this is not really a yes/no proposition: mostly what has changed is that people no longer draw a sharp distinction between “faceless” mainstream major label music and its alternatives, but by the same token artists whether mainstream or not are typically held to higher standards of both personal and public conduct.
In 1999 it would not make sense to demand a big young pop star to publicly come out against Republicans, because the idea that the political leanings of a big young pop star actually mattered would not have been widely accepted.
As for sincerity, I think this probably matters as much as it ever has, but it’s judged on a case by case basis rather than by reference to what mechanism you use to distribute your music. I’m not exactly sure how successful that is (I’m not particularly keen on sincerity, in the hard sense rather than in the sense of being a sensation that is evoked by good performance, as a critical barometer), but one arguable benefit is that the reflexive scepticism of major labels had a major side-beneficiary in the form of the white male artists who held onto cred-points by being independent no matter how shitty they were. One thing that is definitely the case in 2019 is that clinging to mid-90s notions of worthiness will not protect you from cancel culture.
― Tim F, Saturday, 28 December 2019 08:30 (four years ago) link