Great post!
I think we've got a weird current trend in music - homogeny.
But just underneath all that homogeny lies an interesting contradiction. There is more music out there than ever before, in more flavors, variations and styles than ever before. But all that volume creates its own problems. There is simply too much noise for new styles to emerge. Instead, what rises to the surface is the stuff that sounds like all the other stuff, and homogeny - sameness - prevails.
We are also in an interesting time of cross-over hits. Carrie Underwood comes to mind - although she wasn't the country pioneer who transformed country music into modern pop music - that honor, I think, goes to Shania Twain. Now, I'm no country fan, so this pop music is largely lost on me.
If you listen to modern R&B music, it sounds an awful lot like the electronica that prevailed in the '80s - lots of synthesized sounds and computer created beats.
On the whole, I don't think that music died. I think it spawned too many children, none of whom have much identity. But it's there if you search it out.
