I think, like bullshit that distracts you from focusing on the emptiness of the verbal content, a lot of modern music is just distracting noise. Musical bullshit. But I'm not feeling one bit hopeless about the situation. I keep finding singers and musicians worth a listen.

This give me some hope. These kids are simply awesome. Freddy Mercury and Queen. Enjoy.

So @Bob4Health Folk Music is childish music? That must be why the best of it takes centuries to develop. Why many pieces of classical music are merely a continuation of the folk process of people taking music and lyrics improving it smoothing editing it?
Until you mention the name Shri Chinmoy I had never encountered it in nearly 70 years of life. You have quoted that his considered opinion is that it requires 3 lifetimes to become a musician. A statement which supports what I say of folk music. It seems that he is saying that only through the process of folk music can anything hope to acquire perfection and quite simply no individual person will ever be able to be an adequate musician to play. A respected folk musician and singer in Australia was Declan Affley, now long dead. He had similar opinion that a person was not a folk musician until they had at least 4000 pieces in their head that they could instantly play. Declan of course was not just a musician, he was an entertainer, for Australians whose religion is gambling, there was no better entertainment than laying the bets as to how long it would take Declan to have a foot drunkenly slip from the stool, or drunkenly stagger on stage. As was related to me recently as advice passed from a father, a professional musician in the Melbourne SO to his son - "It doesn't matter son how technically proficient you are, how you play note perfectly, the audience will always remember the musician who embues the music with feeling, with emotion, with humanness - they will forgive and forget your mistakes but always rember how you engaged their brains, their hearts, their bodies". But of course your academic approach will simply note the faults and totally miss what a 100,000 others have have been enrichened by.
Below I have posted a clip of the Chieftains, some of their members taught music in the Irish Colleges of Music. Whilst they were held in great regard I do not believe that they had the same degree of following as another Irish group from similar era who were basically little more than music hall and pub entertainers - the Dubliners.
Returning to your scorn for what you consider childish music: Are you familiar with Carl Orff's Schulwerke? One of the more popular pieces from it is based upon a 1536 song Gassenhauer, or Street Song by Hans Neusidler arranged by Gunild Keetman and incorporated by Orff - perhaps a true example of three lifetimes required to achieve semblance of musicianship. The Orff-Keetman methodology is still taught worldwide and in the sixty years of Schulwerks existance has been a primary aid for millions to learn of music.
[allmusic.com]

Irish harpers like the blind O'Carolan reputedly had to undertake a six year apprenticeship. They were not only the peripatetic entertainer but also the magistrate.
[binged.it]

Courtesy of "Traditional and Folkmusic":
Here are 6 of Irelands finest musicians performing together as the Chieftains with a medley of Turlough O'Carolan's tunes:

I will always respect and admire true musicians. They bring joy and fulfilment to others and that is a rare and noble thing to be able to do. I love orchestral music and we here in Northern Ireland have in our national orchestra.....The Ulster Orchestra, a world class orchestra. Last Sunday I had the privilege of hearing it play at the Hill of The O’Neill in Dungannon ( on the site of what used to be the ancestral home of the chieftain of the Clan O’Neill). The orchestra does concerts all around the province from time to time and brings their music to us instead of us having to travel to Belfast. They also do workshops for young musicians and have an annual workshop with amateur choirs once a year which culminates in a mass choir and orchestral performance. This, as you can image takes a large amount of money to make happen....just attracting and keeping that number of musicians of top calibre costs money as we are a small part of the United Kingdom. Last year the Arts Council funding was cut and it was a possibility we could lose our wonderful national asset, luckily Belfast City Council stepped up and fill the funding gap. There are people out there who say in times of economic pressure that we can do without art and music....how wrong they are. It is in times when we are all feeling the pinch that we need to be uplifted more not less. Musicians one and all I salute you.

Between the economics and technology, there is just so much blatant laziness that's taken over the music business.
That's why it's so important for kids to have music in schools.
It went away for a little while, but it's coming back.
My 10 year old grand-nephew is starting music in school and he's picked the saxophone.
My 15 year old grand-niece has been in marching band for a couple of years.
Another nephew is back to drumming again, after having been away from it for
a couple of years.
I have hope.