Why is modern pop music today so terrible?

Interesting points in what appears to be an informed post by transaudio.

I still don’t want to spend time with Lady Gag-me but appreciate the insight about her from Brad.

This bemoaning current music is nothing new. My parents growing up with Sinatra and big bands despised Stones, Beatles, etc. The whole thing gets repeated with each generation.

My axe to grind with the current scene...
"Art" reduced to formulaic pursuit of product designed around maximum profitability and guided by the creative genius of corporate lawyers. An emphasis on self-promotion and persona rather than the music. Add to this incorporation of loathsome cultural values and thuggery. Hence, the earlier post: "Lawyers, Guns, & Money" (to misappropriate Warren Zevon). The profit motive has always been present in the music biz, I suppose, just more "artfully" concealed, perhaps.

A question for Brad or anyone else -
How does pop music become popular these days? I gather radio is no longer the dominant thing. The old-style hit making DJs are no longer a force, I don’t think. How do the stars get made? Is it solely on the strength of their touring??

Ghosthouse, a great post.  It is true that once a "star" has been identified, it appears that the machine of promotion follows and incessant flogging of what sold before.  I do find it disheartening that in 1973, there was an incredible variety of popular (not pop) music.  Now there appears to be two kinds: white girl pop or rap music, neither one artful.  AS I was thinking about this subject I remember hearing "Yummy Yummy I got love in my Tummy" in the 70s and thinking , oh God, that's it, its over.   So I have to say there is a tremendous variety of music available, its all hidden.  

You ask a brilliant question, "how are pop stars made".  I am no expert at that answer, but it appears that entire machine is now driven by online /social media and music sites like Itunes.  The kids are now using social media to talk to each other and they talk about pop music just like we did (but in person).   It appears the corporate machine (Disney, Warner, Sony etc) waits in the wings to identify what generates excitement online and then jumps in with both feet.    

Good examples of this are Justin Bieber, a complete online creation- he was a You Tube phenom.  Some serious people but serious money into him and have succeeded in promoting him to superstar status.  Some vocal training and hooking him up with real producers/writers  has paid off.  The PR game has not changed, but the tools of PR have.  Taylor Swift another online "sensation", appealing to little girls with heartache all over the country.  My two teenage daughters LOVE her.  To be fair, she earned it, it took super hard work and a complete sacrifice of your life to achieve something like that.  Giving up privacy forever and a sense of being alone is a very hard thing to walk away from.  Her last record was a brilliant production, and her videos are the best in class for sure.  She's now moved over to pop star land (long long way from country) and embraced fashion as a part of her persona.  She's a huge star and the tours sell out.      

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

Trans, 
Actually "church people" were among the greatest admirers of Mozart.
His many religious works were treated for what they were , sublime masterworks .

MTV awards last week were God awful musically. My teenage daughter even agreed. The focus is increasingly more on spectacle to try to make the various celebrity clones more interesting. I guess that’s the only way to get any attention in the watered down and glutted entertainment world these days.

Wait, hey do I ever sound like my parents when I was a kid now......