But that's part of the problem. The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. Elvis was on Ed Sullivan. Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane, The Who -- all of these bands and so many more were on prime time TV shows -- 8 PM on network TV. I was 8 years old and I watched 'em and I thought they were pretty cool. My parents may not have liked them (they actually did) but the bands were sure easy to find.
Today? You get crap at Ryan Seacrest's Rockin' New Years Eve.
If you want better, you have to "know where to look".
I say that's a problem.
There is indeed great music made and you are right, finding it is the problem. The record companies, for all their faults, acted as a filter before profit completely overwhelmed every other consideration.
Today everyone has to be the modern equivilant of an old DJ rifling through crates at a used record store via you tube/Soundcloud searching or accept the poop that’s currently provided. Not a day goes by that this isn’t discussed on the music production boards.
You are right, But it isn’t hard to “know where to look” with the Internet. I had to slow down and go cold turkey in the past month listening to unknown artists at the sites that present them and offer free downloads, or ask for voluntary contributions, because I just couldn’t keep up and felt overwhelmed by the amount of superb music I was hearing (I’m absolutely serious.) (I listen and look for Americana which is the healthiest genre of popular music, as far as I know. Supposedly electronic is healthy as well. I don’t watch the tube or listen to the radio, except classical in the car.)
I think Zappa here nails down exactly what happened to the music business...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GowCEiZkU70
There exists an incestuous monopoly of the media (the oversized corporate interests own the magazines that tell you what the trends are, they own the record labels, sometimes they own the tv/radio stations, and on and on).
The small labels are effectively shut out. It was that way when Elvis was on Sun and Nirvana was on Sub-Pop. Those labels that manage to break through to the mainstream are few and far between but when they are permitted to, the changes can be dramatic.
The Beatles were on several small US labels (Swan and Vee Jay among them) before Capital Records big blitz to bring them over. Leslie Gore and Tommy Roe BOTH saw the Beatles early on in Europe and tried to get the attention of booking agents and labels with no success. “Aw, the guitar group sound is OUT, baby!”