I find it interesting that the author refers to record companies. It's almost always the producers who make these kind of decisions. Most producers go with the

I find it interesting that the author refers to record companies. It's almost always the producers who make these kind of decisions. Most producers go with the current trend in terms of sound. If a producer wants to give me an 80s sound à la Bryan Adams, I'll go somewhere else. So it's the musicians as well. Everyone wants to sound "modern". Currently, this means loudness (and clipping, apparently).