xhonzi said:

Okay, my point is that I don't listen to the radio hoping to hear anything new like I used to. I'm much happier listening to music I already know I like. So I couldn't really tell you if 2011 is the start of a good decade for new music or not.

I found a lot of good stuff in the last few years (typically called Indie, although in the 90's it was called Alternative). Examples:

-Arcade Fire
-Architecture In Helsinki
-The Bird and the Bee
-Cassettes Won't Listen
-Cut Copy
-Death Cab for Cutie
-Dr. Horrible (seriously, check out the DVD Commentary Songs)
-The Decemberists
-Flight of the Conchords
-Flobots
-Friendly Fires
-The Futureheads
-Gorillaz
-The Gregory Brothers (Auto Tune the News - seriously!)
-Headlights
-The Helio Sequence
-Interpol
-Johnny Foreigner
-Kaiser Chiefs
-Late of the Pier
-Los Campesinos!
-Mates of State
-Max Tundra
-Mew
-The New Pornographers
-The Octopus Project
-The Postal Service
-Ratatat
-Reel Big Fish
-The Seedy Seeds
-So Many Dynamos
-Sufjan Stevens
-The Thermals
-Tokyo Police Club
-Wonderlick

(and yes, I know, a few of these have gone major label)

The bad news is that it's harder to find because you can't just turn on the radio to hear this stuff (for the most part, and dependent in some cases on where you live). The good news is you can find it via the internet (music blogs, radio feeds like KEXP Seattle and WOXY Cincinnati, etc.).

I look at that list and I think, hell, music has been very good lately. You just have to find it.

xhonzi, ever listen to KTCL? There was a time it was good but I haven't listened to it in a while. KBCO isn't bad either.