Radio has continually slimmed down not only the range of music it plays but also the number of songs. Top 40 used to actually mean something and any song that was placed within it was considered a hit. Now if it's not top 10 and played all day it's not a hit. How did that create a split? B/c ppl are fed one sound all day long and although sure many ppl get their music from downloading and such radio still has an influence. The problem is that although music has always been about trends, when it's narrowed in this much it's harder to have a drastic change. Where as critics are fed all the albums that come out and champion a wider range of music and go through many changes of taste.