[ilamont]

I think the machine that leveraged interest and controlled attention for so long through radio, magazine, videos, and festivals has basically failed and young people have turned away from guitar-based rock.

My teenaged kids have no interest in what I listen to, with the possible exception of Queen, and I think that has more to do with the biopic than organic discovery.

[CydeWeys]

I won't argue that young people are turning away from guitar-based rock, but I'm not seeing the connection between that and the changes in the popular music machine. Are you implying that people would not have liked guitar-based rock this entire time if not for said machine? That the natural state of things, which we're now reverting to, is to prefer other types of music? I think it's more just that tastes change and go through cycles, and guitar-based rock is on the decline (and might or might not recover; there are so many dead dead dead musical genres and instruments out there).