> I was in high school and college throughout the '90s and still think pop music quality peaked sometime between 1966 and 1986.
Pop music or rock music in particular? Rock is a type of pop music and it's arguable that it is past its prime and was better when it was newer.
> the stuff that most people are familiar with is dreck compared to what most people were familiar with fifty years ago.
Likely some survival bias here. There was tons of awful music that was quickly forgotten about back in the day too. I will grant that the cost of recording and distributing music is much lower today so there very well is a lower barrier to entry which means there's probably more garbage than ever.
Pop music or rock music in particular? Rock is a type of pop music and it's arguable that it is past its prime and was better when it was newer.
> the stuff that most people are familiar with is dreck compared to what most people were familiar with fifty years ago.
Likely some survival bias here. There was tons of awful music that was quickly forgotten about back in the day too. I will grant that the cost of recording and distributing music is much lower today so there very well is a lower barrier to entry which means there's probably more garbage than ever.