List of artists that have never lost quality throughout entire career


One of the brightest on my list is 

1. Depeche Mode. I'm big fan started listening and enjoying them from their very first album "Speak and Spell". I am devoted to their perfection of every song they create in terms of sound, melody, harmony and incredible intelligence. Their music may seem simple, but in reality much more complex than seems. I believe that they're somewhat commercialized, but also believe that they deserve their incredible success. They're indeed Kings of electronic rock!

2. Can (The Can). Every album they released is a journey to their creativity. What are they rock? Jazz? Prog? Their music often can cover all styles of music in one song. It's a blend of jazz-trained drummer Jaki Libezeit, classically trained keyboardist Irmin Schmidt(also conductor and neo-classical composer and film score composer), multi-instrumentalist bassist Holger Czukai and classically trained guitarist and electric violinist Michael Caroli (RIP). It's a unique blend of musicians with extraordinary skills and creativity

3. Dead Can Dance. This artist has plenty of praises and each and every of their album is a unique blend of electronics and earth bound instruments. Lisa Gerrard is known to be a part of Gladiator Motion Picture Soundtrack.

4. Tom Waits. Many would criticize Tom for not singing his own voice, but I'm amused the way he does it with spirit of Louis Armstrong! Yes indeed with spirit instead of just imitating. Embracing the spirit of inspired artist is different and Tom is clear example to that!
czarivey
czarivey. You seem totally unable to grasp  that in adult conversation some things are so obvious that the norm is to not  state them .
Of COURSE there are people in pop/rock, even country, that are talented and well educated as well.
However it is quite CLEAR that above is optional !
Not so many.

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso (- their 80´s stuff)  feat. Francesco di Giacomo RIP

Practically all RPI. Well, the 80´s wasn´t their finest hour but was it to anyone really in Prog. The early 80´s was rock´s decline anyway.

Ennio Morricone
Keith Emerson RIP
@schubert ,

it is quite CLEAR that above is optional !

What about Mozart who revealed his talent at the age of 7?
It looks like training was indeed optional for him and his music isn't so simple as well.
Later on he learned how to place his own music on our traditional western 5-line staff, but before that he was just like Art Tatum not knowing single note and he learned to sing prior he started talking perhaps in his mother's womb.

Today we have similar talents that play various types of music and sing, but not too much classical. The classical music performances are substantially more structured and strict today. The classical musician is expected to provide clean and precise performance rather than personal interpretation often used by self-taught and trained musicians. 
Once Joey Di Francesco  started learning classical piano somewhere in his early 30s, he quit not too far from his start, because it's not his bowl of soup, however he mastered to learn solfegio. 

One thing I can agree on is when there's no talent or training -- there's no music whether it's rnr or classical. The result is not interesting and boring.
As to commercial media, it's looking for talent that can bring profits to the industry so there must be some of both above mentioned to at least certain magnitude.

Mozart studied with the best teachers available , Haydn for starters who, if not his musical equal, was very close to it .


Classical musicians improvise more than you think, Ivan Fisher the leader
of the Budapest Festival Orch ., which is one the very best in the world, seeks players who do. Every player has their own sound , two play a concerto you hear the difference, not better just different .Conductors use different tempos and stress different things . 

Billy Joel now plays classical , he said he was ashamed of playing what he did when he knew better .