Has the music changed or have we?

Whatever ones feeling may be towards present day Rap music, it's still a profitable business. I often wonder if it's the music that has changed so drastically of if it's just me. I stopped listening to the radio years ago. I only hear the most popular songs in clubs. I almost feel detached from my own culture.

When I think about it more deeply, I realize that it isn't the best representation of my culture playing on the radio, MTV, VH1, etc. It's all product of the great hype machine that is the music industry. Gone are the days of varied artists, styles and sounds. Everything I hear is just a reworking of the same idea. I pulled a playlist from New York City's Hot 97 and look at this:

Of the top 30 songs, these are 20 artists I pulled from the list and the number of times they appear on the list. Of 30 songs, 8 people appear more than once for a total of 28 times. If you turn on Hot 97 right now, you have a 20% chance of hearing Rick Ross. Thus, I don't listen to the radio. It's horribly repetitive and the top songs in Rap and R&B are not my red cup of liquor.

Drake - 4

Rick Ross - 6

Lil Wayne - 5

Big Sean - 2

Chris Brown - 3

Kelly Rowland - 1

Jay-Z - 1

Kanye West - 3

Wiz Khalifa - 3

Miguel - 1

Eminem - 1

Royce 5’9” - 1

Waka Flocka - 1

Roscoe Dash - 1

Wale - 1

Lupe Fiasco - 1

Trey Songs - 2

Too Short - 1

Meek Mill - 1

Estelle - 1

Tony Yayo - 1

Maino - 1

Pusha T - 1

Lloyd Banks - 1

Rihanna - 1

Tyga - 1

Young Jeezy - 1

Tinie Tempah - 1

Sean Garett - 1

Have I just become "old" or is the music that different from when I was younger? There have always been negative themes in Rap music but I remember having more choice. I used to be able to turn my radio off for 2 Live Crew and up for Public Enemy. It's all "real" Hip-Hop but only some of it is real to me.

Talk to me, people. Is it the music or is it me?