Well, Mike, I'm not from the US, don't know that Carson Daly show, so I can't comment on that. I can't watch Fox, but I'm not longing for that.
But I wanted to make clear, that in my opinion there has always been good and bad music, and even among the good music there was music some people liked and others didn't.
"Rock Around The Clock"? The good old times? Maybe. Love that classic 50s Rock'n'Roll. But the lyrics usually lacked a certain depth, too. The Nashville Sound? Perfect playing, for sure. A lot of great voices. But for my taste too schmaltzy pretty often. I don't blame anybody for that. It was a business back then as it is now.
I immediately agree with the point that there's a lot of (on the production side) overpolished and (on the musical side) blunt music in both lyrics and sounds today, especially in the mainstream media and "charts". But the whole discussion so far implied the description of a cultural decline. And I don't see it that way. Because nowadays we're not limited to mainstream media anymore and have multiple ways to discover the interesting. There's a lot of fascinating stuff around, not accessible in the past, and many, many people make use of it.
Oh, and by the way, I also agree with this photo:
http://d3na4zxidw1hr4.cloudfront.net/si ... 40_q85.jpgIngo
If it ain't got the groove, the bodies won't move.