[tallies]

The article asks two different questions, one about the decline of the instrumental hit and one about the decline of the instrumentalist, and doesn't go far to answer either.

I'd be interested to see a breakdown of the instrumental hits throughout the decades. Is the decline simply due to classical and jazz going out of fashion? How many are soundtracks? Surely most modern instrumental hits are EDM, yes? This data-driven history could use some more data.

As for the other question, the article's examples of popular instrumentalists were much more famous as bandleaders than as clarinetists or trombonists. Cheap recorded music and digital music production has pushed both the band and the virtuoso performer out of popular culture, replaced by the solo artist and their multi-instrumentalist producer (sometimes the same person). This is true even outside of hip hop. I bet a non trivial amount of pop fans would be able to name Jack Antonoff from his work with Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Lana del Rey.

[radley]

> Surely most modern instrumental hits are EDM, yes?

More so, electronica. I feel kinda bad for a music expert who isn't aware of Four Tet, Nils Frahm, Orbital, Sasha, or Tipper.

[n4r9]

I guess those artists technically don't often make "hits" that top the pop charts. But I agree - here in the UK, rave music literally defines a whole generation of people born in the 70's and 80's.

But even in popular music, when I was a teenager we had acts like Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, and Moby producing tonnes of tunes that are not primarily vocally led. More recently you have Avici and David Guetta and the likes.