I've been thinking about something strange when it comes to music. Did music get... tamer after 9/11? Now, before anyone misunderstands me, I'm not saying music became clean after September 11, 2001. Obviously fucking not. There has been plenty of explicit music since 9/11. Plenty of profanity. Plenty of sex. Plenty of drugs. Plenty of violence. Plenty of controversial lyrics. Plenty of artists trying to piss people off. There have been songs since 9/11 that are absolutely fucking insane. So I'm not arguing that music suddenly became wholesome. What I'm talking about is something harder to quantify. A feeling. Compared with a lot of music from previous decades, particularly the 1980s and 1990s, modern mainstream music can sometimes feel strangely tame. Even when it's supposedly edgy. Even when it's explicit. Even when it's controversial. Even when an artist is trying to shock people. There often seems to be an invisible ceiling. Artists can get close to it....