Apple has always tried to make its UI disappear so that the content takes center stage. This is just a continuation of that. There is no need for anything flashy.
At least in the recent past "Apple has always..." created UIs that resembled physical objects. (there's a difficult word for that but I don't remember it, I read it on DF a couple of months ago)
The new iTunes icon is the opposite of that, it's completely abstract.
If you're going abstract, you better be inspired, original, recognizable, even clean, simple, minimalistic if you want, I'm ok with that but then you should also be
coherent.
And it's got nothing to do with "making the UI disappear so the content takes center stage", it's just an icon, you click it and the program launch. I know it's not a big deal, we're just discussing a design in front of a cup of coffee, no need to bring philosophy ("content takes center stage etc. etc.") up as an excuse for a (maybe) uninspired icon design.