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This much is true but consider this. Back in the fifties when the young were going wild over Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and a whole host of others, their parents were lamenting that there was no good music being written just as I say today. The big difference is that today I see many young people listening to the music from the fifties and sixties, they are voting with their ears for music from their grandparents time. This wasn’t happening back then.

I honestly haven't seen a trend of younger people listening to music from the '50s-'60s. Little girls these days are screaming over the Jonas Brothers, not Fabian or Frankie Avalon.

And that's the thing about the names you listed - those were musical giants whose music has stood the test of time. But for every great artist, there were 50 mediocre or lousy ones. That was true then and it's true now.

Occasionally I attempt to listen to what passes for the new popular music and it seems either lifeless and dead or just anarchistic noise that leaves me at a loss to explain why anyone, young or old, wants to hear it.

So do I. I was a kid during the '70s and '80s, and I listen to music these days and wonder how anyone could prefer today's music to what I grew up with and love. But then I don't tend to remember what I didn't like back then, just the music I did like - it's a shock when I hear some awful Madonna song from my teen years and remember how bad it was and is. That's the thing about memories - we tend to apply our own filters. We also tend to be less open to new things as we get older - very few things can compete with a fond memory.

Also it is obvious that young people no longer have any knowledge of history or any understanding of governments and the consequences of choosing the wrong form of govenment

I agree that the educational system seems to be getting steadily worse. We have quantifiable evidence.

I honestly haven’t seen a trend of younger people listening to music from the ‘50s-’60s. Little girls these days are screaming over the Jonas Brothers,
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Yes, I know the Jonas brothers are big with the bubble gum set but I have met quite a few twenty somethings who would rather listen to fifties and sixties music than anything more recent. I have a stepson who is 33 and he has never shown any interest in current music. I met his mother in ‘93 when he was 18 and he was hooked on Frank Zappa and the Doors and Moody Blues among others. He studied music and played trumpet in school and studied guitar, he just never seemed to be interested in any music that came along after he was born. I had a conversation with a young man about the same age who was working at Target and saw me looking at some CD’s. He also was hooked on the old stuff that predated his birth.