As a middle schooler during the early to mid 00s, I'd be interested to hear people's experience/perceptions of that time in hip hop as it seems that's where we saw that shift to hip hop becoming the dominant genre in popular music(at least in the US) which remains the case. It just happened to come about as the music industry as people knew it died or maybe that's how it always felt but I feel like the jump from physical to digital distribution and the internet in general is pretty unprecedented. The internet has made music more accessible to everyone both in terms of listening, ease of creation, and the sharing of it. The actual avenues of finding quality music has drastically changed though and I feel like the disconnect between a genre's mainstream/popular representation and actual relevant/quality material is greater than ever. All of these old metrics(album sales, award shows, charts) seem almost completely irrelevant these days yet still get cited in discussions like this. Somebody above mentioned music being a young man's game, constantly reinventing itself. I feel like that's true both in the creation and consumption of art.
Basically, I'm curious to know why "hip hop was better in the 90s"? The genre or decade I suppose doesn't really matter that much overall in regards to the question. I find it hard to believe that there could possibly be a decrease in overall talent or creativity, but I don't necessarily disagree with the thread title. I'm unsure really. If I did agree, would that be my fault as a music listener? I do feel like it's an interesting topic, because I think you'd hear this same sentiment expressed in a variety of mediums and genres for the same decade.
