A couple big hits seems to make artists really famous and sufficiently rich that they never seem to progress past the album/set of music that made them "big". I

A couple big hits seems to make artists really famous and sufficiently rich that they never seem to progress past the album/set of music that made them "big". It's not worth the hard work of touring/recording/creation. Either that, or interconnectedness is suppressing the creation/germination that comes from isolation. It's all just a big cacophony of grey now. A band cranking out four or five great albums/sets of music seems dead. Music tools, processing, remixing, sampling, it's all way more accessible than it used to be. And yet creativity of popular music is far behind, say, the 1980s and 1990s. And publishing/serving tail audiences. That should be producing crossover / surfacing hits, but it is definitely not. But it also could be the reassertion of dominance of the popular channels of music by the big boys. Also, since the 1970s music, it doesn't sound alien to new kids. Elvis sounds old. The 60s is weird and primitive. But Led Zeppelin? Still just awesome. So large catalogs of great stuff, back when better germination and career dedication/craft was followed, makes for a lot of base competition for new music. But it goes in cycles, we'll see.