Great thread!
I think popular music suffers today and has for about 20 years, give or take. One of the problems is barriers to entry. Every artist can make their own album on a laptop. With the increase in artists, it’s harder to find the musical standouts. In the 1930s through 1970s, for instance, the cream easily rose to the top.
Lack of physical media doesn’t help. On the one hand, it’s great to stream and have access to nearly everything. On the other hand, young folks don’t have as many memories about music partly due to quality and the diminishing importance of music in their lives, and partly due to the fact that they listen not even on Spotify/Tidal, etc., but on Youtube. My daughter and her buddies do this. Such a far cry from my collection of 45s, making mix tapes, and collecting albums.
Public taste has changed too. While their are certainly tons of live shows/events, in the "old days" people used to go out to hear music frequently. People used to listen to music more on a regular basis. There was no Netflix, Amazon Prime, binge TV watching, on demand, etc. Who remembers having 3-4 VHF channels and a couple of UHF?
On average, I personally believe people just don’t care or value music in the same way they did 40+ years ago.
What’s interesting to me is that the ability of those who play instruments has increased. I’m leaving creativity aside. Just physical ability. There are so many exceptionally skilled instrumentalists out there. I have personally met a bunch. Most of these folks though aren’t on the radio or playing key roles in major bands.
While I generally agree that the more things change, the more they stay the same, I do think we are in a different popular music landscape than we saw in the 20th century.
Sometimes when I hear someone or a group who I think is pretty talented and has something musical going on I think, Man, I wish T Bone Burnette would produce your next album.
Sorry for the rambling...