Do you think any of this could just be a change in the style of music ?
I mean, right now, DJ's are treated like gods, people talk about the DJ and worship them like the guitar gods of the 80's, they treat putting beats together like they did an amazing ballad 30 years ago.
So because of that, big arena shows are not supported by the millenials, they prefer the dance club rave type of thing
add in, the singer songwriter was huge for a minute over the band thing. Heck, even country music isnt the same, they have all that hick hop stuff now.
I am hoping / believe that writing new songs and putting out an album will come around again. Even back in Elvis day, someone would release a song, then he would cover it, blues suede shoes and hound dog come to mind right off the bat, foghat stole from etta james.
Then the awesome 80's hit
I believe it's likely many things, but yes I also believe it will come back around.
If you look at pop music throughout history (and I'm talking about, since the 1600s) the pendulum has swung back and forth between simple and complex.
Using your 80's analogy is a perfect one, the shred guitar players playing in bands that actually had key changes in the guitar solo!!!
But all that vanished with the first chord of "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
The same thing happened to Beethoven when Debussy came along (I hope I'm remembering my music history right, please don't hold me to getting the composers correct.)
We went from the bubble gum pop of the 60's to the prog rock of the 70's, and then back again in an instant when disco hit.
It's happened many times, and will happen many times more... except that now all music is on an equal footing.
I have a lot of students that bring in a 30 year old AC/DC album like it's brand new. They can't tell from listening to it that it's not, whereas we could tell our parents' records because they sounded "old" due to technology.
Now we have all these pockets of people that like different things - but for the first time in human history, whatever people want to hear can be accessed immediately, no matter when it was made.
My kids in high school (OK, college now) and their friends have VERY different and eclectic tastes compared to the current crop of millenials. I think the next 10-20 years will be a very interesting time to watch, indeed.
You really can't have a discussion about the music business anymore without taking into the account the demographics of the audience. Could Joe Bonamassa do what he did if he was a hip-hop artist? I don't know, that's hard to picture.
It's a business, and like all businesses it is a slave to the concept of how much must be spent for a given return on the investment.
With proven songs being cheap, it's not a good investment to write a new one, or to write one that's not formulaic. Songwriters know where their bread is buttered.
My friend from college wrote music for Disney for many years (he wrote the song "Live The Magic" that was played during the fireworks show at Disneyland's 60th anniversary, as well as co-wrote much of the "High School Musical" stuff) and while he made a fortune doing that, he's selling financial services now.
Maybe he got tired of doing it, but as a brilliant guitar player, I suspect he got tired of pandering to the lowest common denominator and figured he would do something moderately interesting to him while he plays for fun on the side. A lot of guys my age are doing that now because we got tired of playing to people who don't know and don't care.
Oh look... I'm rambling again