Watched the MTV awards that night


i never realized the music business was in such a big place. All the performers sound alike. It sounds like they all have the same recording engineer. There is no individuality to any of acts. It's all just a formulated mess.

I am so thankful I grew up a time when there were great musicians and singers and songwriters. They say progress is good but it didn't work out that way in the music business.
taters
Bdp24, This guy was the biggest superstar of the 1920's. If you want to have a good laugh take a gander at this! Do you think this would be PC in this day and age?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIaj7FNHnjQ
You don't hear much about Al Jolson anymore these days, but yes, he was the biggest star of his time as I recall.

Says a lot.
Pop music from 20s-50's had some very high level artists and music .
For a starter listen to Johnny Mercer, the greatest singer-song writer the USA has ever produced .
The thing is with modern technology/production, there is so much done to beef up a production technically, often with a single sound/style in mind that will appeal to the masses, that the individual talent of the actual performer matters less than ever. Its kinda like fast food, crank it out for the masses. All driven by marketing and metrics across an increasingly diverse demographic of consumers. The results are very lowest common denominator. Real individual unique talents will appeal to just a subset of the target audience.

So it is what it is. The smart thing to do is to maybe just accept pop culture for what it is and enjoy it or not, but seek your individual musical pleasures elsewhere. There is more of that out there to find and enjoy than ever. Some of it dating back to the earliest recordings made almost a century ago.
Mapman, you make an excellent comment that I had not thought of before. You said they gear towards having one sound so they can appeal to the masses. That is great insight on your part.