History AudienceAlienatingEra / Music

* Ween's ''12 Golden Country Greats'' was probably a deliberate attempt to create one. After three albums of lo-fi genre-blending weirdness, no one could have predicted that the duo would recruit a full band and make a country record. A less deliberate example came with their 2003 album "Quebec." The album has a mostly serious, downbeat tone (caused by frontman Gene Ween going through a divorce and drummer Claude Coleman Jr. recovering from a major car accident) and lacks a lot of the humor and genre experimentation that Ween is known for. Fans at the time were conflicted. In the years since, "Quebec" has undergone a lot of re-evaluation and some now call it Ween's best work.

* Ween's ''12 Golden Country Greats'' was probably a deliberate attempt to create one.

** ...the late '10s. The rise of [=SoundCloud=], Website/{{Vine}}, and [=TikTok=] as platforms for self-publishing, self-promotion, and memes [[GenreTurningPoint set off a sea change in hip-hop]], one whose effects are furiously debated among fans. To its detractors, the brand of TrapMusic that emerged from these online scenes is a new Audience-Alienating Era in the making, characterized by [[TheUnintelligible vocals slurred to the point of near-unintelligibility]] (leading to the derisive term "mumble rap"), [[MisogynySong vicious misogyny]], [[OdeToIntoxication the celebration of drug abuse]] (particularly prescription pills like Xanax), and the worst sort of {{emo|Teen}} {{wangst}}, often performed by artists whose lyrics shine ugly mirrors onto their violent personal lives. Defenders, however, praise it for its authentic emotions, energy, and anger, often comparing it to early PunkRock in both its attitude and its ThreeChordsAndTheTruth-style simplicity. Needless to say, "[=SoundCloud=] rap" marks one of the greatest fault lines in modern hip-hop, and opinions on it one way or the other can get ''very'' heated.

* Music/KatyPerry's fourth[[labelnote:*]]Not counting her 2001 SelfTitledAlbum recorded under her birth name Katy Hudson at the age of 16, an album of [[ChristianRock Christian pop]] that, while not usually counted as part of her career, is a cult item among her fans.[[/labelnote]] album ''Witness'' in 2017 snapped her mainstream success, and was roundly criticized for overproduction, scattershot writing, lacking the catchiness of her best work (which many blamed on the lack of her longtime collaborator, the disgraced RecordProducer Dr. Luke), and sounding like everything else on the radio in the mid-late '10s. Katy's promise that the album would be taking a more political, socially conscious direction towards "purposeful pop" not only came off as [[InformedAttribute wishy-washy and inconsistently applied]], it also left her open to criticism of her own problematic career choices, while a four-day Website/YouTube live stream to promote the album was filled with all manner of bizarre non-sequiturs that had people buzzing for all the wrong reasons. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Her new haircut was also incredibly polarizing, on top of it.]] While ''Witness'' debuted at #1, it crashed hard with an 89% dropoff in sales during its second week, while the accompanying concert tour struggled to sell out the arenas that she was able to pack during her ''Teenage Dream'' and ''Prism'' days. When WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows did a ''Trainwreckords'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfoPiRzWnFY episode]] on ''Witness'' five years later, he called it the album that coined the term "flop era" and said that he got requests to cover it just ''months'' after it came out, such was the speed of Katy's freefall (although he admitted that he still enjoyed the leadoff single "Chained to the Rhythm"). Her music since then, including her 2020 album ''Smile'' and five standalone singles released across 2019 and early 2020, met mixed reviews and largely went ignored on the pop charts, with only "Never Really Over" and her featured part on Music/DaddyYankee's English remix of "Con Calma" being serious hits. However, her fans at least did think it was better than ''Witness''. She also became a judge on ''Series/AmericanIdol'' in 2018 and started a UsefulNotes/LasVegas residency in late 2021.

* In the mid-'00s, Music/{{Powerman 5000}} decided to abandon their IndustrialMetal sound and their sci-fi fashion sense and image with the punk-influenced albums ''Transform'' in 2003 and ''Destroy What You Enjoy'' in 2006 [[note]]Ironically, their breakthrough album ''Tonight The Stars Revolt!'' had also been a NewSoundAlbum - they'd started out with more of a FunkMetal and RapRock style[[/note]]. While ''Transform'' has its fans, few will defend ''Destroy What You Enjoy'', which, tellingly, is the only one of their albums that is not carried on iTunes or streaming services. That thankfully short-lived period ended with ''Somewhere on the Other Side of Nowhere'' in 2009.

