To suggest that all pop sounds the same is really a very narrow view...and a tone deaf one. Imogen Heap does' nt sound remotely like Natasha Kahn, nor does Natasha Kahn sound at all like Adele...yet they are all talented women and they all bring a great deal of passion and skill to their music. I believe that these artsts
and many like them, would write and perform music regardless of the renumeration.
We could make a list of pop icons and it would be easy to see that they do not all sound the same.
If, by your own admission, you haven't listen to much of it since the fifties, I don't know how you can pass such sweeping judgement on a genre about which you know so little.
   I sometimes get the feeling that what people really don't like about pop is not its' sameness, but its success.