[JohnFen]

I disagree with the characterization that "music stopped mattering". Maybe it stopped mattering so much online or if all you're looking at is mass-market commercialization, but in general? It looks as alive and important as ever from where I sit.

[RiverCrochet]

IMHO its the old ways music was brought to people--the mass-market ways--that stopped mattering, such as radio, television, music videos.

The U.S. doesn't have enough of a cohesive entertainment culture anymore to really have even a weak notion of national pop music. The Internet keeps everyone in their bubbles. So if you're looking for U.S. Top 40, it's gone-that's what no one cares about except people who want to write articles about music.

It's the sunset of a long process of fragmentation in pop that's at least been there since the rock-vs-disco in the 70s.

I wouldn't say it's bad unless you don't use YouTube and/or Bandcamp. That's where I find most of my new stuff these days.

[JohnFen]

> So if you're looking for U.S. Top 40, it's gone-that's what no one cares about except people who want to write articles about music.

Ahh, that makes sense. I'm in the "don't care about Top 40" camp. I've never cared about that, even when it was still culturally relevant, and never listened to music much on the radio.

> I wouldn't say it's bad unless you don't use YouTube and/or Bandcamp.

I don't use YouTube for music. I buy music from Bandcamp, but don't use it for discovery. I do music discovery the same way I've done it my whole life: recommendations from friends who share my tastes, searching out works by the other people who contributed to an album (not just the musicians), and going to live musical performances.

I guess that fully explains why the music scene doesn't really look any less vibrant to me now than it used to.