The folks at iTunes today released a list of the top 10 best selling albums of 2008 and the top 10 best selling singles of 2008.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/02/the-top-selling-artists-o_n_147653.html

I went through the list and can honestly say I only recognized a few items. The soundtrack for Across The Universe was on the list, but that album is nothing but Beatles covers. I have heard of a few of the artists as well.

I don’t listen to radio much anymore, and I certainly don’t listen to “popular” radio either. So unless I search for these groups on the Internet, I have no real exposure to this music. So maybe I’m not “plugged” into the right networks. Coldplay’s latest CD sold over 2 million copies on iTunes this year. That is a significant number and yet I am not familiar with any of the songs.

The other factor is that I am not actively seeking out new music to listen to. I overhear bits of songs from the environment, but to be honest, nothing that I have heard has caught my attention and caused me to seek out the music.

It seems to me that the record industry is trying to find artists that fit with a particular audience and is pushing as much as possible to get that audience to buy the music. Rather than targeting the music to people like me, who probably won’t buy the music, they seek out those who will. For the artist, this means that they still must follow the whims of the record company and produce music that will sell.

So the question is: who is actually creating music that is driving by the need to express themselves rather than sell records.

People continue to mention Radiohead and while I admire what that band is doing, their music does not always grab me.

Popular music is in a strange place at the moment. At least it seems that way to me.

But maybe I am just out of touch with what is really going on…