I’m on an arts rip today, it seems. As the Grammies approach, recording companies are raking in the cash.

But record executives say they can’t recall a bleaker time in pop music creativity. “They don’t like the

music, they don’t get it, and they’re horrified that people like

Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are becoming stars,” said

Jeff Pollack, a programming consultant for more than 100 U.S.

radio stations. Are they elitists out of touch with mainstream taste? Or is mainstream taste no longer anything but what market forces make it?