>good luck introducing anyone in the 25+ category to new albums that actually experiment into novel sounds and become the music of the current 20yo generation

>good luck introducing anyone in the 25+ category to new albums that actually experiment into novel sounds and become the music of the current 20yo generation Both here and in the article there's a conflation of "new music" with "contemporary mainstream popular" which seems invalid. Is the Billboard Hot 100 any more or less innovative in 2024 than it was in 2004, or 1974? I think that most "mainstream" music is precisely "a slight riff on stuff [written] a long time ago." You have to go outside of the mainstream to find music and artists that are experimenting with novel sounds, just like you did in decades past. As you say, there's been an explosion of independent creativity, thanks to the Internet. There's no reason for anyone who is interested in music to listen to the same old mainstream dreck.