* Both ''Risk'' (LighterAndSofter done horribly wrong; also one of the only non-country albums ever produced by Dann Huff) and ''The World Needs a Hero'' (DarkerAndEdgier done horribly wrong) are considered to be the nadir of Music/{{Megadeth}}/[[IAmTheBand Dave Mustaine]]'s career. One could also throw the "SellOut" album ''Cryptic Writings'' in the mix as well, and go as far as declaring everything between ''[[NewSoundAlbum Youthanasia]]'' and ''[[WinBackTheCrowd Endgame]]'' as this trope. You can argue the band are still stuck in an Audience-Alienating Era, and go as far back as ''Countdown to Extinction'' for its beginning. Lastly, the disastrous ''Super Collider'' very strongly indicated that an Audience-Alienating Era was on the horizon. Fortunately, it didn't happen as ''[[WinBackTheCrowd Dystopia]]'' proved to be a return to the band's mid-late 00's thrash style. Plus, in 2017, Megadeth ''finally'' won their first MediaNotes/{{Grammy|Awards}}, for the title track of ''Dystopia''.

* Both ''Risk'' (LighterAndSofter done horribly wrong; also one of the only non-country albums ever produced by Dann Huff) and ''The World Needs a Hero'' (DarkerAndEdgier done horribly wrong) are considered to be the nadir of Music/{{Megadeth}}/[[IAmTheBand Dave Mustaine]]'s career. One could also throw the "SellOut" album ''Cryptic Writings'' in the mix as well, and go as far as declaring everything between ''[[NewSoundAlbum Youthanasia]]'' and ''[[WinBackTheCrowd Endgame]]'' as this trope. You can argue the band are still stuck in an Audience-Alienating Era, and go as far back as ''Countdown to Extinction'' for its beginning. Lastly, the disastrous ''Super Collider'' very strongly indicated that an Audience-Alienating Era was on the horizon. Fortunately, it didn't happen as [[WinBackTheCrowd Dystopia]] proved to be a return to the band's mid-late 00's thrash style. Plus, in 2017, Megadeth ''finally'' won their first UsefulNotes/{{Grammy|Awards}}, for the title track of ''Dystopia''.

* Music/FaithHill's ''Cry'' album was a zig-zagged example. While the title track was a #1 hit on the AC charts and won her a UsefulNotes/{{Grammy|Award}}, the album's three singles all completely bombed at country radio. The album was also met with largely negative reception for its bombastic pop production and style, leading to accusations that she had sold out. She spent the entirety of 2004 off the charts before returning with 2005's ''Fireflies'', a somewhat better-accepted return to form that included the #1 hit "Mississippi Girl".

** ...2016's ''California'', which was and remains [[BrokenBase deeply divisive]]. While many fans praised it as a return to form and felt that Skiba was a great replacement for [=DeLonge=], others missed [=DeLonge=]'s presence and thought that the band was just [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks coasting on their old formula]]. Hoppus didn't help matters when he [[DearNegativeReader mocked]] fans who disliked John Feldmann's production on the record. Regardless, it was a commercial success, becoming their second number one album (after 2001's ''Take Off Your Pants and Jacket'') and being nominated for a UsefulNotes/GrammyAward for Best Rock Album (their first such nomination).

** A more commonly-cited Audience-Alienating Era came with [[ContractualPurity the breaking of her squeaky-clean image]] in the mid-2010s. A big part of Taylor's brand was that her music and lyrics spoke to a generation of teenage girls dealing with real-world issues, and her feuds with the likes of Music/KatyPerry, Music/KanyeWest, and Creator/KimKardashian, as well as her surrounding herself with a GirlPosse of attractive models, singers, and actresses known as her "squad", made her look like a BitchInSheepsClothing. Taylor was fully aware that her public image had taken a serious blow, to the point where she has said that this was a big part of why she chose not to endorse UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton for President in 2016 despite supporting her privately, as she felt that associating herself with Clinton's campaign would reflect badly on Clinton—a move that instead led to rumors that she was secretly a UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump supporter or even a white nationalist (with attendant ironic fandom from the alt-right).\\\

