In an interview with Guitar magazine in 1999, Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell remarked regarding the use of programmed drums and bass on DL records, "It's sort of like eating sausages, you enjoy them more if you don't see how they're made. The same is true of a Def Leppard record, you enjoy it more if you don't actually have to witness how it's put together".
Def Leppard started using programmed drums on their 1983 Pyromania album (actually before drummer Rick Allen famously lost an arm in a car crash), and programmed bass on Hysteria after that.
I used to wonder how Rick Savage got his bass to sound like a keyboard; well, it pretty much was one. it's a typically 80's production trait - Mutt Lange (who produced several DL albums) and Trevor Horn (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) were very keen on using their Fairlight and Synclavier samplers to program ultra-tight rhythm section parts on their productions. the drums on ZZ Top's Eliminator and Afterburner albums were programmed too.
(more startling is learning that the drums on Blur's albums with Stephen Street were programmed- not even the indie scene was safe)

I feel that the sausage-making analogy also applies to the music industry as a whole too.
the more you learn about it, the less appealing it is.
and in much, much more corrupt ways than vaguely misleading instrumentation used when recording an album.

blissful ignorance of the industry is fine for the music listener who hears the radio dj play a song, or sees a band's promo video on tv, likes it, goes out and buys the single, buys the album, enjoys listening to it, looking at the artwork and reading the liner notes, goes to see the band play live. all's well and good.

however, the industry behind the scenes, that lies between the musicians and the consumer is akin to a golden toilet bowl- golden on the outside, but full of...you get the idea.

too often the people who stand in the way know little or nothing about music, or worst of all are trying to be "rock stars" themselves despite never having musical talent, or the requisite ability to discern music talent in others.
a fair few record label personnel spring to mind. and radio station executives.

add to that music journalists biased in their reviews by who they're mates with- dare I say financial incentives too, the general truism of "it's not what you know- it's WHO you know", bands left out in the cold when the "good guy" in A&R who got them their deal gets fired/leaves the label, and it becomes clear why so often great albums go unpromoted, great songs fail to get airplay, while dross can get played to death on radio, and promotion heaped on acts that don't deserve it.
bands can get signed but forced to change their sound to match some currently unit-shifting act, and then find themselves dropped after one album when the scene's changed.

famed virtuoso rock bassist Billy Sheehan (Dave Lee Roth band, Mr Big) did an interview on a podcast a few months ago and spoke with a fair degree of bitterness about the problems Mr Big had with their record label, Atlantic.
their big hit rock ballad "To be with you" was still getting heavy radio airplay, but Atlantic wanted to release the followup single "promise her the moon" immediately.
because this new single would get no airplay as the radio stations were still playing To be with you and couldn't have 2 current songs by the same artist on the playlist, the band and their management did all they could to delay the release.
but Atlantic went ahead, it got no airplay, and bombed.

now this really is cutting your own throat (never mind musical judgement, it's suicidal in mere business, bean-counting terms), and makes you wonder how people who do things like this can stay in their jobs.
the reason is one big lucky win, one big discovery can make someone's name for life, even if it was pure luck, no skill on their part. that one big win can keep the entire company in profit, soak up all the losses on the mismanagement or underperforming of other artists, and then some.
"the man who discovered band X" is hailed as some supposed visionary, and his word  is gospel. much the same goes for "the man who produced band X's album".
luck of being associated with a successful band can pass for actual skill.
often the Emperor has no clothes, and his tailor has no clothesmaking ability.

Sheehan also mentioned how Atlantic mishandled the band King's X, and finally dropped them on the night they sold out the House of Blues.

Atlantic also screwed over The Cult on their 2001 comeback album, the excellent Beyond good and evil. the band was signed to an Atlantic subsidiary, Lava.
singer Ian Astbury explained on the The Cult's forum;

"The Atlantic demise is simple,greed and confusion.They wanted the NEW Aerosmith (Confusion) .....Greed while BG&E was being released PEOPLE were negotiating their share of the AOL take over of Time Warner.When general staff received this information they realised their days were over hence why work a CULT/LAVA album....We had little or NO tour support virtually NO media support nothing to do with BG&E not being a potential platinum album. I spent 2 weeks discussing an AMAZING video treatment with the director WIZ to be told it was not commercially acceptable to the LAVA video dept we ended up making a terrible video clip forced by time (also by this point I was less than enamored with anyone involved) during the making of BG&E I was asked by A&R reps to change lyrics and Bob Rock was asked to present a CERTAIN production value that would be commercially viable...
Needless to say I did not comply and fought all the way to the Hiatus."

the result- only one track off the album got airplay in the UK- "rise".
the first I knew of the album being out was when I saw it in the racks of a CD shop on Oxford street.


so how does the internet affect all this?
it means musicians can offer their music to the world without a record company, or airplay, but whether they can make any money out of it is a different matter altogether.
heavy promotion is still needed- to push an internet artist above the millions of other artists out there, so PR companies will still have a foothold. unfortunately.
and the money for said promotion has to come from somewhere, record companies' budgets, most likely.

one definite plus is that all those forgotten tracks that died from underpromotion when they were originally released can be given a new lease of life on the internet, and possibly shift some back catalogue units as a result.
eg. I never even knew that a promo video existed for "All roads lead to Rome" by The Stranglers. now thanks to Youtube and a net-savvy fan I know what the "yellow chariots" mentioned in the song were.

Columbia have jumped on the Youtube phenomenon and uploaded over a thousand videos, new and old (also I didn't know the Psychedelic Furs shot videos for the World Outside singles). it doesn't cost them anything and puts all those old tapes in their vaults to good use.