Lots of good points here. The stuff about how lousy contemporary music is makes me laugh. It's ALWAYS been that way. The comical thing is how utterly predictable it is!

My dad, back in the 60's, could not have told the difference between the Rolling Stones and Herman's Hermits if you had held a gun to his head. I thought he was deaf. But, give him a 3-second clip and he could distinguish a Count Basie tune from a Duke Ellington tune--a distinction that is STILL lost on me.

Here I am all these years later. I can't tell NSYNC from Backstreets nor Creed from Smashing Pumpkins, nor Alanis from Jewel. It all sounds the same to me--bad. But my kids know and appreciate the difference. Good for them!

I alway thought "Stairway to Heaven" was a dumb song. I thought so the first time I heard it, and I still think so, even though I was a pretty fair Zep fan. Yep...if it were critiqued today, it would be slaughtered for being overblown and pompous. Deservedly so. To each his own.

When you are wondering why comtemporary music sounds so bad to you, I suggest you consult your birth certificate. There is a pretty good chance the year on there is pre-1980. But don't dispair. You are no different than any other generation of music lovers; you did not invent indignation (this may shock you: Elvis and the Beatles and everyone else who ever amounted to anything in music were vilified by the fogies); and the music you love is no better or worse than that of other generation.