* ''Man of the Woods'', Music/JustinTimberlake's 2018 comeback album, attempted to incorporate influences from CountryMusic into his sound, and backfired badly. A backlash had been growing throughout the 2010s over what was seen as [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy inauthentic posturing]] in his RAndB style, as well as a perception, one that Timberlake himself seemed to [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-flashback-what-happened-justin-timberlake-janet-jacksons-2004-super-bowl-halftime-show-1080688 agree with,]] that [[KarmaHoudini he got off easy]] after the [[WardrobeMalfunction "Nipplegate" scandal]] in 2004 even as Music/JanetJackson's career (see above) went down in flames, and for many, him trying to go country was TheLastStraw. ''Man of the Woods'' met mixed to negative reviews, with only the song "Say Something" with Music/ChrisStapleton having any real success. A mediocre UsefulNotes/SuperBowl halftime performance to promote the album did him no favors, between it reminding people of his infamous prior Super Bowl halftime show (the one with Janet's WardrobeMalfunction) and the massive backlash it received from Music/{{Prince}} fans over rumors that would use Pepper's Ghost of the late musician's likeness (Prince had stated in interviews near the end of his life that he strongly objected to the use of Pepper's Ghosts to produce simulated performances from deceased artists), though the rumor was not true and he only used a projection.

* Music/KatyPerry's fourth[[labelnote:*]]Not counting her 2001 SelfTitledAlbum recorded under her birth name Katy Hudson at the age of 16, an album of [[ChristianRock Christian pop]] that, while not usually counted as part of her career, is a cult item among her fans.[[/labelnote]] album ''Witness'' in 2017 snapped her mainstream success, being roundly criticized for overproduction, scattershot writing, lacking the catchiness of her best work (which many blamed on the lack of her longtime collaborator, the disgraced RecordProducer Dr. Luke), and sounding like everything else on the radio in the mid-late '10s. Katy's promise that the album would be taking a more political, socially conscious direction towards "purposeful pop" not only came off as [[InformedAttribute wishy-washy and inconsistently applied]], it also left her open to criticism of her own problematic career choices, while a four-day Website/YouTube live stream to promote the album was filled with all manner of bizarre non-sequiturs that had people buzzing for all the wrong reasons. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Her new haircut was also incredibly polarizing, on top of it.]] While ''Witness'' debuted at #1, it crashed hard with an 89% dropoff in sales during its second week, while the accompanying concert tour struggled to sell out the arenas that she was able to pack during her ''Teenage Dream'' and ''Prism'' days. WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows, when he did a ''Trainwreckords'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfoPiRzWnFY episode]] on ''Witness'' five years later, called it the album that coined the term "flop era" and said that he got requests to cover it just ''months'' after it came out, such was the speed of Katy's freefall (even if he admitted that he still enjoyed the leadoff single "Chained to the Rhythm"). Her music since then, her 2020 album ''Smile'' and five standalone singles released across 2019 and early 2020, met mixed reviews and largely went ignored on the pop charts, with only "Never Really Over" and her featured part on Music/DaddyYankee's English remix of "Con Calma" being serious hits, though her fans at least did think it was better than ''Witness''. She also became a judge on ''Series/AmericanIdol'' in 2018 and started a UsefulNotes/LasVegas residency in late 2021.

** A more commonly-cited Audience-Alienating Era came with [[ContractualPurity the breaking of her squeaky-clean image]] in the mid-2010s. A big part of Taylor's brand was that her music and lyrics spoke to a generation of teenage girls dealing with real-world issues, and her feuds with the likes of Music/KatyPerry, Music/KanyeWest, and Creator/KimKardashian, as well as her surrounding herself with a GirlPosse of attractive models, singers, and actresses known as her "squad", made her look like a BitchInSheepsClothing. Taylor was fully aware that her public image had taken a serious blow, to the point where she has said that this was a big part of why she chose not to endorse UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton for President in 2016 despite supporting her privately, as she felt that associating herself with Clinton's campaign would reflect badly on Clinton -- a move that instead led to rumors that she was secretly a UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump supporter or even a white nationalist (with attendant ironic fandom from the alt-right).\\\

