What country still has music?

" but there is ZERO dicernable talent involved in pop music"

musical talent need only be solid and not outstanding to be successful in pop music. There are other kinds of talents involved as well that go into making someone appealing to the masses, which is what pop culture is all about, along with the $$$s that go along with it.

Some of the best modern tunes ever done were pop. Remember Burt Bacharach, Dion Warwick,LULU, Jackie Dushannon to name a few? Scores of others without whom it would have been an entirely different landscape. No where near as fun.

Oh yeah, the minute I heard Bacharach I went off Bach for a year. It is a matter of taste of course, good taste and bad taste.

We're at that weird crossover point between centuries. To make an analogy to the 20th it's James Reese Europe time. We haven't got past late 19th century brass band/ragtime. Stravinsky & Jazz & the "new" that will replace the tired 19th century conventions are still a few years out. So if you think you're hating this early 21st century, last gasp of rap-rock-dance 20th century pop culture idioms just wait. You'll probably dislike the 21st century evolution even more