A couple of additional notes:

1. Its intersting how most of us older fellas seem to gravitate to the Blues as the last bastion of deep emotional expression. It also happens to be a lot of fun, working out how to fit your originality into what seems at first glance to be a rather restrictive format.

2. People who don't remenber the early 60's from personal experience don't seem to realize just how pervasive The Biz is. The Beatles weren't doing anything very different from the material the Everley Brothers (among others) were recording, but because they were from far-away England, they could be presented as 'A Fresh, New, Sound'. Of course, the fact that they were all very talented, skilled, musicians helped a [u]lot[/u], but I wonder if The Biz execs bothered with little details like that?

3. The 'made for TV' bands that gather so much disdain, (and [u]so[/u] many dollars), are not a new phenomenon at all. 'Anybody remember The Monkees? The Partridge Family?
For that matter, most of the revered Motown bands were studio musicians backing up singers that were assembled for the occasion.

Damn! I feel old, sometimes. LOL :D