The stage after this is that you hear that an artists was the biggest seller of the year and you've never heard of them.

But more to the point, the bigger mistake that most people make is not in thinking that the pop music of today is worthless, it is in thinking that the pop music of their youth is the greatest artistic gift that was ever granted to civilized culture.

As an example there are actually people my age who religiously adhere to the faith that ABBA and Barry Manilow are good.

"Me? Never! Now that I've answered your question can I go back to my picture of a fifty foot Syd Barrett stepping on a trendo?

I'm suddenly feeling like my bones are creaking... but not quite- there are some poppy songs out there that put more jiggle in the wiggle, but as a whole... I don't find very many poptarts that have talent that's going to take them very far for very long as it is. 

I must have been "old" before my time 'cause I couldn't stand the pop music of my childhood. There was a brief period - from the late '50s  through the '60s - when good songs got to be hits, and even in the '70s and '80s there were a few that slipped through, but now the hits are all as vapid as those of the early '50s.

That doesn't mean there aren't some good songs out there, but you're going to have to search for them just as I did in my youth..

Nah, you just have to know something about music to hate that drivel.

Distasteful or just plain bad? At least for me, gradually I've certainly become more particular about the music I listen to, just as, I no longer consider a Happy Meal the most satisfying culinary experience. Still, I do sometimes wonder if the overall quality of music (not just pop, other genres also) is really worse, or is it merely that I'm no longer 10 years old? Might it be some of each?

In that case,I've been a curmudgeon for a LONG time.Like,since I was 12!

This so true. I always used to listen to Top 40 music, thinking it kept me young. But about 2 years it dawned on me how horrible today's pop music is, now it's classic rock or lite or mix stations.

Well, most of it today is copycat music from the baby boomer era so, I just don't see any talent there. Rap and hip-hop I don't get. Give me classic rock and jazz and I'm a happy man!!