Hey Blue, I'm glad you commented on this. You are one that knows first hand how great the musicians/songs /arrangements were back then. Funny because I was recently listening to Fanny by the Bee Gees and commenting in studio to anyone that would listen to me on how great that arrangement builds and how it could be applied in the context of today's pop music. You rarely see that today, and I would like to see more of it of course.
Can I bring that into a commercially viable song today and bridge the gap between art and commerce? And will the kids buy it if I do? Maybe.

Many popular songs today are patch-worked together by people that aren't necessarily musicians, and this of course is allowed by technology. I suppose if we had all the technology available today AND the chops that were required in the old days then there would be mind blowing productions. I'm sure there are some out there, but alas!

Then of course is the white noise slam flat-lining that is a trademark of mastering in 2012. I had a pop track that required a really delicate piano with tremendous dynamics. We even tried out several grand pianos to get it right, and when the track came back from mastering it didn't even sound like the same song. I just burned the original PT-HD tracks to a CD-R and sent it to publishing as is so they could here it as I recorded it with full dynamics of the Steinway.

So I would say there are many factors but the ratio of technological improvement is generally not reflected at least in current pop. There certainly isn't a major label that is going to allow experimentation in 2012, which contributes to the quality malaise. Remember when there was one producer for an album. Now there are twenty. I wonder what Arif would think about that. That's another thing contributing to the non cohesiveness of an album today and hence a production that is not mind blowing. (very few exceptions aside).

All the young music consumers I know would not know a stereo (Proper) as in what Bob is speaking about. Remember stereo stores? Those kids listen to music through ear-buds. But I'll tell you something. Anytime I introduce a young person to the Beatles/Beach Boys/Bacharach/ Paul Simon...they will inevitably recognize the quality of it.......so I guess there is hope at least for quality songs.

Love to hear about on those days at Criteria, Blue! Know that my generation hold you in the highest regard.

Generally speaking - I have found that good mixes done on a good monitoring system and properly mastered sound just as good on headphones and ear buds and mostly survive the ssault of mp3.

The reverse however would not seem to be the case!