It was the technology.
It’s not that each era hasn’t had its own one-hit wonders and flashes in the pan, but in the Deleted Years (https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a28904211/2003-to-2012-forgotten-music-era/?utm_source=pocket-newtab), everything came together to make music feel especially ephemeral. The charts lost their significance, the value of a song plummeted, the gatekeepers became redundant. And where my generation has dusty 45s and cassingles to keep the memory of our Johnny Hates Jazzes and Positive Ks alive, whoever was unlucky enough to be 13 in the mid-aughts has only a LaCie hard drive filled with mislabeled Limewire files to turn to.

Technology was to blame for the decline of music in the 2000's. The facility of downloading songs onto portable devices killed off the need for record stores. In the 70's and 80's, getting an album was an event. You looked forward the album release and you saved your money. Album covers were a statement. It was an exciting time.

Now you can't get very excited about it because it's all so disposable. And music lacks a raw, organic feel because it's so computerized in recording.