Salutations.
Most consumers don't do a whole lot more than follow established trends. On the other hand, I argue that breaking new ground is necessary for art to be 'good' art. Of course, in 2014 it's pretty hard to break new ground (although technology helps), and it is harder still to do so while sounding "good" to brains trained to accept tonal European music as the gold standard. There is a lot of (good!) art on the market today that goes under the banner of "music", but really isn't of artistic merit by the standards of European music. An obvious example is rap--it's easy to see that an Eminem track is probably decent poetry, but makes for a bad song or symphony (although one might broaden the definition of 'symphony', or consider things other than melody, such as texture).
Going back in time: the wave of `60's Rock&Roll British bands--most importantly (in my mind), The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and The Who--represent such a revolutionary force for boundless creativity, sheer energy, and excellent musical pedigree (e.g., in art school, Pete Townshend had access to a roomate's extensive collection of American R&B records), that later generations of musicians--on average--seem to have a laughably hard time surpassing them AND becoming popular (in my mind).
[Rant: Between the choice of churning out pale imitations of `60's masterpieces, and turning away an audience by getting too experimental, the concentration of annoying, banal music produced in the `80s isn't really surprising. Of course, with the arrival of Hip-Hop, it's become clear that the mainstream has finally become tired of this drivel once and for all, although it's too bad that the preferred solution offered by Hip Hop meant that Rock&Roll had to be mostly abandoned in the mainstream. Yes, the `90s Alternative Rock movement would have begged to differ, but where has this ultimately led? Acts like The Black Keys, Nirvana, The Strokes, and Elliot Smith and many others have varying levels of fandom, but their mainstream popularity relative to pop artists like Will.I.Am, Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Kayne, and Daft Punk is small. Admittedly, this makes some sense, since it is Hip Hop that overthrew the "old guard" of Rock&Roll, and that Rock&Roll is now akin to the likes of Engelbert Humperdinck, even if it
was Rock&Roll bands like The Doors that were overthrowing old farts like Engelbert Humperdinck in the `60s. So one might simply argue that I'm only bitter that the movement began by my heroes has survived long enough to become the villain.]
While I won't argue the implication (in the universe of music) that [accessible] => [bad], I will claim that if music is engineered to be accessible from the get-go, rather than fermented in the creative soul of the artist, then, yeah, I won't be surprised if it is bad. Also, there are a lot of 'disturbing' long-term trends in the music industry, like increased repetitiveness and excessive use of Autotune and sampling. I would venture to say that pop artists have become more adept at mixing, but practice their physical instruments less (if they have physical instruments to begin with).
By the way, the first time I listened to my favorite album (Quadrophenia), it sounded mostly like noise. If a composition is so densely packed with ideas, then yes, it will be less accessible (not to mention longer!).
That's not to say that some accessible music isn't great. A lot of my favorite music from the `60s are simple folk ditties, and I don't even need to mention the success (in popularity AND musicality) of the Beatles, the original boy band. But alas, most of the original songs parodied by Weird Al on Mandatory Fun don't have many redeeming qualities.
Some of my favorite Weird Al songs are his style parodies, which give his band a chance to show their musical craft. If Weird Al's band (which he has been with since the beginning) weren't as musically talented as they are, I imagine he'd be largely unknown today. I love 'Everything You Know is Wrong', 'Don't Download This Song', and 'The Night Santa Went Crazy' because they are funny, but also tasteful and 'musical' (by my own personal definition of the word).
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