I think that over the past 5 to 10 years, specifically in popular R&B and Hip Hop, the music has so few elements that it doesn't warrant great mixing and engineering. So much of it has been a bass heavy kick, a clap and some synth notes.

You named 2004. The biggest hit that year was Usher's "Yeah" and the track sounds dense but there are only maybe 5-10 elements in the music. It seems like many songs after that had so few elements that I don't think it really warranted any type of creative engineering.

With downloading and listening to music on laptop speakers, it seems like quality engineering mattered a lot less. Its very apparent if you listen to mixtapes from the past 10 years. Freestyles sounding shitty is understandable, but even some of the original songs sounded like shit. Demos leaking unmixed kind of made it acceptable for a while. I don't think consumers cared for a while and just enjoyed they were getting free music from big artists.

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