Why the big, natural sound of popular music went away

[Undertoad]

"When all the artists and engineers, all the arrangers and musicians that played on giant tracks by people like Phil Spector, with 12 tambourines and two pianos -- those people were still in the studios in Los Angeles, playing. But all of that started to die -- it was the most amazing thing, this vibrant creative culture started to go away. And it was because of...."

I've removed the speaker's name, and the end of this quote, and I would like you to consider the answer. Is it because of...:

"... technology making it easy and cheap to create big sounds on computers."

"... the natural, inevitable change in popular musical fashion."

"... the greedy executive producers who didn't want to spend tens of thousands of dollars making a record that might not sell."

"... an audience not educated in music, and thus, not understanding the nuances in those old records."

"... artists being able to compete with the big, moneyed system artists by completely writing and recording music at home, alone."

"... so much competition that good songs are found without big productions."

"... an industry that shifted to making money from live music, cutting out anything that needed a large string and horn section."

And now the answer. The speaker is Neil Young and his opinion, which I find laughable, is:

"... the MP3 and the cheapening of the quality to the point where it was practically unrecognizable."

http://www.billboard.com/biz/article...w-gets-awkward