Music industry - Talent? Or Hype?

Are those involved in the music industry nowadays really still considered to be artists? Or are they merely money making tools for the record companies? With record companies able to influence the chart position of a record through getting more air play on radio and various other methods, are the charts still a valid method of judging popularity of music?

There are a few talented artists around, but in the main many of them are just disposable, money making tools with very little talent and base their popularity purely on how they look. These groups and individuals tend to be in the mainstream or “urban” genres of music and have their hype aimed mainly at the younger market.

The record companies control the charts a great deal nowadays, as the charts are calculated including air play on radio, and record companies will often pay radio stations to play their tracks to increase their chart positions, so a record can be number one, yet never have sold a single copy to the public. You will often hear of “artists” being described as “top-selling” or “chart-topping” even though that is their first track released. So many different bands and individuals are being described as “the new sensation” and over-hyped by people paid by the record companies to promote their clients that I often have great cynicism towards all of them.

I have no faith in the charts whatsoever, they rarely reflect real public opinion or sales.

Maybe it's just a sign that I'm getting old, but I rarely pay much attention to chart music these days. I'm sure there are new bands out there with imagination and talent, and I'm sure some of them do well commercially. But the charts are just a measure of how well each 'artist' has been marketed, as I suppose they always have been.