All mainstream music is trash. It's supposed to be. It's not even what people necessarily listen to, it's what we are told to listen to. As I recall, the mass produced and shoved down our throats music in the 80's was just as awful. Huey Lewis and the News? Are you kidding me? When I think of the 80's real music, I, like all my age group pals, think of Social Distortion, Sonic Youth, Minor Threat, Descendants, Fugazi, etc. None of this made it to the radio.

Black music, I'm assuming, is the same. I grew up in an almost all black neighborhood of Detroit. They(We) didnt listen to anything on the radio. I remember when Yo MTV Raps came out, my friends were all thrilled, hoping to see something they listened to actually shown in daylight. Some did, some didn't. I remember quite a few of us listening to Bad Brains, possibly the only true black band to be American Punk before HR took it in a more rastafarian direction (to everyone's disappointment). Amazingly enough, Bad Brains is still alive, just put out a new cd (i picked it up last week, not bad, still rasta tho).

btw, i remember Joy Division. And I think I had a Buzzcocks shirt which makes no sense as I don't even know what they sing.