I find that good music tends to come in bursts. Now that they boy-band girl-band trend seems to almost be dead I'm noticing a lot better music on the airwaves.
The last GOOD burst was grunge, no question... Nirvana, Pearl Jam, SoundGarden, STP, etc... all excellent. I don't think the 80's really saw much in the way of talent in the popular music arena, other than the great bands of the 70's that were still going full-tilt... Rush, Floyd, etc.
Now we've got a post-grunge "nu-metal" scene hapening that I'm pretty impressed with, and hip-hop is actually not to bad. I forget the term for it but the blend of rock and hip-hop has been pretty successful... Limp Bizkit comes to mind, Rage Against the Machine, and others that aren't leaping from my memory.