Why do you think 'pop hate' is such a common thing? Specifically with music too, there doesn't seem to be nearly as much hate directed towards 'popular' movies or books or art, etc. I always hear/read those 'music was so much better back in the day' things too, when a lot of those bands that people loved from 'back in the day' were pop bands (i.e. the beatles). Sorry, long rambling question.. but I don't know, just curious what your thoughts are on all this stuff.
there are many reasons why everyone will always be upset that everything "sucks" "nowadays" and it was "better" at a "previous time that i'm thinking of", but i can tell you 2 very important reasons it may be tempting to feel this way. one very simple reason is that when you listen to music from the past, it has already gone through many years of quality control filtering, and mostly the only surviving items would naturally be the 'better' ones. but if you listen to music in the present, you will hear everything that anyone is trying to do, including the stuff that won't even 'make it' to next week. for example, if you took a time machine to let's say 1975, or 1955 who cares when (you pick a time, it doesn't matter), and you turn on the radio, sure you would hear the classics that you've heard of, but along side that you would hear 3 other songs who are desperately trying to copy that one. listen to some "air check" recordings, from any year, it doesn't matter which year, listen to them and i think that should put things in perspective. Also, the other very simple reason why everyone always says that things are never is good as they used to be is just simple nostalgia. everything always seems perfect in the past. we forgive anything for sucking. and finally a 3rd reason even though i only said i was going to give 2, a 3rd reason is if you actually are a musician/artist or someone who deeply wishes to succeed, it can just boil down to jealousy and envy. and i just thought of a 4th reason, people engage in pop-hate as a way to fit in. if you bad-mouth something new, you are less likely to receive resistence because it less likely that that piece has accumulated a sizeable body of respect in society