Money Vs. Talent
Everything these days is becoming a business, people enter these businesses because they want to make money and for that reason only. That's fine for accounting, consulting and other white collar jobs but for some industries it's lowering the quality of the very essence that makes it original. The main two which appear to be suffering the most are the music industry, and football. One is an art and one is a sport, both supposedly recreational activities to give pleasure, people do them as a hobby, for a living or out of love for their passion, but they're being ruined by one thing; money.

In the golden era, back in the day, music came from the heart, from the soul, from artists who had not just dreamed to be a star, but who have lived it, breathed it, and reached their goal through hard work, determination and most of all talent. Bands and groups came about because they were good, they have the skill and were given the chance to prove it. These days at the first sign of money, four or five people from the street can be put together and called a band and this sickens me. Record executives can afford to throw young adults into the music industry time after time, and it is easy to see. Sure, these people can dance for £5, and are good enough not to get laughed at when they sing, but they aren't talented, they don't deserve to be up with people who have worked for their whole life to get where they are. They don't write their own moves, lyrics, they don't control what they do, where they go and what they look like while they're doing it... they are puppets dangling from strings, and at the top of the strings are the record companies overflowing with money.
I would consider it an insult to compare a manufactured group to one who got there themselves due to talent they've harnessed. These days it's too easy to get to Number 1 in the charts, it no longer means anything. Getting to number one simply means you have spent the most on advertising and been in the media in the run up to release. Hear'say, perhaps the biggest joke for a long time deserve a mention at this point. They were set up through a Television show in which the young hopefuls were put through auditions until they could narrow them down to a 5, and form a new group. They did this to make money, the last thing the music industry needs is another boy/girl combination pop band who were manufactured from strangers, and simply sing the words they're given. They have nothing new to say and nothing new to give, we've heard it all before from the many pop groups in the past and like them all, you can be sure we won't be hearing of Hear'say in a few years. A passing obsession for the lemmings that is becoming even more popular as time goes on. It's about time the music industry got back a grip on what is going on, it's no longer an industry that demands respect because of the amount of talent it has within it, but what it does have is overshadowed by loud, witless puppets dancing to a corny tune and **** lyrics. How many times can you sing about the same thing, every new group in this category has virtually the same words in their songs, just in a different order but still nothing worth hearing.
The real bands are missing out on the success they deserve and there is nothing they can do about it.

If you buy CDs from High Street stores, If you care who is number one, If you think manufactured pop grounds deserve to be at the top...
If you think that.... then you are the problem.

Football is suffering in a more subtle way; the game itself has not been affected as much as it could be but it's becoming noticeable. More and more foreigners are coming to the game, drawn by offers of high wages they come thick and fast. It's not longer a question of the best player you can get, but which good player you can get for less. Why buy a quality english defender when you can buy a foreigner for half the price. The more foreigners drawn by money that enter the english game the less individual it becomes and the more it becomes a free for all. But that is not necessarily the biggest problem as even a foreigner can capture a fan's heart if you does the team well.
More the problem is the power the bigger clubs hold simply because they have more money, I am almost certain that Manchester United wouldn't be the best team in England if not for the huge amount of money they have. So to get to the top you need money, this is accepted but I would much prefer it to be more about skill and talent than a competition of riches. Young players brought through a club's youth ranks through many years of hard work, who can become a club's hero can be taken away in an instant, lured by offers of high pay and the chance to play for the big clubs. But they're only big because they bought these players. A football club that buys it's way to success is a group of players, a club who come through together are a team, a real team.

Team. A word mis-used in modern football.