h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

To be honest, people have been saying this type of thing since the 1950s, according to my parents. after all, that was around the time that classical and folk music was challenged by jazz and blues, which gave rise to pop, rap, and rock.

Music does seem to be a lot more generic nowadays, though I have to wonder how much of it is simply people not remembering the truly wretched stuff that was around before I was born (the 1980s, for example, have a rather poor reputation, though since I was but a gleam in my father's eye for the first half of that decade, and a baby for the second half, I can't really judge).

I was born in '85, and listen to a lot of music predating my parents even knowing each other. The balance back then was tipped toward music for music, not music for money like it is now.

I lived through the 1980's with a soul that yearned for it to still be the 1970's.... the music was indifferent, the clothes awful, the ethos stank (Thatcher, greed, Tory rule, the breaking of older collective ways of thinking)and while I was in my twenties I still felt very alienated and excluded . I wish I could say it was ALL a bad memory looking back at it, but the horrible thought persists that the country is now in its twenty-eighth year of conservative government...

Off-hand, can't think of a single decent piece of music from the eighties. There must have been some...

Here's several (in my opinion) decent pieces of music from the '80s
It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by R.E.M. (1987)
Wall of Death by Richard & Linda Thompson (1982)
Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 (1983)
Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division (1980)
Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Spingsteen (1984)
Mirror in the Bathroom by The English Beat (1980)
This Charming Man by The Smiths (1983)

I was born in the 80's and a teenager in the 90's, i'm now in my twentys in the noughts.

But i have to say that i prefer music from the 60's and 70's, im a big fan of The Who, The rolling Stone, Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd but to name a few.
I also like Some 80's stuff, like Gary Numan, Visage to name a couple.
And considering that i spent my teenage years listing to 90's music nothing sticks in my mind as being great except the odd band.

I think that as you grow older your musical tastes change and if you look at my music collection you would think that had been born 40 years earlier.