Defineatly, love for the music HAS to be number one. But a few things have happened which allowed the current state to evolve. For one thing you no longer have to be a good musician to be a top selling act- to a certain extent this is good- no one can call Kurt Cobain a great musician, but their's no doubt he was a very original song writer. Or Bob Dylan for that matter. But for christ's sakes I heard somebody singing crappy rap over the top of the music and horn line to "Mr Bigstuff" the other day talking about the 70's. Now that's just cheap, blatant plagurism.
No matter what genre their' people who're in it for the wrong resons, and if they can sound good on tape it's all the record companies need.
I don't think being a good performer's enough, to make it in this business their should be creativity involved, however in this society, creativity isn't neccessary. So what can we do other play the music we love and know deep down inside that we're doing the right thing?