Artists with deep profound lyrics were mostly the exception rather than the norm in popular music in the 50s, 60s and 70s too. So much lyricism of that era was drug addled nonsense, syrupy one dimensional love songs, “rock all night party all day” fluff, etc. None of that makes it bad music by any means but let’s not kid ourselves that massively mainstream popular genres like 70s hard rock, 60s doo wop, and sunshine pop and late 70s disco were the pinnacle of lyrical excellence either. There are plenty of artists, including very popular ones, who write great, deep, resonant lyrics today, and fluffy insubstantial lyrics have always taken up a lions share of top charting music.
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