Hey Nrchy- I am a younger member here(22 years old) and have purchased 417 cd's year to date(I keep track, don't ask why) including SACD's. About 80 of them would be cd's that came out this year(not including remasters, etc...), so even though I am a snot nosed young punk and am a pretty good hip hop dancer(I have taken many, many lessons, yet still only own about 4 hip hop cds!). With my current numbers that puts me at around 5% of new music purchased came out this year; that number may be lower by years end; I may be closer if not exceeding 500 cds(ytd) and only a few more(if any) will be 2003 releases.
I can't say I blame you for not being into new music however there are some good things happening. With music from The White Stripes, Beth Orton, Peter Gabriel, Steve Earle, Rosanne Cash, among many other's coming out this year its hard to say its all garbage and that's just "Pop" music not getting into Simon Rattles recordings of Beethoven, or any other classical releases from this year. These are obviously rare exceptions and like you said most music coming out these days is pretty poor.
I can't say I blame you for not being into new music however there are some good things happening. With music from The White Stripes, Beth Orton, Peter Gabriel, Steve Earle, Rosanne Cash, among many other's coming out this year its hard to say its all garbage and that's just "Pop" music not getting into Simon Rattles recordings of Beethoven, or any other classical releases from this year. These are obviously rare exceptions and like you said most music coming out these days is pretty poor.