Ageless Music?

While I would agree that 99.9% of popular music that's out today is crap, I tend to wanna be more optimistic. As far as comtemporary music that will survive the ages, I would think that's pretty hard to foresee, seeing as music is so subjective (believe it or not there are those who think Cher as a creative force). Myself, being 39 years old, I could listen to the likes of Miles Davis and The Beatles all nite long (and have)! I firmly believe that the creative fury within the Beatles (especially Lennon/McCartney)in that short time frame, will not be equaled in my lifetime, but who knows. It seems to me that in popular music's recent history, everytime music seems to be in an uninspiring rut, some artist or band breaks through to shake things up. Frank Sinatra, Elvis, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Costello, The Clash, Prince, Nirvana, etc., to me are all examples of this. More recently, the music of Ryan Adams, Beth Orton, Paul Westerberg, Dave Koz, James Horner, Sade, Diana Krall, etc., keep me inspired and hopeful. Will this music be ageless? Who knows. All I know is I'm not buying and listening to music now in the hopes that my kids or their kids will approve of and say "wow".

I'm with Beatlebum whilst Musicbuff makes some very good points the heratening thing is that if you look at the biggest selling albums of all time,the vast majority are pre-MTV.
That's not totally related to the original query but I think most music historians will discriminate-we might be in a shallow era for music but it will probably regarded as such.
History is full of such moments on many levels.

Scot Joplin's ragtime will still be enjoyed a hundred years from now.

Leroy Anderson combined popular music with classical values in a way that is unique. Many people are (were) familiar with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, but the secret is that all the arrangements were done by Anderson, while Fiedler basked in the glory.

Sousa's contribution will last (but that is going back a few years).