Not your imagination. A lot of it was “the loudness wars” - albums were compressed heavily during mixing/mastering to be the loudest thing on the airwaves. Plus, lossy data compression for mp3s and other formats for streaming online.
Albums mixed in the 70s had more room for dynamics to breathe.
May 16, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Not your imagination. A lot of it was “the loudness wars” - albums were compressed heavily during mixing/mastering to be the loudest thing on the airwaves. Plus, lossy data compression for mp3s and other formats for streaming online.
Albums mixed in the 70s had more room for dynamics to breathe.