Unnecessarily Long Comment

I am no stranger to old music. I grew up with the Beatles, Kiss, Metallica, and other timeless artists playing in the car. While nobody can dispute the artistic importance of these groups, it's arbitrary to say that they represent all music in the twentieth century. Every generation has their media titans and who you're referencing were the titans of your parents generation. If you listened to everything that's played on the radio in, say, 1975, you wouldn't hear nearly as much good music as if you listened to a select few groups that stand the test of time, like your references to Guns & Roses, Jimi Hendrix, and other excellent groups. There are people in the twenty first century who, given a few years, will be considered legends like groups from the twentieth century because of their incredible musical talent. Musicians like Kanye West (My personal favorite), Radiohead, Daft Punk, Beyonce, Bjork, and many more stick out as masters of their field that people 40 years from now will listen to and proclaim, "Music then was way better!" The system will sort itself out to find who will stand the test of time, and some forgettable hits on the radio (I haven't heard "Blurred Lines" in years) don't dictate an entire generation of music.

On the profanity - music isn't an exception to it, and profanity in music is certainly not anything that's come about recently. There is a reason why people refer to the second half of the 1900s as "Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll" - that's what they were. The Beatles took acid, Slash took heroin with the rest of Guns & Roses, Jimi Hendrix died in an overdose, and one of the modern "diamonds" you referenced, Eminem, was known in the early 2000s for his persistent drug use. So many people did drugs in that era that we had to initiate our costly drug war, resulting in the United States having the largest prison population in the world. Also, I don't know why you cited a song that's clearly about the perils of addiction, with Lil' Wayne's "I Feel Like Dying." The song's title forewarns against the use of drugs, and the lyrics talk about the pain he experiences after taking drugs. Additionally, to mention the objectification of women, in every regard women have been treated with more respect in the music industry of today.  In your references to old music, you didn't mention a single female artist. Realize that women were given less radio play because they were set to a different standard than men, and up until the 80s many female musicians were either completely unknown or obscure to the world. To say that "Profanity was never a major problem in music in the past." is extremely close minded and I feel like this in particular had to be addressed.

Thanks to the internet and the simplification of computers, art has become easier to share. Many modern day artists, whether you like them or not, have been able to break into the charts by sharing their music online. Nowadays, anyone can get attention for their music, and to claim that this is a bad thing is mind-numbing to me. To start a band back then cost lots of money. It required record deals, recording studios, agents, managers, and this whole web of people just to make one song. Who knows how many musical geniuses decided to give up their dreams because of the expensive and tiring process that making music used to be. If you can simplify the process for young, talented musicians, you're helping everyone in the long run. Also, a side note- how does making music electronically make it sound the same? If anything, it's introducing an entirely new soundscape to the world, while old-school bands used to stick to a formula of a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, and a vocalist.

And what do you mean by modern music won't make a connection? People still make connections in music. Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" dominated the charts since with it's initial drop two years ago, and has since been cited as one of the most important albums of all time. The album highlights themes of racism, classicism, romance, the American dream, and other problems with the world that I frankly don't see some older music address. I mean, you know "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison? The song was originally about an interracial relationship, and people went crazy in the summer of '67 because there was still an intense racial divide in America. The song was banned from several radio stations until the line "making love in the green grass" was changed to "laughin' and a-runnin', hey, hey." If this doesn't show you that modern music has more of a connection with the people listening, then I don't know what will.

In conclusion, modern music is no less of an art than older music. We still have our media giants, profanity is unchanged, computers have only simplified the process, and modern music still connects with the listener. I know my response is ridiculously long, but honestly I feel like this is something that needed to be addressed. Music is music, and art is art, no matter when it was created. Thanks for hearing me out.