RAMI, let me just say "absolutely" to your original post.
There is no question in my mind if LedZep's 1971 Stairway to Heaven was posted on this forum we'd all rip it to shreds and say it's absolute shit, from a recording and technological perspective.
I think that's for good reason though... clearly, the world has changed.
First and foremost, the technology used in recording has changed significantly across the last 100 years. 78's sounded like shit, but in the 20's that was the norm. Then came 45's and 33's which had a better frequency response. Then came cassette tapes which had an even better frequency response and more headroom than records, and eventually consumer grade decks started to have Dolby and DBX compression built in, giving even more headroom to the recording. Then came the digital formats - DAT, CD, DVD, mp3 and the other stuff we're all familiar with. Early on those mediums were recorded in pure analog then "converted" to digital by the mastering engineer just before mass production. Nowadays, it's not uncommon for the only analog signal to be in the microphone cord, because that plugs into a digital do-dad and it's digital from that point on. VST plug ins, co-processing boards, Computers, et al.
Heck, now even some "darn good mics" have a USB connector on them and it's digital in that mic cord!!!
The other thing that has significantly changed over the past 100 years is roles and responsibilities. Back in the 20's musicians played music, recording engineers recorded songs, mixing engineers worked off the tape to produce a mix, a mastering engineer converted and tweaked that final mix to fit into the medium(s) of the day, and the producer acted as a manager of all those processes and people. Musicians didn't touch console knobs and mixing engineers didn't play guitar.
Obviously, that has changed and today, in a home/pro studio those lines are blurred - there is no shortage of solitary musicians these days composing, singing, playing all the music parts him/herself on a multi-track, mixing, and mastering. Some of them do a pretty damn good job too.
But, there are also social and culture factors to recording history as well and in the mid 60's and into the 70's, drugs and drug culture was very popular for the common man - and we could easily sit around to listen to the 3 minute buildup in "Freebird" and "Stairway to Heaven" because we'd be enjoying those records while passing joints around to our friends in the same room.
Also, in the early 70's, the idea of an "epic" came to light - putting an album together of highly-related songs that together as a set told a story - Pink Floyd did this, Styx and Rush even tried it, so did many other bands.
People enjoyed music differently in 1970 than they do today, and that's why in today's world the goal is often to get to the chorus as fast as possible - because you know what? No one walks down the street with their mp3 player going singing:
"I want your ugly, I want your disease, I want your everything as long as it's free I want your love..."
No, fuck no, but everyone on the planet knows this part: "Rah Rah ah ah ah Roma Roma ma"
We've become a society of highly-short attentions spans, and the music industry reflects this.
Everything these days is faster, quicker, move it a long please. That's the whole idea behind being able to successfully sell inferior food for high prices because customers can drive up to a window, pay and get handed a bag of this shit in less than 2 minutes. God forbid we get off our fat lazy asses and sit down for a meal like we did 20 years ago.
The music industry has become the very same thing philosophically, because they had to - they had to conform to this "give it to me now" mentality of our society.
Why? Because today we have 8 gazillion artists world-wide trying to peddle their tunes and not one of us is going to buy it all - we pick and choose - so it has become the trend to jump right into the chorus because that's what simpletons/zombies seem to remember - i.e. the general population.
Just last week I was in a music store flipping through albums to pass time and a lady was asking the store clerk who sings "I'd like to amke myself believe, that planet earth turns slowly I'd hard to say I'd rather stay.." and so on.
I burst out laughing because wow, that one's so obvious but okay, she had the chorus down pat and could actually carry a tune. Sadly, the kid behind the counter had no idea what she was singing, so I said "Owl City" to help out. That in and of itself was really amusing. Though the kid behind the counter clearly listens to "old metal", i.e. hairband stuff from MY era. If she asked for a Maiden album I'd bet he'd know where that was.
They all are trying to "hook" you and I to buying their's instead of someone elses, since there is only so much disposable income to be spent on music these days.
Also don't forget, and this is VERY key, music is big business - while a lot of artists are doing their own thing trying to breakout on their own, and I applaud them for that, the big record labels are still today what makes it happen - the OWN radio and they OWN distribution. That's a big reason why this whole idea of "rush to the chorus" came to be - the record labels know that the more people sing the chorus while driving to work, the more people will buy the freaking album and the 11 other songs on that album that suck (well, not always, but often that's the case and it's a pet peeve of mine).
Today it's often more about "if it will sell" than "if it's any good".
So yeah, if Stairway to Heaven was put up here as a "new" song in the way that it was composed, performed, and recorded back then, we'd laugh them right off the BBS because by today's technical standards, it's garbage.
It's still a great, moving song though. I have it in vinyl and they'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. But, the world has changed. In some ways for the better, in other ways, well, not so much. No different than any other era and it's massive changes. Sometimes good, sometimes not.
