Why does most new music suck?

How many parents in the 1960s and 70s asked their teenagers why they listened to all that garbage? I clearly remember that my dad didn't think much of the Beatles and the other popular groups when I was a teen.

One also doesn't have to dig very deep to find that parents in decades before didn't think much of popular music for young people. In fact, the basic premise of the movie "The Benny Goodman Story" is "The legendary band leader fights to make swing acceptable" (a quote from the TCM channel web site).

In another example, I read that J.S. Bach was almost fired from his first job as a church organist. They thought his style of playing was distracting the congregation.

In spite of being an aging baby boomer, I spend very little listening time reliving the music of my youth. I'm about 1/3 classical and 1/3 jazz. When I do listen to rock or popular music, the odds are substantially in favor of more recent indy stuff. (I don't find much that appeals in mainstream pop, but that's my taste. I don't need others to agree with me.)

But, that's the nice thing about music -- there's plenty of variety so there's something for everyone.

My dad was very hip actually and even bought Led Zep. As well as the Beatles and Stones. He loved classical as well and he was only in his 30s at the time. I inherited his JBL C36s with the 030 speaker package.

There's probably more good--and bad--now than before simply because there's so much more being produced. There are so many more people around now and I'm betting a higher percentage are involved in making music. Homemade productions are huge in number due to the technology. How many self-produced projects were there in the 60's or 70's?
Not many.

Years from now the bad stuff will mostly have gone away and will be forgotten. The good stuff will be cherished and a later generation will get the wrong idea that this was a "golden age." I promise you, for all the good music produced in the 60's there was also a great deal of crap.
And, of course, it's all subjective anyway.

Every cycle has its share of good and bad art.

I did check out Radio Paradise for some different music and sampled the playlist via Amazon. I didn't really find an artist that could hold together an entire CD except for Ben Howard who I thought was exceptional....so still searching.

I meant no offense and apologize if I cam e across too judgmentally. It's just that I always shudder when someone makes a sweeping generalization about an art form - like opining that most new music sucks. I;m quite sure that many of those in their 40's and 50's said much the same thing when The Who and Zep and such came about in the mid- to late-60's. Much of mew music is simply different in scope and presentation from the standard rock paradigm.

Also, most ADULTS don't know what good sound is. Seriously. For most of the adult world, Bose or Cerwin-Vega! or Bang and Olufsen represent the ultimate in sound, and as long as they have their surround system with earth-shattering bass, they're happy. We audiophiles are a niche minority.

Case in point, a recent review of M83's "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" cd (whence comes "Midnight City"), while lauding its sonic mastery and composition, lamented that much of its 20-something audience wouldn;t have the equipment needed to really appreciate its audiophile production and attention to detail - nor would they care.

Besides, who ever accused "young folks" of being appreciative of sonic nuances and three-dimensional sound-stages? :)