Sorry, Knute...that's just not so...

When an artist develops his own "style" it has little or nothing to do with a conscious decision about if that "style" will be accepted by the masses...

No business sense at all....

I don't think artists like Gaugin and Monet canvassed people to see if their art was "commercial"...I don't think the kind of seminal artists we're talking about did either...

Your "style" is what it is...then...if you're lucky, you find out that alot of people enjoy it.....

I think you'd have to agree that great musical artists are much more often renowned for their lack of "business sense" than their abioity to weave a commercial style based on "business" decisions.

Unless, of course, you're referring to people like Madonna who have crafted careers around clever business and marketing decisions.
We will have no common ground, if that is the case, as I consider the words music, artist and Madonna have no place in the same sentence.

I can't think of anything besides drugs or alcohol that is more responsible for the decay of artistry than "business sense".

Bob Young