I take rated and unrated
to mean that they are not celebrated in the 'big' rock things.
You know, in the rolling stone review of records, the lookback shows, that kind of thing.
And more importantly, by non-music type people.
Like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are known by a large segment of the population, mentioned in other writing, in Time magazine and the like.
Whereas for most people, Frank Black might get a 'huh'?, or a 'you mean that guy from the millenium show'?
That's how I take it, anyway.
All incarnations of Frank Black are pretty much limited to a fairly small genre, after all. As are thousands of other songwriters in many genres.
Maybe with the 'narrowcasting' that music seems to be in right now, maybe there will never be the big genre-crossing songwriters that there were 20 years ago. Like Neil Young writing songs that were hits not by him - 'It's gonna take a lot of love' and "love is a rose' being good examples.
I think a good comparison would be television. 20 years ago, there were the big three american networks, and a bunch of little guys, led by PBS. Nowadays you have all these little networks, so that 'Sex in the city' is a modern hit, but you can only watch it if you have HBO.
To me, it seems that music is the same way. Richard Thompson and John Prine are big names to me, and to the people that I know. But outside of their genres, they're virtually unknown. They've always been like that, but if you like, say, drum'n'bass, the people who are known in that genre are only known to the rave kids who buy that stuff.
I never thought I would yearn for the big bad days of corporate rock!
Back in the 80's I thought that a pop hit was automatically bad, and not up to my snobby standards.
Now when I hear the big hits of yesteryear Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Prince, John Cougar, there WAS good music on the top 40. There's not much I like there now.
And none of this rambling is meant to suggest that quality and popularity are in any way intertwined. Some people like to be obscure, some people want to be famous. I don't think that J.J. Cale and N'Sync would want to change places.
Bruce Springsteen, I think, wouldn't have been able to put Born In The USA out in the same way if he didn't know that america would hear what he had to say.
It's just that once upon a time, an obscure singer with something to say could catch the worlds ear for a minute or two. Like Tracy Chapman did once upon a time, getting famous by fluke, and putting a much needed authentic voice on the radio.
Could that happen today? I like to hope so, but I doubt it.