Pure talent and class have largely moved to the indie market, thanks to electronic distribution and the plunging cost of building a studio as good as what Sun Records used back in the day.
When Sun launched Elvis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, their Memphis studio cost between three and five million dollars. By nineteen ninety eight a studio of comparable capability could be put together for thirteen thousand.
So today, people with real talent forgo the RIAA and retain all the rights to their own music. Not everyone with talent makes it without a day job (se as ever) but on the other hand breaking even takes a smaller number of sales unburdened by the record companies and the costs of the old distribution network.
The established guys these days do all they can to avoid production studios and the costs and hassle associated with them. Just the other day Dave Mustaine was posting pics of his new soundboard and equipment to twitter.
He can record at will without having to go to a studio for weeks or months. He can lay down tracks when he feels like it and the other band members can come and do the same. He says the coolest part is that they can record from different locations as if they were in the same studio.
Makes sense, but there has to be some talent in this genre too.