IMO it started to really tank in the 90s and is about as bad as it gets today. Musicians don't actually think they need to understand music, just chant about a bunch of sex, violence, and cuss words and they will be rich. Oh, there are a few who are good and knowledgeable, but not many - they are mainly scoring movies or writing for singers. I blame the modern black culture for all this awful rap crap and its influene on modern music. Bunch of idiots, kids all saying they want to be rappers. People who wanted to be musicians throughout history actually had to know how to read and write music, sing, and play instruments. Today it's just entitlement low IQ bull crap.