Stereo recordings that were technically more or less mono

The Edge Of Heaven - Wham!
Don't Go - Yazoo
Sour Times - Portishead
Whenever You're On My Mind - Marshall Crenshaw

Get the picture? More like these?

MOST modern rock records could be recorded in mono and i don't think anyone would even notice. they are, for the most part, just big flat walls of deadness with no air to breathe or any hint of space/dynamics.

(I agree to some extent)

the people today, to me, who are using stereo sound (and even just digital sound) in the most interesting ways are electronic music makers (which has usually been the case for decades). and that can mean electronic dance/rap/pop/experimental music/etc. they have fun fooling around with new machines/software/sounds. traditional rock/indie/metal producers, in a lot of cases, still seem stuck on making things louder and slicker and shinier and have no interest in nuance or even in using any of the digital goodies that you can play with these days. (LOTS of exceptions and i can point out lots of examples where this isn't the case. but as far as mainstream production is concerned, this is usually the case.)

"She's the One," Bruce Springsteen

XP There are many examples of what you mention there, but I feel many examples of the opposite too. I take it Eno/Lanois are both in the "traditional rock/indie/metal producers" camp and they sure know how to use stereo to widen the sound. Not to mention Nigel Godrich. It has to be added, though, that Eno, Lanois and Godrich are not among the worst when it comes to exaggerated dynamic range compression either.

And, btw, electronic/pop/hip-hop producers do also use a lot of dynamic range compression but it doesn't seem to harm their sound the same way, because it fits better with the genre than in more "rock" oriented styles.
But this isn't really what this thread was meant to be about. :)

Let me add that song Lenny Kravitz produced for Vanessa Paradis. Don't remember its title, but it was all very much mono.

also, for people that are using an ipod in a sound dock, there's really not enough distance to get any meaningful stereo separation

*distance between SPEAKERS