Pointing out some example that YOU feel was legendary and saying everything else falls short in comparison is a very tired and lame argument.
I do think that information sharing and easy access to everything has really helped to push music production, along with dedicated technology for it some steps forward. So my point was, precisely, that easier access to things is not a bad thing. While you seem to recall the days when things were hard enough that only technology literate people would be able to surf the web and only people with a huge investment behind them - which was needed to set up a working studio - were able to make music.
Well, the fact of the matter is: things have changed and there is no turning back. Almost everyone in the developed world has access to the internet these days, interfaces are made with the common joe in mind so as to enable anyone to go ahead and focus on what it is they want to do, rather then on what's under the hood to make it happen. And to some extent, a quick browsing of facebook will easily point out just how much garbage that's brought about - so I do agree with you on that point. But if you look at the bigger picture, then it's quite obvious - if we're not looking at this from a very biased perspective, that is - that things have evolved! And they've evolved towards a much more inclusive and democratic paradigm.
The rest of it is a natural phenomenon brought about by this pandora's box wide open situation. Meaning: that when you have much more people doing what used to be done by a select few, then chances are it won't be possible for the music industry to remain the same. Labels won't be big business companies no more. Their task of finding and supporting artists is much harder. First 'cause there's simply much more to choose from. Secondly, 'cause there's not as much money to be made to begin with. You need a reasonably big audience for one artist to be able to live off what he likes to do best. In a world where more and more people are going for it, this means that not as much is reaching the hands of each of them.
On the other hand, the artists and their audiences have never ever been closer. Being online means that there's no separation. People can follow you and know what you're on about with daily updates. They can try and communicate with you. They can join some crowd funding campaign to finance something they believe in, even the making of a new album - there's just tons of such examples out there. How come is this a bad thing?
And someone else could say to you that there are a lot of artists delivering good music that pleases their audiences today. It's just a matter of taste, you're just rationalising your own taste versus what's up there today and not realising that's what it is. No offence, but that's what it is!
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