Ray,

The doom and gloom is always from the person's perspective who is telling it. When I moved in 88', there were tons of people who used to have deals that were complaining that the town had changed since "their day" and it was all gone.

Corporations came in and "ruined everything."

That damn rock singer GARTH BROOKS destroyed the industry by bringing all that Rock and roll explosions in.

The kids had destroyed country music..

Blah blah blah.

I have never seen it be good at all for many people.

But for a certain segment,myself included, you know there are challenges and you just deal with them. years back when I knew people who were obsessing about how terrible things were,I see out now and have huge hit records.
I see people who a few years ago had huge hit records and now don't have anything.

One of the other things I deal with is many in the industry who do just what you say, complain about it.

I quit writing a lot with hit writers because I get tired of sitting in a room with someone who has a $15,000 Rolex on his wrist, driving his $85,000 BMW, and complaining because he hasn't had a cut in three years. When his last cut was the song of the year.

The difference between a six week old puppy and anyone in the music business?

The puppy eventually stops whining.

MAB