They weren't lacking in new faces; there were plenty of fresh young guys and beauties. But good works weren't something you could just pull out on demand.
You either queued up at veteran lyricists and composers, which was wildly expensive. Or you sifted through the dross to find gold, selecting so-called gems from piles of rubbish. Alternatively, you plagiarized, mimicked, or fleeced ideas to see if you could adapt an existing mature work. Another method involved using big data analytics to find formulaic templates, then stuffing content into them and repackaging it. However, regardless of the method, none were particularly efficient.
Taking inspiration might be easy, but after so many years, most of the "wool" had nearly been stripped bare. From Asia to Europe and America, basically everything that could be borrowed had been. There was truly nothing fresh left.
