Popular music is not an isolated cultural entity re: displaying a lot of inertia. Concert hall ("classical") music rolls on in performance as if Schoernberg had never existed. Most concert venues ignore the 20th century. Literature likewise with Hubert Selby Jr. Acting is an exception. Marlon Brando changed almost everything.
An exception in pop music? Female singers, a lot of them anyway, are Before Janis Joplin or After in expression. It's like that iridium layer in geology.
I don't get the subjective impression that there is any shortage of creative people out there, but the music BUSINESS and, to be fair, its audience, generally return to the same trough again and again. The sameness comes back with every big hit. Music, TV or movies, big sellers send in the clones and immitation drives style once again. I can sympathize with people like my nephew whos favorite bands are all unrecorded. I'm not that extreme, but I get it.
I have always thought that a big factor is pop music listeners paying much more attention to lyrics than to music. Bands quickly find that lyrics and singing frontmen are a surer and easier path to commercial success that compositional and instrumental talent. While a non factor in classical and a lesser factor in Jazz, words and their delivery still rule in popular sales. The reason to challenge the listener with the structure of the music loses commercial importance. Corky Siegal was once asked what it took to write a hit song. He said, "Make it very, very, very available."
Edited by Clarkmc2 - 8/11/12 at 6:18pm