** In the late '00s, the band almost fully abandoned [[RapMetal their use of rapping and turntables]] on the albums ''Minutes to Midnight'' in 2007, which incorporated more ArenaRock influences in the vein of Music/{{U2}}, and ''A Thousand Suns'' in 2010, an electronic-infused ConceptAlbum about nuclear war. To be fair, the band probably needed to change their style to stay in the spotlight after the collapse of NuMetal in the mid-'00s, and their new sound helped them score a pair of soundtrack hits with "What I've Done" and "New Divide" for the first two ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' films. However, these two albums proved highly polarizing with the experimental direction they took with their sound and themes; while some fans saw them as a welcome evolution, others derided it as a {{sellout}}. The band returned to familiar territory with ''Living Things'' in 2012 and ''The Hunting Party'' in 2014, which, despite their incorporation of mainstream EDM influences, helped WinBackTheCrowd for many disillusioned fans...
** ...at least, until ''One More Light'' in 2017 saw the band jump fully into electronic pop-rock. Whereas ''Minutes to Midnight'' and ''A Thousand Suns'' both had their supporters among critics, ''One More Light'' received a scathing reception right out of the gate, with many fans declaring it a new Audience-Alienating Era from the moment they heard the lead-off single "Heavy" featuring pop singer Music/{{Kiiara}}. Sadly, the negative response to ''One More Light'', which frontman Chester Bennington [[DearNegativeReader did not take well]], may have played a role in [[DrivenToSuicide his suicide]] in July of that year. Ironically, said suicide has caused something of a reappraisal of the album, particularly its title track, which, despite not being about suicide (it was a tribute to a longtime friend of theirs at Creator/WarnerBrosRecords who had died of cancer), was widely reinterpreted by both fans and the band itself due to its HarsherInHindsight lyrics.

* Music/NeilYoung's early-mid '80s output, especially the album ''Trans''. He was fed up with David Geffen and wanted out of his contract. Geffen in return sued for those albums being "not commercial" and "musically uncharacteristic of previous recordings." His reunion album with Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, ''American Dream'', turned out to be disappointing as well. Critics called it over-produced and un-focused, [[CreatorBackLash which pretty much all the members agreed was true in hindsight]]. Neil wouldn't really bounce back until the 90s when he started producing hard rock again with bands like Music/PearlJam and became something of an honored elder-statesman.
* Music/ZacBrownBand seemed to fall into one starting in 2016. Their fourth album ''Jekyll + Hyde'' started off strongly with the #1 hits "Homegrown" and "Loving You Easy", but the album was divisive among critics and fans due to its GenreRoulette nature. This was not helped by the fact that the hard-rock Music/ChrisCornell collab "Heavy Is the Head" [[BlackSheepHit went to #1 on the Mainstream Rock charts.]] However, the true catalyst was "Beautiful Drug", which was met with initial resistance at country radio due to its electronica-influenced sound, to the point that the band sent out a [[RearrangeTheSong more country-sounding remix]]. While the song got to #1 anyway, it led to further concerns that ZBB were straying from country, particularly since Zac was featured on an Music/{{Avicii}} song around the same time.\\
But the Audience-Alienating Era really set in with ''Welcome Home'', for which they enlisted producer Dave Cobb. Lead single "My Old Man", despite positive critical and fan reception, stalled out at #14 on the Country Airplay charts due to it being a slow somber ballad. Although ''Welcome Home'' topped the Country Albums chart, sales topped off at 300,000, and critics thought that its lyrical and sonic themes were a backhanded apology for ''Jekyll + Hyde'' and/or a forced attempt at "authenticity". The album accounted for only one other single in "Roots", which inexplicably had half of the lyrics removed from the radio edit and thus failed at radio. Brown started an EDM-influenced side project in 2017 called Sir Rosevelt; their lone album was ravaged and its failure led to further accusations that the ZBB was selling out. Completing the downfall was Brown's self-released 2019 solo album ''The Controversy'', which continued in much of the same EDM influence as Sir Rosevelt and even bore an explicit content warning. Ironically, this got entangled in controversy when Zac sued Music/ShawnMendes over co-writing credits on the lead single "Nowhere Left to Go", causing it to be temporarily pulled from retailers.\\

