[Arran]

I don't know if this would be considered a political comment or not but I think that the downturn in the quality of entertainment, recorded music, movies, and television has a lot to do with the consolidation of media, and also the personal views, and tastes, of whomever runs these conglomerates. Take the Walt Disney Company for example, it started with animated shorts under Uncle Walt himself, then moved into television and movie production, now it owns ABC, ESPN, and other cable channels, and several dozen radio stations, but do they produce what the public wants anymore, NO, they produce what appeals to the executives of the company, and their friends at Hollywood cocktail parties. Their attitude is that they can turn out any kind of shlock, and if they market it hard enough though any of their outlets, people will buy it. The attitude is not much different at CBS, NBC, or the CW networks, all with the same unimaginative, Hollywood elite based group think, nobody really has any new ideas since they all came out of that same bubble, and nobody really tries to compete, just match whatever the other guys are doing. The same is true of many radio stations, most of their programing is set at a head office somewhere, beamed in via satellite, and they don't really care what the listeners want since most are owned by conglomerates, who average their profits, and losses, out over 50 or more stations. 
Regards
Arran