A lot of pop is terrible, true, but not all of it. Are there issues with sound quality? Of course, but SQ and the music itself are two different things. Now, if you include new music, not necessarily what is popular, there are many, many great new artists and bands. Some of them even seem to produce their music with respectible, if not audiophile, quality. In fact, there are so many excellent new artists in so many genres that I am finding it difficult to keep up. I have a stack of notes on which I have scribbled the artist and song names of hundreds of great new music songs that I have heard on internet radio, and these cover many different genres. So, while I value my record collection and still enjoy music that I've owned for 30 or 40 years, there is much more to discover and enjoy. YMMV, of course.
Why is modern pop music today so terrible?