, for instance, when the civil rights movement was just beginning, and that created a certain energy, a certain rumble, a certain impetus for black actors.
I see my finished platinum print (in the viewfinder) in all its desired qualities, before my exposure.
I began drawing as a very young child and had a grandfather who experimented with photography, so those things constituted my first exposure to art.
To be an actor you have to be a child.
Music makes me forget myself, my true condition, it carries me off into another state of being, one that isn't my own.
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