It depends on the type of music and its targeted market.
Major label pop/rock releases are strongly influenced by marketing and demographic considerations. If the artist is a "boy band" and the target audience is young teen girls, then the assumption is made that the girls aren't listening on Revel/Levinson systems, but instead will hear it on a boombox, TV or car radio. The sound is tailored to sound best on these limited bandwidth, poor resolution systems. Specifically, the engineer (including the mastering engineer) makes sure that the lead vocal the beat (usually the snare drum) are clear and upfront in the mix. At the other end of the spectrum when Joni Mitchell goes into the studio with a full orchestra to record a selection of classic standards, then she, her producer and the engineers will try to faithfully capture the sound of the musicians performance without any real assumptions about the home listeners playback system. (Actually, for stereo releases they always check for mono compatibility and for multi-channel release they check for stereo playback.)
Over the last five years there's been a strong trend to increase the overall volume level in pop/rock releases. Mastering engineers say that clients (which can be a combination of the producer, artist and record label) are insisting that they make the final mixes as hot in level as possible. The mastering engineer applies a combination of limiting, EQ and compression to raise the average recorded level, sometimes to the point actually exceeding digital full scale. The end recording is dynamically limited and distorted, but it's very loud. Compare the first Sheryl Crow relase "Tuesday Night" to her last record "C'mon, C'mon". This maximum loudness trend is wide spread and has strongly anti-audiophile implications.
Major label pop/rock releases are strongly influenced by marketing and demographic considerations. If the artist is a "boy band" and the target audience is young teen girls, then the assumption is made that the girls aren't listening on Revel/Levinson systems, but instead will hear it on a boombox, TV or car radio. The sound is tailored to sound best on these limited bandwidth, poor resolution systems. Specifically, the engineer (including the mastering engineer) makes sure that the lead vocal the beat (usually the snare drum) are clear and upfront in the mix. At the other end of the spectrum when Joni Mitchell goes into the studio with a full orchestra to record a selection of classic standards, then she, her producer and the engineers will try to faithfully capture the sound of the musicians performance without any real assumptions about the home listeners playback system. (Actually, for stereo releases they always check for mono compatibility and for multi-channel release they check for stereo playback.)
Over the last five years there's been a strong trend to increase the overall volume level in pop/rock releases. Mastering engineers say that clients (which can be a combination of the producer, artist and record label) are insisting that they make the final mixes as hot in level as possible. The mastering engineer applies a combination of limiting, EQ and compression to raise the average recorded level, sometimes to the point actually exceeding digital full scale. The end recording is dynamically limited and distorted, but it's very loud. Compare the first Sheryl Crow relase "Tuesday Night" to her last record "C'mon, C'mon". This maximum loudness trend is wide spread and has strongly anti-audiophile implications.