Recording technology in the 20th century brought about a transition: where once music was ‘folk’ by default, it became ‘pop’ instead. The rise of mass consumerism and cheap global distribution decreased the amount of time a song needed to spread geographically. These was now also a default version through which basically everyone became familiar with the work.
Source: The future of music, inspired by a cheap Vietnamese restaurant in Berlin | MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE