I used to sit in with a folk band comprised of some guys who'd been in the music business since the sixties. I once told my mentor that it seemed to me that gen

I used to sit in with a folk band comprised of some guys who'd been in the music business since the sixties. I once told my mentor that it seemed to me that general talent and musicianship seemed to be higher in artists in the 1960s and 1970s. Surely this was just because time had passed and I'm only listening to the good stuff. Right? He said, no, the music community is, in fact, less talented, as a whole, than it was in older days. He blamed MADD (mothers against drunk driving). Here was his reasoning. In the older days, almost every bar, tavern, hotel, and other night spots would have a house band. This was the environment where you learned to play different musical styles for different types of crowds. It's also how you apprenticed with older musicians, learned the standard repertoire, etc. With the rise in criminal consequences for impaired driving, people stopped going out as much. This had a ripple effect causing the end of the house band. Today, musicians don't get nearly the amount of stage time and access to mentors as they used to. It was a compelling theory and I wonder if something similar could be at work here given the coincidence of the drop in popularity in the early 1980s.