I have a fairly eclectic taste in music, as in I'll go from listening to Jonas Brothers one minute to Aerosmith or Queen the next. But most stuff from the sixties just didn't appeal. Janis Joplin had incredible vocal damage from her drug use; she's very hard to listen to. The Doors songs weren't very appealing for me either; musically they're repetitive without a lot of variance (Riders on the Storm being a prime example). Beetles...you get a pass there. Twist and Shout is my ringtone. Except for Yellow Submarine. I haven't forgiven them for that song.
I'd say if you want to talk about the peak of popular music, it came more in the 70s and 80s. Queen's music had such incredible harmonies, and musically it was complex (especially Bohemian Rhapsody). Aerosmith also had great harmonies. Sweet Emotion where they basically slide from one note to another in harmony... that's pretty amazing.
My inclusion of the musicals was based on your assertion that there was absolutely no good music to come in this century. Even if the popular music isn't as great, the movie musical has returned, and two of the best musicals (Hamilton and Wicked) were written in this century. Not that Sound of Music and all the other Roger's and Hammerstein's stuff wasn't great; it was (although Roger's and Hammerstein began in the 50s and continued into the 60s), just illustrating a point. There are other artists who come to mind now from this century who I didn't think of last night as well...Beyonce, Shakira, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars...but yeah, I don't think it's good to write off entire decades just because some of the music was not good. The same can be said of any time period.
Although I did walk downstairs and my brother was playing something on the Echo...and now if someone older we're listening to that and concluded new music is nothing but noise, based on that sample, I'd be forced to agree.