** The band took a steep commercial hit due to backlash after the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} massacre in 1999, for which they were widely MisBlamed by MoralGuardians who felt that their music had [[MurderSimulators influenced the shooters to commit their violent crimes]]. Fans, however, regard this period as having produced, if anything, one of their ''best'' albums in 2000's ''Music/HolyWoodInTheShadowOfTheValleyOfDeath'', written in direct response to the massacre, and [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff their success in Europe (untouched by the controversy) would go on unscathed]]. That said, SeinfeldIsUnfunny began kicking in with their 2003 album ''The Golden Age of Grotesque'' as the band, which built its brand on controversy, suddenly found itself competing with a new wave of edgy HipHop and NuMetal acts, creating the public perception that they were yesterday's news and that their shock value was wearing thin (perhaps best represented in [[https://entertainment.theonion.com/marilyn-manson-now-going-door-to-door-trying-to-shock-p-1819565904 a famous article]] by ''Website/TheOnion'' skewering Manson). While many fans liked ''The Golden Age of Grotesque'' well enough for its {{concept|Album}} (rooted in UsefulNotes/{{Weimar|Germany}}-era art, {{burlesque}}, and satire of fascism), with the album again selling well in Europe and many saying that it was the band's last good album before the Audience-Alienating Era ''really'' set in, there were others, especially among {{critic|alDissonance}}s, who felt that the band was sliding into SelfParody and PanderingToTheBase. The band themselves seemed to acknowledge it, with the album's first track "This Is the New Shit" opening with the line "Everything has been said before/Nothing left to say anymore" and then proceeding to skewer the very idea of ShockRock.

* Music/LadyGaga's 2013 album ''Artpop'' was criticized as her coasting on her success. With the SynthPop revival sound she pioneered having blown up into the mainstream since her debut, sticking to her old formula and resting on the tropes of ''The Fame'' and ''Born This Way'' was seen as a case of SeinfeldIsUnfunny at best and a creative rut at worst, one that was less groundbreaking than it was just weird for its own sake. Its critical and commercial failure (her label reportedly lost up to $25 million on the album, a charge that she denied) caused Gaga to fade from the limelight in the mid-'10s, working on smaller projects such as a collaboration with Tony Bennett and a pivot to acting on ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'', before making a comeback in 2016-17 with her NewSoundAlbum ''Joanne'' and a well-received UsefulNotes/SuperBowl halftime performance. Despite all this, however, ''Artpop'' has become a CultClassic among Gaga's diehard fans.

* Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}: On the whole, the group's output in TheEighties is seen as this. After starting the decade strong with 1980's ''Music/EmotionalRescue'' and 1981's ''Music/TattooYou'', their next two albums, 1983's ''Music/{{Undercover}}'' and 1986's ''Music/DirtyWork'', got mixed reviews. ''Dirty Work'', while producing a top-5 novelty with a cover of Bob & Earl's "Harlem Shuffle", was recorded during a bitter strain in the Music/MickJagger[=/=]Music/KeithRichards partnership, with Keith disapproving so highly of Mick's interest on solo efforts coupled with his refusal to tour with the Stones that the strain nearly led to the group's breakup. Three years later, in 1989, Mick and Keith finally buried the hatchet, quickly reuniting the band to record a new album, ''Music/SteelWheels'', which debuted at #3 and produced both a successful tour and the band's final major U.S. hit in "Mixed Emotions".

*** ''Recovery'' and ''Revival'' in particular are criticised for Eminem showing diminished abilities as a vocalist. Eminem's albums prior to ''Recovery'' had made a lot out of his ability to act out his lyrics and transform his vocal tone, but ''Recovery'' is delivered in a cranked-up MetalScream style that has been called monotonous and tiresome. Eminem transitioned to a more playful GrinOfAudacity-to-SuddenlyShouting voice on his following projects, apparently agreeing with the criticism. ''Revival'' has more acting and tonal variation, but has garnered criticism for its unpleasant GutturalGrowler delivery, which Eminem also corrected in later projects by using more MelodicRap and his higher register.

* Music/MichaelJackson's post-''Music/{{Dangerous}}'' period from 1995 to his death in 2009 was not kind to him as his public drama started overwhelming his music, starting with a large number of bitter and vindictive rants against the mainstream media on ''Music/HistoryPastPresentAndFutureBookI'' (which became the best-selling double album ever and was his last album to score a number one hit in his native UsefulNotes/UnitedStates, but was still much less successful than previous solo efforts), which even calls out the UsefulNotes/{{California}} District Attorney who led the first child molestation investigation against him ''by name'' and baselessly suggests he might be "brother with the KKK". His final album ''Music/{{Invincible}}'' featured not only those, but a rather generic sound that didn't feature any of the energy or personality of his best work. The quality of his music videos likewise plummeted, largely alternating between self-pitying visualizations of such rants and retreads of his '80s hits.

