There is a fine line between whether a trend is good or bad then. Trends can either be simply a bunch of people following the crowd, or... they can be what the few people in a particular area create by striving ahead of the pack. Of course, in art something that is regarded highly is usually called a "movement" to make it sound better. But look at the modernist movement, in literature and visual arts and music, etc. This was a movement formed by groups of people pushing ahead, and it could be seen as a trend, but it wasn't a bad idea. If someone starts painting an impressionist painting (for example) and someone else is inspired by it, and understands what it is on about, and chooses to push their own impressionist paintings, is that a bad trend? If you think about it, rock music itself is a series of "trends" that have led to great (and hopeless) music. I'm not defending everyone trying tyo sound like each other in an attempt to seel lots of records, but I'm trying to show that trend insn't necessarily a dirty word.