Also, why is autotune still a thing? So ugly sounding.
Autotune can be used by an artist to achieve some useful effect. Cher used it to create a hook in her song
Believe. But it was an artistic effect that worked in that song.
Mostly, though, Autotune is used for singers who can't sing in tune. For them, Autotune is adjusted to sound as though it is not there, with varying levels of success.
But, like any effect, it can become its own thing that singers add because everyone is doing it. Then, the point is to be audible.
Most pop stars are selected because they look good and can sing well enough. Many have an army of technicians behind them filling in the gaps. About the only thing I like about the singer reality contests is that the contestants actually do have to be able to sing musically--both emotionally and technically.
Now, to the topic: The mass market never rewards sophistication because their use case is for a soundtrack to their lives and not to be the point of any given moment. Why did ELP and Yes falter in the late 70's? There are lots of theories, but the plain fact is that a lot of women wanted to dance, not listen, and punk was danceable. I think Yes's
Awaken on their
Going for the One album of 1977 is astounding, but it's written in 11/8 for cryin' out loud--nobody short of Twila Tharp can dance to that. The Ramones, by their own admission, were anything but great musicians. But that wasn't the point. They made the point in the biopic about them from a decade or so back that people just wanted to dance, and that's who they cared about. They and their genre were getting the chicks.
For us uncoordinated geeks who couldn't/wouldn't dance and who were not getting the dates anyway, give us the complex and sophisticated prog rock any day.
Change the above narrative to, say, Johann Strauss (of waltz fame) versus, say, his contemporary Johannes Brahms, and it still works. Who's gonna get played at the local potentate's costume ball in 1890?
Not the Brahms.
Rick "pop is driven by the preferred background music of females--neither Rick Denney nor Rick Beato were consulted" Denney