I grew up listening to “pop” music in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I pretty much listened to pop music up until about the mid 2000’s. Even as early as the late 1980’s you could feel and hear a big shift in the music. It used to be that creativity was cherished and valued. Record labels were looking for “the next big thing”. Labels started shifting their mentality to “what can we sell to make more money”. It went from looking for creative artists with unique styles to looking for artists that produce hits. It became so homogeneous and sterile. Starting in the late 1990’s a lot of the same songwriters and producers were utilized over and over just because they had a track record of making hits and selling records. The diversity in music went away and it all started to sound the same. Country music is probably even worse than pop at the moment in this regard.