[Sumac]

Rock music embodied a creativity and a protest.

When it has become mainstream it had become less creative and, naturally, its protest fizzled out. After all it was hard to take seriously rockers who were singing about social problems, while receiving millions for their performances.

It doesn't help that the 80s were a hard time in the West - many social problems, economic problems, renewed rivalry between West and USSR - majority of the people didn't want hear about protests, they wanted something softer and inspiring, thus glamour rockers.

With big money and fame, both creativity and protest in rock music had died. What once was a challenge to the norms, has become a new norm - stale and boring. As a result creativity went into electronic music (raves) and the last sparks of "protest" led to creation of grunge, which was anti-mainstream rock and when grunge itself has become mainstream - it has finished rock for good in the mainstream, since there was nowhere else to go.

At least this is my version of events.

As for modern music - there are some good and creative artists, but due to informational stream speeding up, thanks to the Internet and new media, they tend to appear and die out very quickly. It doesn't help that music making nowadays is more easier than ever.

Mainstream is occupied by glamour names, who are more known for their scandals and boobs, rather than music itself, which is the prime reason people remember them.