Whether music is good or not does not really depend on whether it's mainstream. There have always been good mainstream bands and artists, from Bob Dylan to Flogging Molly. It's just that music in general has taken a nosedive recently, and mainstream music has gotten significantly worse with it.
Consider: pop music used to be motown, which yes, was manufactured but gave way to artists like Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson. Today, what do we have? The Black Eyed Peas, who can't seem to sing about anything but having sex and partying, and who offer up uninteresting music to boot. Punk started out with the Sex Pistols, then it gave way to pop-punk (though admittedly, pop-punk is something of a guilty pleasure for me). Metal started out with Black Sabbath, and the press somehow conflated absolutely terrible rap-rock from bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit with the genre through nu-metal. About the only genres that have managed to stay relatively sound, in my opinion, were real metal (whether power, thrash, heavy, doom, or otherwise) and prog, which lost popularity rapidly after the 70's, primarily because their fanbase has helped keep them clean. These aren't necessarily unpopular or "indie," but they aren't mainstream, either.
Don't listen to people who tell you that indie is the only good music around, or that there's no good music anymore. That's either an uninformed statement or it's a flat-out lie. I'm a fan of both prog and metal, which have been and remain sophisticated and intelligent genres. So what do we have there? Consider Spock's Beard, a prog band which is operating to this day on a shoestring budget:
[video=youtube;SZlghnBcpJw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZlghnBcpJw[/video]
Now, compare and contrast the heartfelt, poetic lyrics, the virtuoso musicianship, and the variety of this album, which was released in 2006 (I consider that recent) to Kesha's latest song about how many men she wants to have sex with. Spock's Beard really is my universal example of good bands still existing because, well, it's my favorite, but you'll likely find plenty of other acts. The problem is, a lot of them are marginalized or not part of the mainstream. While the mainstream USED to be decent, it's gotten worse with everything else in the music industry. That's not to say you can't find good mainstream bands, but the aforementioned Flogging Molly really is the only one I can think of right now. That's sad, man.
After prog made it big in the 70's, there was a reactionary response on the part of the whole industry. Significant talent was frowned upon as punk took over (like it or not, yes, punk did play a role in the dumbing-down of music, even though I do like some of it). That's why you'll never see Rush or The Moody Blues in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Accessible music is now at its absolute worst. The worst singer in the world sounds better than the best singer auto-tuned. Until people finally revolt against this stupidity and let less popular genres like prog and metal have a shot at mainstream success again, the market isn't going to make it any easier to find quality stuff. It's TEEMING with good music, but you have to dig a little. The internet is a great resource, and it's where I get all my information about music. I never turn on the TV or the radio anymore for anything but the news.
The key is to promote the genres you like. Buy the CD's, don't pirate them. Go to concerts. Tell other people about them. A lot of people just get their information about music from American Idol, MTV, and the radio. Let them know there's more out there. There was one time bands like
Kansas and
Rush had popular hits that played on the radio--songs that still resonate with people to this very day. It's not that people have forgotten what good music sounds like, it's just that this steady progression of vapid rap and pop has conditioned us to less ambitious musicianship. That needs to change.
