Well, in that regard not too much changed, I think. Record labels always mostly pushed music and artists with mass appeal. They still do but have lost a lot of their power to companies like Spotify, Apple and Google (YouTube). But these players do pretty much the same with their algorithms. So I don't think that popular music has changed too much. There are still influential companies that can pretty much dictate what people listen to. I still don't think it has become much worse, since back in the day you weren't even able to produce an album without a record deal because studio time, distribution and all that was so expensive. Today you can produce everything yourself in your bedroom. Sure, it's unlikely that you will be very successful marketing your record - but at least it's somewhat possible.