I belong to a group about the rock band Chicago and I learned how the late guitarist Terry Kath seemed to from the beginning was against it. There were songs Beginnings, Does Anybody Know What Time It Is? and ? 67 68 which were off the 1st album released in 69, sung by Kath and eventually did get released as singles 2 years later in 71 and you didn't hear much lead singing from him after that and the band kind of paid for their commercial sucess when by the mid and late 70s when their singles were more on the softer side than their jazz/rock songs. Kath of course was not happy about that.
I know hit singles often help hit music people noticed, help their album sales but then again at the same time some might feel because of it, they may only get noteriety for certain songs or a song depending. To me it's ashame of music industry and radio is set up the way it is and even though there are some freeforum stations or radio shows that exist there's probably not many of them. these days the internet is your best source for that. There are also to many internet stations that cater to commmercialisum. I'm glad durring Lightfoot's big time in the 70s he had 1 serious song, The Weck Of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a song about a real life event which is how I've always interpited folk music and not goofy love songs or whatever.
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