When I was a kid in the 90s, I absolutely loved 70s music. I wished I’d been alive in the 70s to get to see it live, but of course, having been born in the 80s, there was nothing I could do about it. But then in the 00s I got absolutely madly into 80s music, especially the big 80s rock bands like Def Leppard, Europe, etc. At the time I had a job and was able to save up some money and go to a lot of music festivals where these bands were playing. Lots of 00s bands were playing at these festivals too, and my friends at the time were into nu metal but I ignored all those modern bands and didn’t watch them.
Now it’s the 2020s I find myself getting really into those 00s rock and metal bands and I am so annoyed with myself, watching their videos they look so much fun live, and I had endless opportunities to see them live and just… didn’t bother. What is wrong with me, why am I like this.
a lot of contemporary popular music is not very good, and this has been true of every era in the past. the good stuff is what people remember and still listen to decades later, so maybe you’ve been waiting for the cream to rise to the top. it takes a more concerted effort to filter through the noise yourself
also there can be an overexposure problem with new music, I hate when a song becomes so popular that you can’t escape it and it loses its impact. I recently heard “Somebody That I Used to Know” for the first time in years and realized it’s a genuinely great song but I didn’t appreciate it at the time because it was fucking everywhere
though these days the very concept of “popular music” is dying along with the rest of the western monoculture so idk what if anything from the modern era will stand the test of time. the mainstream can be more easily ignored than ever before. there’s so much great music out there though, you just have to find the right niche(s) that appeal to you