** By the end of TheFifties, RockAndRoll in general had all but died. The genre's stars all saw their careers come to a halt in one way or another, with Music/ElvisPresley getting drafted into the Army, popular performers like Music/BuddyHolly and Music/EddieCochran dying in accidents, Music/LittleRichard becoming born-again and abandoning the genre, Music/JerryLeeLewis being [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor ostracized]] for marrying a teenage cousin, Bill Haley moving to middle-of-the-road instrumental and {{Country Music}}, and Music/ChuckBerry going to prison for violating the Mann Act. Furthermore, the [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney payola scandals]] had created the unfair impression that the entire genre was driven more by record industry hype than an organic fanbase, with prominent rock DJ Alan Freed seeing his career destroyed by revelations that he took money to play singles that labels were promoting (including some that he had writing credits on), Creator/DickClark only avoiding the same fate because he cooperated with the authorities and sold off his ownership stake in a record company, and [=DJs=] in general being stripped of their authority to make programming decisions at many radio stations. In the early '60s, Elvis was entering his own Audience-Alienating Era (see below), the rest of rock 'n' roll had been reduced to one novelty tune after another (such as The Twist), and the genre seemed to be well on its way to being remembered only as [[AnyoneRememberPogs a relic of '50s pop culture]]. It took [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion the Brits]], previously alien towards rock but inspired by Elvis, Berry, Haley, and the others, to revive it and refine its form. One of these bands, rather obviously, was Music/TheBeatles.

** Pop music from TheEighties had this reputation in the '90s and the first half of the '00s, due to the ubiquity of the Yamaha [=DX7=] synthesizer and its cheesy-sounding presets being nearly inescapable in all forms of rock and pop music during the decade, as well as [[IWasQuiteAFashionVictim the goofy fashion trends]] seen in music videos. Many ''[[ILoveTheExties I Love The '80s]]''-style nostalgia shows featured artists [[OldShame openly cringing]] at the way they looked in the videos. The only electronic acts from the era that got a pass were typically cool AlternativeDance bands like Music/DepecheMode and Music/NewOrder. However, as with hair metal around the same time, '80s nostalgia made SynthPop cool again in the late '00s and '10s, with many contemporary pop acts adopting retro-sounding synths in their songs and the entire UsefulNotes/{{synthwave}} genre hearkening back to the electronic film soundtracks of the era. That said, while analog synthesizers like the Minimoog and the Prophet-5 have made a comeback, FM synths like the [=DX7=] are still remembered as cheesy relics, with used examples selling for considerably less than their analog counterparts.

* ClassicalMusic fell into a major one around the middle of the 20th century, the repercussions of which are still felt to this day. Modernist composers like the Second Viennese School[[note]]most famously, [[Music/ArnoldSchoenberg Arnold Schönberg]], Music/AlbanBerg, and Music/AntonWebern[[/note]], Music/KarlheinzStockhausen, and Music/PierreBoulez set out to write music that challenged the system of tonality itself, which music had relied on for many centuries. UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in particular convinced these composers that traditional harmonies were a relic of the past. The result was ''a''tonality, a musical system that sounds otherworldly in a way that audiences by and large did not receive warmly. While several modernist composers [[VindicatedByHistory have since been reevaluated and recognized as influential]] (if no easier to listen to), and there were still composers writing tonal music that were and still are loved by audiences (e.g. Music/DmitriShostakovich, Music/AaronCopland, Music/SamuelBarber, etc.), the increasing divide between avant-garde composers and music consumers caused many audiences to migrate to [[{{Pop}} Popular Music]], which stuck to tonality.\\\

** History seemed to repeat in the early-mid 2010s with the rise of "bro-country", a genre characterized by crossovers with HipHop and ElectronicDanceMusic (one of its biggest hits, "Cruise" by Music/FloridaGeorgiaLine, even had Music/{{Nelly}} as a guest artist) not just in the production, but also in the lyrics, which tended towards imitating the worst of 2000s GlamRap with subject matter dominated by [[WildTeenParty spring break]], [[PimpedOutCar big trucks]], [[OdeToIntoxication plentiful liquor]], and beautiful women in tiny shorts. These songs were also extremely samey in tone and sound, to the point where one guy was able to create [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o an almost completely coherent song]] out of random parts of ''six'' different bro-country songs, complete with a Frankenstein's monster of a solo that you can only tell is a hodgepodge because the guitars sound slightly different. By mid-decade, it became a bitter dividing line within country music, its critics seeing it as celebrating loutish behavior, pandering to {{fratbro}} fantasies of [[SweetHomeAlabama life in the rural South]], and marginalizing female country musicians, and late in the decade the pendulum swung back towards more traditional sounds and subject matter.