I suspect the decline is a marketing thing in regard to easy listening music which is played on the radio and tv video shows, more emphasis seems to be on dance

I suspect the decline is a marketing thing in regard to easy listening music which is played on the radio and tv video shows, more emphasis seems to be on dance music. The author really failed to mention electronica instrumentals and a sub branch trance which had a good following in the 90s. Regarding more classically sounding tracks, Philip Glass and Penguin Cafe Orchestra [1] would be the top two which come to mind first. More electronic of course Jean-Michel Jarre and Vangelis would be my top two picks. There are many others of course. There are of course many artists that have released some notable instrumentals but they for the most part also include vocals. Air have a couple nice instrumentals, one of which actually got a fair bit of air time here. Present day I think the music industry (though it's various agents and promoters) tries it's best to discourage artists that would prefer to sit in their own sound lab, create great music and have no interest touring - since the music industry's need to ... um promote and claim much of profits, would not be served. I see this especially when shows revisit the past music ... completely omitting great instrumental and near instrumental (ie has vocal riffs) hits. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Cafe_Orchestra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Cafe_Orchestra