My late mother told me that her mother used to say to her in the 1920s "I don't know what you see in the Savoy Orpheans, it all sounds the same, just plink-a-plunk-a-plink-a-plunk".

My mother used to say of the Rolling Stones "It's their horrid common voices that I can't stand".

There is some really creative modern music out there. Lots of metal and its sub-genres carry both the eternal fight of the young (ish, in some examples) against their parents and political messages. Mobo I find less admirable - but that's because largely of its socially unacceptable messages: in some cases there are fine harmonies behind, in others creative rhythm tracks. It isn't all rap, and not all the rhythms are relentless four-square.

It's a bit like the folk process in a way - 90% of what gets churned out by the machine is dross, and as time passes we remember the 10%.