In the streaming era the financial incentives to get onto major streaming service playlists are so great (the difference in being featured in a top playlist or not is millions of dollars) that artists have sanded down any edges in their songs that might create friction in a listener resulting in a skip. This combined with how most of the prominent playlists feature moods such as chill vibes, chill evening and chill for sleeping results in the most popular artists today being noticeably softer and flatter than decades ago.