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I'm sure the classical genre has some amazing recordings
So does country, but it doesn't sell like Lil Nas X. Of course, we're in danger in this thread of thinking that sitting in a quiet room concentrating on well reproduced music is normal, whereas what is actually normal is drowning out urban noise with shitty in-ear headphones. Mainstream production is geared to making music sound exciting in that environment, without regard to how tiring it might sound in the audiophile setting.
gbj_tester-
Maybe true for a lot of music. I have no idea how much because I avoid it. I think there's a strong thread of good albums about that are trying to be popular but turn out to be great anyway. They can also sound great on big systems. Hard to say if they are mainstream though.
How mainstream are artists like Cleo Sol, Lianne La Havas, SZA, James Blake, Robert Glasper Experiment, Tenderlonius. These are just a few I think have released great albums but they just don't feel 'recorded' like they used to. Compared to Tony Allen - The Source where it's all analog and proper attention to detail. Even Rhianna, Solange etc. have some good albums in their catalog.
So I kind of killing my own argument. There are still some good albums being made, just that they are being made rather than just recorded.
On this subject the new Kylie album is being toted as having been engineered by her during the lockdown. When you look at the credits there must be 100 musicians involved in it.
Airhead
There is a tendancy at the moment to applaud artists for making a whole album on a laptop. I'm sure the classical genre has some amazing recordings. Also strange that in the late 50's people were less likely to have music systems that could reproduce the recordings in full range or even media in good enough condition to appreciate it.
Now that we have all that advantage we use it to play Old Town Road at full volume on a Friday night.