The 2020s are quite possibly the worst decade in history for music...

You summed it up perfectly. Fuck the hyper+commercialization of music.
Chinese EMP. I don't think most analog/acoustic gear would die from it.

No

there hasn't been ANY worthwhile new music in the last 5 years that wasn't made by already established and respected artist

this is not true, there are indie spaces that have this but they're objectively harder to find.

we are living in the aftermath of a few things

1. the explosion of identity politics becoming the driving force of everything on the internet

this will probably get people mad in the replies, they are part of this problem. social issues now swallow just about every discussion about everything else anywhere on the internet. it goes in every direction. on a site like reddit, discussion about something else (if you're on a popular page especially) will weave into criticisms of political opponents, and on Anon Babble, it has resulted in a "whisper down the alley" type belief that every discussion on here was *always* painted with an edgy and larping, nick fuentes-style white nationalist hecking epic pepe thing (not true, by the way).

you might be wondering what that has anything to do with the bigger state of music - but keep in mind that at one point, Anon Babble was notorious for being secretly browsed and posted on by actual, big-name celebrities. sometimes, artists that would blow up in a year or two explicitly posted here with their full name on display. across the internet, particularly on sites like Anon Babble, the eternal politics flame war has scared off just about anyone who prioritizes music or artistic discussion and in general wards off anyone with good taste (be it musically or socially). creative ideas ACROSS the internet, not just on places like Anon Babble, are given less space to breathe than ever. particularly ALSO, because:

2. there are no websites anymore

pitchfork, Anon Babble, Anon Babbleindieheads, RYM, what.cd, blogspot, sharethreads, the fader (and other indie rags) and sadly - increasingly - bandcamp. all sites that have been either explicit victims or collateral damage to the Platform-ening of the internet.

fuck these are out of order. i don't give a shit, i'll delete the post and post them in order when Anon Babble lets me

there we go

special interests, like music, are minimized on the “platforms” of the modern internet. think genuinely of the last time you went into comments sections on facebook, instagram, replies on twitter, even new platforms like bluesky and threads. were you able to find any genuinely viral discussions/posts that were raising some kind of genuine question solely related to the worth of a piece of music without piggybacking off the larger, previously established mass-media adopted social campaign? again, it does not matter which side of that social campaign you are on. you are unconsciously prioritized to inject it into every single thing you post online in the name of heightened engagement metrics for these platforms. these platforms natively exploit the universal human desire to speak truth to power and have already ended any other space on the internet where you could be perceived to be doing anything but that. it ensures people that are angry with you will be in your replies, making them more money.

the base-level discussion about the intricacies of a piece of music is just lost revenue in the eyes of a social media CEO - a problem, since those are the only spots on the internet left with any sort of real traffic. see point 1 for how this would discourage innovation amongst artists.

3. apart from discussion, the music industry has undone most of the democratization of the internet’s effect on itself

the early 2010’s were a hugely important moment in several ways. tools like soundcloud and bandcamp were in their early stages of mass adoption, and as such were genuinely exciting new iterations on the idea of indie music.

this, unfortunately, was always going to be riding a downward slope of authenticity as major labels would quickly catch on and warp tools like this into personal shopping malls. at first it was a hyper-speed realization of the classic “big label snatches up indie star” routine, and at its current point, it may as well just be the major league’s minor league affiliate. this was always going to happen, probably, due to oversaturation, but streaming also doesn’t help.

in the early days of spotify and other streamers, music discovery typically happened very closely to how it did during the days of Napster, Limewire, and private torrent trackers. places like Anon Babble thrived in acting as a barometer of taste (and a technological entry point) to accessing high-quality music. it formed a really nice, symbiotic relationship with becoming the place for the discussion of the music itself, as well. when spotify first started becoming mass adopted, you still needed to know what to enter into the search bar to find good stuff. plus, crucially, there was a lot of music missing from spotify from its first few years of adoption that would force users to seek alternative means.

that’s all gone now. as is the case with point 2, music streaming apps work similarly to social media apps in that they are hyper-focused on engagement metrics. for a streaming app, that means interacting with it and solely it.

algorithmic playlists exist solely to get you to not actively look around for new music, as doing that would probably result in you seeking out a place like Anon Babble (well, old Anon Babble) and any time not spent in their app is lost revenue to their shareholders (sound familiar?). so this plan has mostly worked without a hitch for Spotify, and most music listeners have the least amount of input over their day in listening as they ever have through recorded history. probably even less than the days of the radio or mtv

alternatives in physical locations such as numerous clubs (even in small towns) and record stores existed. not to mention a more independent radio space that wasn’t *entirely* owned by one conglomerate.

it may feel like you have choice, given your choice between music streamers (with that being uh, pretty much 2 with amazon and google limping behind) - but then you realize that the 3 record labels that own most music ever recorded (even way more than just 10-15 years ago, seriously, the size of the monopoly that those three hold is insane) are all direct investors to every single music streaming platform worth a damn (and even the ones that aren’t).

labels own the streamers + algorithmic complacency = users being explicitly incentivized to never leave their comfort zone and only give streams to the biggest, most “proven” and “sure bet” musicians that have ever existed.

this is plain to anyone with eyes. take a look around Anon Babble.

indie music, discussing it or listening to it, is lost revenue to the shareholders of spotify and the big 3 record labels. it takes away precious seconds you could be combing through your Discover playlist or whatever the hell. just lost revenue.

when you combine all three problems, you get the most inhospitable landscape to interesting music that’s existed since i’ve been alive. a handful of companies dictate the way you use the internet, they’ve prioritized yelling at each other about politics, and they’ve erased all other functional outlets for any sort of artistic development or even discussion. it’s just lost revenue

so what happens

we can’t really do anything about it. it’s a fad, but a particularly annoying and long-lasting one. ultimately, in my opinion, the bottom will fall out from a lot of these current pillars of the internet. most people i talk to are sick of using the internet outside of messaging family and friends or playing video games. americans in particular are already largely poor, and when faced with rising subscription costs and the pricing out of THE american staple of entertainment, there will, at the absolute worst, be a big, collective, economic shift that signals displeasure with every “app’s” current business model. this will probably manifest in one to two high profile collapses signaling to streaming companies and record labels that the barrier to entry is a bit too high, and they’ll wrangle it back down. apart from the industry, the growing distaste to discussion at large might get a lot worse.

but it’s a fad, all of it. it’ll end, just like all fads in world history do.

If I were to ask OP for examples of music from this decade he'd just mention top 40 artists. This board is so out of touch, it's not even funny.

And no, there isn't any "underground artists/genres" that are secretly making good music

lo-fi bedroom projects are where it's at, dawg. sometimes they even expand into full bands that play live and go on tours. it's mostly kids following in Car Seat Headrest's footsteps across a few different styles of music.