And no, the sxxx that comes out of the Kingdumb Hell is not among that.
With all the rubbish you hear on the radio these days, one wonders if there are any decent songs out there. And "rubbish" doesn't mean debased music or music with Satanic messages encoded in it. It means the crap that is thrown together, Auto-Tune'd for homogenization, and stuffed onto the radio. And this time, it is not "old fogeys" that are bashing it--I have heard of Beatles performances where teens and young adults were the majority of the audience--not forced to be there by their parents (in recent years). And, Michael Jackson's Thriller CD is selling to teenagers and young people, not just those who are replacing their worn vinyl records or lost or ruined CDs with new ones.
Here is a partial list of songs that teenagers today ought to give a good listen to. Notice that they are not necessarily Washtowel approved, and I make no prejudice based on genre or if it is claimed to have Satanic messages embedded in them.
1960s: The Beatles--Hard Day's Night, Hey Jude, Get Back. Stones: Get Off Of My Cloud. The Doors--Light My Fire. Stevie Wonder--My Cherie Amour. Beach Boys--Good Vibration. Diana Ross & Supremes--Stop In the Name of Love. Fifth Dimension--Aquarius.
Early-mid 1970s: The Guess Who--No Time. The Jackson 5--ABC. Three Dog Night--Joy To the World (not to be confused with the Christmas song by that name). Led Zeppelin--Black Dog. Elton John--Rocket Man. Moody Blues--Nights in White Satin. Stevie Wonder--Superstition. Billy Preston--Will It Go Round In Circles. Pink Floyd--Money. Grand Funk--Loco-Motion. Eric Clapton--I Shot the Sheriff.
Mid-late 1970s: Elton John--Philadelphia Freedom. KC % the Sunshine Band--That's The Way I Like It. The Sylvers--Boogie Fever. Boston--More Than a Feeling. Foreigner--Feels Like the First Time. Eagles--Hotel California. Saturday Night Fever, particularly Bee Gees--Night Fever. Styx--Come Sail Away. Frankie Valli--Grease. Earth Wind & Fire--September. Billy Joel--My Life. Foreigner--Hot Blooded. Michael Jackson--Rock With You.
Early-mid 1980s: Pink Floyd--Another Brick in the Wall. Olivia Newton-John--Magic. Dolly Parton--9 to 5. Moody Blues--The Voice. The Police--Every Little Thing She Does is Magic. Hall & Oates--Private Eyes. Kool & the Gang--Get Down On It. Men At Work--Down Under. Michael Jackson--Beat It. Police--Every Breath You Take. Irene Cara--Flashdance. Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson--Say Say Say. ZZ Top--Legs. Don Henley--Boys of Summer.
Mid-late 1980s: USA For Africa--We Are the World. Tears for Fears--Shout. A-Ha--Take On Me. Mike + The Mechanics--All I Need is a Miracle. Huey Lewis & the News--Stuck With You. Whitney Houston--I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Cutting Crew--I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight. Michael Jackson--Bad, Man In the Mirror. Def Lepperd--Hysteria. B-52s--Roam (that's what alternative rock used to sound like).
Early 1990s--Don Henley--New York Minute. Mariah Carey--Vision of Love. TLC--Waterfalls.
Now, you probably won't like every single song on this list--and this is just the mainstream. I didn't list the old-school rap and things like Iron Maiden, Dakken, Dio, and Megadeth that you might well enjoy as well. Or, those disco songs that never made it out of the disco floor into the mainstream.
From this list, one can conclude that there used to be decent music. If you let your teenager listen to these songs, they are probably going to want to find out where there is more where those came from. The 1960s is full of groups that are as entertaining but only had a few hits. Some of the hard rock songs are from a period before alternative rock began to jumble everything up into a mess (and alternative rock used to be quite good--it was called "punk rock" and "new wave" at those times).
All it takes is to let your pre-teens listen to Michael Jackson's Thriller or some of your Beatles collection, and they might just not want to listen to the rubbish on the radio again. They might, with a little help from the Internet, come to appreciate that there is more where those came from. Listening to "'60s Rock" on Rhapsody could unveil a whole new library to your children that they can appreciate when it was the parents that complained about "today's music", and about it being "too loud" and "too decadent", not the children complaining about how wimpy it is.