But is a valid point
come on...
The shift to treating he/him/his as exclusively male seems to be a fairly recent phenomenon (last few decades) as American social progressives sought to change language to be explicitly-inclusive instead of implicitly-inclusive and to avoid confusion due to the context-dependent dual meaning of such words.
1970s - "he" means everyone 1990s - "he/she" means everyone 2020s - "they" means everyone
as is well studies, we know very concretely how language and word usage influences thought (because it is thought, expressed)
Kind of a wild take to ignore centuries of implicit and explicit exclusion of women from having civil rights.
i don't know why people fight so hard to just simply not include others
[0] Major sources (MLA, CMos) have made nongendered pronouns suggested
Why do I think they're Better Than Ezra? Or possibly Candlebox? That feels about right. Probably more Better Than Ezra because Candlebox feels a little out of the Mouse's wheelhouse.
They were/are solid.
Take his "prototypical example" of Of Monsters and Men. I am glad that he did mention that the band "has enjoyed continued success since their 2012 breakout", but as a big fan of this band, I'd say they have a really dedicated following. I think in their case they were more of the "quirky band shoots has an immensely mainstream popular single, then goes back to being a quirky band, just with a much bigger following".
Rather than just look at placement in the top 40, which is only going to be songs that have wide applicability and are usually heavily promoted, I think it's more applicable to see how long these folks can have a career in music. As another example, think of someone like Andre 3000. Sure, he may never surpass his fame from Outkast's "Hey Ya" in 2003, but he's been working prominently for 30 years.
There's also an entire industry of cover bands and impersonators.
There's far more to it than the Billboard list.
for me this hits hard. I've literally made most of my whole career off one famous song called "Do you like Pina Coladas" (but actually it's called "Escape"). A good number of people know the tune but few could tell you who made it :(
AFAIK they really only had one song that "everybody" knows, "All for You", that got a ton of airplay. But they still put out a lot of records, they had a good devoted fan base of high school/college kids in the late 90s, and AFAIK are well respected for their music in the industry. Glad to hear they're still performing.
You do not need to be terribly famous at all to make a comfortable living; locally famous or historically know will get you to that level.
People who follow trends, and try to sound like others is definitely an indication that their career is short lived, but in this day and age, with the way social media promotion works, too many artists compete to constantly be on trending lists, and that easily burns out audiences on them and their names... It's relatively easy to "look popular" if you dump tons of money into music promotion, and labels love it when an artists dominates online, but that also makes them flood out everyone else, and even more important trending topics than music at times.
There can be a huge backlash for bought popularity, and for promoting yourself as more important than other vital topics people care about in their daily lives, as on social media, there is only one timeline and trending list for everything.
Absence can potentially make the heart grow fonder for listeners towards a music artist when well timed, especially if every time the artist re-emerges they put out consistently great music projects... Modern musicians need to learn how to share the microphone, and social media needs to create a more even playing field for multiple artists to coexist in over time, rather than pushing just 3-7 celebrity artists all of the time... That's the key to longer careers in music in my opinion.