Is today’s contemporary music lacking?

@artemus5:

  "Most of them are story tellers which goes well in some genre but is  mostly wasted in R&R. A case in point is Led Zeppelin".

There are plenty of  R&R vocalists whose lyrics can be easily understood, and there are R&R vocalists whose lyrics definitely tell a "story" so I'm confused as to what point you're trying to make-- that only Led Zeppelin is worth listening to? 

BTW-- the line between more rockin' Americana bands and R&R can be  practically non-existent--  Americana is not necessarily a lone singer with an acoustic guitar!  

I find a lot  of the new pop music today is boring and  I don't think most younger people learned to use their imaginations the way older generations did, and it affects creativity. It's a different world full of technology doing everything for you and limiting your abstract thinking. Beck is one example of an artist that has imagination, and can do different things that are more original, and creative. I know it's not easy, because as someone else posted, so much has been done it's hard to be original. I do think there is a lot of good contemporary jazz though.

I’ve yet to hear any music where technology did everything. The dirt of comment which is itself just lazy stereotyping. This thread is just the sound of old people discovering that every genre has its limitations. That music you think classic was the unimaginative racket made by untalented, lazy people etc. your parents struggled with. People who claimed the 60s were brilliant and opened their minds in a way young people don’t nowadays. People who have effectively shut their ears down about 3 or 4 decades ago. 

There is a huge amount of music easily available nowadays. That volume is more of an issue than the quality. The quality is often very good indeed and often classic.

"That music you think classic was the unimaginative racket made by untalented, lazy people etc. your parents struggled with."

I recall my parents bringing home a newly-released, early Beatles record
and after lowering the needle, declared that the record must be defective!

Needless to say, there was nothing wrong with the record. They simply weren't able to conect with the music.

I had a similar experience in a workplace where most of my co-workers were considerable younger. They'd praise bands like Primus and Sonic Youth.  I was mostly listening to Jazz at the time, which included some fairly outside stuff, but still, I couldn't hang with what they enjoyed.    

   "The artist seems to try using a good voice trying to make the song sound good but these songs seem to lack a good “melody."

Rick Beato's recently-posted interview with Pat Metheny includes a very  interesting discussion of melody. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEgalcH_-b4