What is music nowdays?

Lately I've been broadening my horizons of music by listening to different musicians. For these past few months this experimentation has taken me through an "interesting" journey. I say that because I've found a few diamonds in a rough but a few senseless musicians. I listen to a lot of old school hip hop/R&B/Soul and rap; and I must say, the transition of music has changed dramatically. I personally feel that the Late 80's (although I wasn't born then Lol)  and 90's had way more to offer musically, versus the generation of music we have now. Even the mainstream music being played back then was much more soulful, clever, smooth & nostalgic then what we have now in my opinion. Speaking on the terms of Hip Hop, I think about how we had artists like Rakim & Eric B, Big L, Kool G Rap, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Biggie Smalls, Tupac, Nas, Jay-Z, OutKast, The Roots etc...To artist like Lil Wayne, Waka Flocka, Wiz Khalifa, Lil B (-_-), & Soulja Boy...Now we still have good artists such as Lupe Fiasco, J.Cole & Drake...But Drake is more so Commercial now. But I mention this because emceeing and Artistry was seen as a craft and a skill versus being seen as a marketing tool to society. Now people may argue that Artistry nowadays is the same but just expressed differently; and that Hip Hop has evolved and gravitated to different areas then in the past. I personally feel that some of  Hip Hop's older artists have tried to gravitate to this new Zeitgeist of music by collaborating with these modern day artists in order to stay afloat (in terms of staying marketable).
As for R&B, there are still some great Artists out there, I just feel that the expressionism and the artistry of music is far more different then what it used to be...The Prime example I would use is Chris Brown. Now he is a extremely talented brother who has a lot of potential to be great. But I feel that he uses his appeal and voice to get his music out there; which means that he doesn't have to use much creativity. For example, songs like "Look at me Now", She Ain't You" and other songs have no substance in them. They just sound great because he's on them. I can only think of a handful of features Michael Jackson has done. I mention that because MJ never needed other people to be on his track in order for it to be a hit record. Songs like "Stranger in Moscow" or "We are the World" or "Man in the Mirror", truly left an effect on the hearts and minds of many people.

So I ask you, what is your perception of the music of today's world and how do you think it has changed.