What happened to music?

[Icarus4578]

I've noticed that in recent times there's been a scant few good songs, mostly independent or foreign, and the rest is utterly terrible. The mainstream music is whiny, soul-less, LOUD garbage, often accompanied by offensive, "controversial" (ooooh) lyrics which I cannot relate to. Worse still, our youth are being assaulted with this filth.

How can anybody in their right mind compare the likes of Ne-Yo, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, and the rest of today's crop with genuine artists like Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Steely Dan, and the others from days gone by?

What happened to the art of songwriting? Where are the great performers, the ones who could both compose and perform good music? When was the last time you heard a genuinely classic song?

As I said, most of the good stuff is flying under the radar -- you need to dig deep to find it. Here's some of the good stuff I've found.