Hmmm...funny, my sister listens to a lot of Justin Timberlake, Eminem, and "American Idol" stuff, and yet she also likes many a deeper, lesser-known artist, too. I distinctly remember her saying she liked a couple of Radiohead songs, she likes U2's music (they're not lesser-known, but they've certainly had many a deep song), she likes a lot of classic rock songs, etc., etc. Why assume that just because somebody listens to Justin Timberlake they're automatically a stupid person who won't get the deeper lyrics from another artist?
Sorry, I just personally think musical elitism is rather silly. I hate the idea of putting music into little cliques and saying so-and-so can't hang out with/listen to this artist because they aren't from their genre, their music isn't "deep enough" (and yet again I bring up this argument: I love songs with deep lyrics as much as the next person. I think a great deal of my music collection is full of artists who have depth to their lyrics.
But can somebody PLEASE explain to me when this thought process came around that songs with not-so-deep lyrics should automatically be considered bad? I really don't understand that, and I'd really like to know what exactly is so bad about those kinds of songs. It's totally your right to call them bad, yes, but I just don't get WHY).
And besides that, if you think that the popular music people are listening to now is so stupid, I would think you'd WANT your favorite artists to become more exposed, so that people can listen to something intellectual for a change.
You're totally entitled to your opinions. I just personally don't agree at all with the idea of musical elitism and the stuff that comes along with it. And I don't like the idea of stereotyping people based on the music they listen to, either.
Angela