If you compare the progression of pop music in the last 30 years with the thirty years before 1978, there seems a striking lack of major shifts and trends, and I would say innovation, in the current era. Why? Is it the consolidation of the music industry and the subsequent focus on maximizing profits? Are we just going through a period of culmination after a long period of innovation? Is the nature of how pop music is disseminated today? Am I just missing all the cool, innovative music?