Commercial pop's bottom-line money success depends on hitting lowest common denominators. Hitting a broad market with safe, superficially appealing sounds. That hasn't changed since the advent of national pop charts and radio playlists. I don't doubt that they've gotten better at it. But at the same time avenues to access to broader music palettes have expanded. There is plenty of pap out there that you absorb just moving through society, but there is a lot of cool stuff to plug into if you want to. Both are easier today than ever.