Quality of music deteriorating?

Disclosure: I listen to nothing but rock music. I use that term rather
loosely, by rock I mean there's an electric guitar and someone may or
not be singing (so everything from Mogwai and Death Cab for Cutie to
Underoath and Poison the Well).

Disclosure: I am also nineteen years old.

What I mean is that a lot of music coming out now (that I've heard) is
utterly abhorrent. This seems to be happening across the board, but I
notice it more with rap and pop music. Take a ten second beat, loop it
fifteen times, add a person singing the same three lines and autotune
it to hell and you've got your typical rap song. Music nowadays just
seems to be lacking originality and imagination. All of these cookie
cutter "musicians" like Lil' Wayne and Lady Gaga are turning music
into nothing more than noise pollution.

I don't even care for how they influence people, because every genre
negatively influences people in one way or another. I know there is
good rap/hip hop music out there (Mos Def, Hieroglyphics, De La Soul)
and I can only assume there is good pop music, too, but I don't hear
that music. Likely, most people don't hear this music, either. Old rap
music used to be about making a positive image of yourself, defying
the stereotypes that plague ghetto youth. Today, we see morons like
Drake and Kanye West talk using describing their upbringing with such
hyperbole it's not even funny.

Rock music is the same thing, too. Bands and solo artists such as
Nickleback and Avril Lavigne are, to put it nicely, a disgrace to rock
music. At best, they are pop rock and at worst, not music at all. I
ask people who listen to that kind of music if they've ever heard of
Joe Satriani, Ramones, Nirvana, or even The Beatles and I'm lucky if
they even know one.

Yes, I fully understand that 50 Cent is not rap, I understand that and
agree with you, but most people don't, and that's what I'm trying to
address. Go ask your average kid who listens to rap to name one rapper
from the 80s/90s and you'll be lucky if they say Tupac or Notorious
B.I.G.

I've gotten rather off-track, but do you think music in general is
heading down the same downward slope? I'm in the minority, or so it
seems, of people who dislike mainstream music because it is bad.