A factor in the prevalence of compression in popular music that is not often mentioned is the effects of the music production technology, specifically the cheap

A factor in the prevalence of compression in popular music that is not often mentioned is the effects of the music production technology, specifically the cheap akai samplers that were used a lot in the 1980s and 90s. They only had a 12 bit sample rate and so had a very small dynamic range. This led to a fetishisation of the "chunky" sound it imparted on samples, especially drums. Then producers seeking this effect further compressed their samples to make them sound even chunkier. Here's an example from 1995: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fkWMrw4nFY#t=1m39s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fkWMrw4nFY#t=1m39s and another from 1993: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu9Ml51vDrM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu9Ml51vDrM In these scenarios, over-compression is a legitimate artistic choice: it's meant to sound like that. The problem is obviously when this expectation bleeds out into the rest of the music industry and is forced upon other types of artists by their labels.