episteme on 16 February 2014
I think it also has something to do with extremely loud mastering since the mid-90's. Many remastered versions of classic albums sound as boring as the new ones.
It's very hard to find a mainstram album with good sound quality nowadays.
Take Metallica or Red Hot Chili Peppers as example. They had some of the best produced albums in the early 90's and some of the worst produced albums in history in recent years. But the songs itself aren't that bad, it's the mastering that ruins everything.
I don't listen much to pop music, but the Bruno Mars albums produced like the original mastering of Michael Jackson's Bad (2001 SE and Bad 25 suck) would be amazing.
