What happened to the great music?

I'm a music lover. I got it from my dad, who listens to all kinds of music. I can remember as a kid listening to salsa, jazz, blues, Cuban son, Spanish guitar instrumentals, etc. It didn't matter what genre of music so long as it spoke to him. I know where I got for my love of all kinds of music from. Look in my car and you'll see I have music ranging from D'Angelo to Stevie Ray Vaughn to John Mayer to the Foo Fighters and the Buena Vista Social Club. You could find me listening to Toby Keith just as easily as Rage Against the Machine or Cypress Hill.

Notice I don't really have a lot of new music when I list what I'm checking out. To me it's because music has become a cookie cutter business. Everything is the same. Sure, I like some of the songs from bands like Plain White Tees and Fallout Boy. However, if I didn't know the song I couldn't tell you the difference between these bands, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Boy Meets Girl. It's all the same crap with different names. Even when I was a teenager enjoying my heavy metal days you could tell the difference between Metallica, Slayer, and Motley Crue. Everyone had a different sound. You'd never mistake Ice T for NWA's Ice Cube, Dr Dre, and Eazy-E.

Maybe I'm just getting too old for this new music, but I rarely buy a new CD because of the crap we listen to. Give me a Chet Baker album any time. He's the guy in the picture and the dude was one bad motherfucker when it came to jazz. His song "The Thrill is Gone" is hauntingly beautiful and if you've never heard it you need to--even if it's just once. He had an unbelievably distinct voice and you'd never confuse him for someone else just like you'd never mistake Muddy Waters for Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Nowadays all of this crap just runs together. Give me some music that speaks to me. Something that makes me want to close my eyes and be taken somewhere. A great piece of music that makes you feel something--anger, sadness, joy, whatever.