It isn’t easy to single out the central directions and build a particular hierarchy in the modern art world, including music. Some of the performers influence the minds of young people, and political strategists can use some compositions during elections. The current state of the art is too vague to make clear statements on this subject. Hip-hop performers expose many of the problems of megacities and young people: drugs, cruelty, violence, and lack of life guidelines (Rabinowitch, 2020). The social movement for women’s rights is significant for the modern generation, and female performers are becoming iconic people in music. One such person is Lady Gaga, who began her career as a freak with a sensual mezzo-soprano. Performers like her describe the issues of discrimination and harassment emotionally. Some critics single out Moby as an iconic artist who influenced the formation of modern cultural reality. He brought a unique genre and popularized it by making his songs available to the public, including for the political life of the United States.
There is a problem with expressing yourself through flashy statements within the framework of modern culture (cancellation culture, hate speech, shaming). In this context, of course, the past artists were bolder, but there was a different world, a different reality, and society for them. The public space is dynamic, and artists should now look for other ways to draw attention to themselves or to this or that issue (Rabinowitch, 2020). The information space is already crowded, especially within the Internet. It isn’t easy to surprise a modern young listener, attracting their attention and keeping them. It seems that this is not a matter of personal courage but a matter of total societal changes that have occurred over the years and decades.