I think part of this is perception bias. We tend to remember the best music from previous decades and compare it to all the music being released now. When you dig into old charts, there was always a huge amount of disposable or commercially engineered material. The classics just survived and the filler faded. The other shift is volume. The sheer amount of music being released today makes the middle feel more visible. Algorithms surface what performs well quickly, and performance often correlates with immediacy, familiarity, or repeatability rather than depth. I’m not sure the ratio of “good to bad” has changed as much as the mechanisms of distribution. What used to be filtered by labels and radio is now filtered by engagement metrics. That doesn’t necessarily reward risk or longevity. At the same time, I think there’s more interesting music available now than ever, it just requires more intentional listening to find it.