I think you're generally right about the fact that pop music popularizes more grown-up genres.
But I think you could have picked something different than delta blues as an example. Delta blues was extremely simple when it started out, before the end of the thirties there wasn't even a proper turnaround [1]. If you compare originals from before WW2 to covers by British bands you'll find out that in most cases the British version is more complex.
On the other hand take Frank Zappa's Freak Out and compare it to Sgt. Pepper's…
I was going to go with Prince & Funk. I think there's a similar thing going on. But simplifying a mature & complex style, is only a subset of what pop music does. In Princes case, he made the music more complex but also more lyrical and otherwise more digestible.
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I think you're generally right about the fact that pop music popularizes more grown-up genres.
But I think you could have picked something different than delta blues as an example. Delta blues was extremely simple when it started out, before the end of the thirties there wasn't even a proper turnaround [1]. If you compare originals from before WW2 to covers by British bands you'll find out that in most cases the British version is more complex.
On the other hand take Frank Zappa's Freak Out and compare it to Sgt. Pepper's…
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnaround_(music)
I was going to go with Prince & Funk. I think there's a similar thing going on. But simplifying a mature & complex style, is only a subset of what pop music does. In Princes case, he made the music more complex but also more lyrical and otherwise more digestible.