In Veritigo..
I have to laugh. You sound like every older generation that has ever been. "Today's music is crappy and doesn't hold a candle." I'm sure the 60's artists said that they were superior to the black pioneers of rockn roll, that people in the 50's thought they were better than Woody Guthrie, that Woody thought he was better than Jelly Roll Morton, that there were people in the 20's who thought Gershwin was crap, and that they were better than Enrico Caruso, who probably wished Jenny Lind was still alive so he could give her American fans in the 1800's the finger.
As someone who not only grew up with pop music from an early age (started listening seriously to the radio at 8, bought her first record at 10, became a U2 fan at 12, etc--and I'm now 35) I count myself blessed not only to be currently at an age where I starddle both the younger and older gens comfortably (one of the few advantages of being a Gen X'er).
I've been witness to a LOT of things. The departure of disco, the New Wave craze, the Minneapolis Scene that never happened, the Athens, GA one that did, the birth of MTV, the birth, popularization and commercialization of rap, the birth of the Internet, the Grunge Era, the tragically--and artificially--cut short Post-Grunge Era, the blight upon the musical landscape that was the Britney Era, in which we in a sense have not woken up from the nightmare of (worse than disco, because disco was artist-written songs played on real instruments, and produced a few genuine alltime classics, such as "Dancing Queen") the departure of cassettes and the advent of CD's, and the current erw which I call the Great Search. The Clear Channel Era, with all that means.
And even though the current bunch of artists has the unfortnate stigma of being the first to operate in the niche-marketed, non-DJ, sceneless time, when a "music scene" may never again be possible b/c of said niche marketing, I can clearly say:
Rock is not dead.
There's some darned good music out there. Good talent is always there, and no matter the odds, some of it will always get through. Granted, that percentage is far smaller these days, but its's there. I won't give you any examples b/vc that may prejudeice you. But turn on your local alt rock station and LISTEN.
I still have hope.