That musical evolution nowadays (and for the past decades) is viewed as dependent on technology for change rather than stuff like new approaches to songwriting, harmony. melody, rhythms, song-structure, arrangements and so on. Seriously, there are shit that the free-jazzers and classical avantgardists were doing decades ago that popular music has barely touched and while you could argue there are resons for that, I still believe even popular music could evolve a bit more in those terms.

If you think about, Hip-Hop wasn't *just* based on new technology and shit, if anything, I'd argue that the very concept of talking rhytmically over beats (which had been done before but not to the extent that it was an actual genre/movement) was FAR more important in terms of novel/groundbreaking status. That is a musical (and lyrical as well; let's not forget that the "language" of Hip-Hop was novel to many) concept that really goes beyond just new technology and I think that's what made it so fresh in the ears, that there were samplers and drum-machines and stuff-well, *I* don't think was the biggest deal to people