The current state of Music

My main bone to pick with modern music is that I can't tell what's a joke and what's meant to be taken seriously. Just recently a friend pulled up "The Fox (What does the fox say?)" by Ylvis to gauge my opinion. I've been told I made some of the funniest disgruntled faces of utter confusion ever. Sure, something like that is a more obvious joke, but it is still an clear symptom of the current state of music. Again, it may be a joke song, but tons of people like it and are singing it like it's a real pop ear worm. I tend to encounter this mostly with rap music, having a friend play a music video or track for me to hear. For many years now I have had friends and strangers send me music thinking I might like it or at the very least be amused by it. Lots of people have sent me rap especially, hoping they can be the one to change mind about it.

 I appreciate all music, but I have certain types I really like. I've been exposed to a lot of music and sometimes I do get interested and become a fan of music someone has introduced to me. Usually that doesn't happen, cause I get a LOT of music thrown my way. And most of it simply isn't my thing. With the lyrics rap has now a days, about violence and "bitches" it's hard to take it seriously or know what is meant to be genuine. If I can't tell, I'm probably going to go with engenuine, not serious...a joke. Back in my day, joke music was Weird Al Yankovic, and that was fun, funny and meant as a tribute.

  Nobody seems to be interested in quality music these days, or anything close to musician integrity. In the past year we've been exposed to acts like Rebecca Black with "Friday" and "It's Thanksgiving" by Nicole Westbrook. Horrible auto-tuned music with horrible lyrics seems to be in vogue. How...horrible. Truth is, there is SO much music out there to sift through as an audiophile, and there's so much shit. We seem to covet crappy music at this point in time, or at least we are eager to give our attention to it.

 I have a huge problem hearing music and not being able to tell if I should be laughing at how bad it is. I've had instances where I went "Haha, what is this? This is horrible" and the person says "Oh...it wasn't meant as a joke. I wanted to see if you liked it." Oops, I really do not like to insult another person's music taste. I've had this problem with black metal as well. I've dated a lot of metal heads who are into some of the loudest screamiest music I've ever heard. Sometimes (sorry if this is rude) it sounds just plain ridiculous. The lyrics (if there are any?) are totally un-decodable squeals. For the life of me I don't know what they are saying...if they are saying anything.

 I am totally aware it comes down to taste and preference. But I just don't get it. Modern music leaves me in a state of immense confusion and I'm a young person who should be able to understand it. We live in a time of Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and One Direction. Miley Cyrus is popular right now in the true female pop star fashion; people aren't talking about her music, but her body and antics. Although that is nothing new, it is only getting worse. That's what we care more about now. Technology has changed so much, and it's changed us. It's made it so much easier to create and release tracks without a record label or even a middle man. But this also means any joe blow can make music, and not everyone is good at writing, singing and creating. We are saturated in music these days, and it's getting harder and harder to find the good stuff. What do you think about the current state of music?