Ist das nicht ein Schoenberg? German word, german word...

Call me a music snob, but it's all gone downhill since the 1890s.
Now that I've been choking down Webern and Schoenberg for a week, I can say with authority that once composers decided to eschew tonality, music started sucking, big time. I know there are all these complex theories you're supposed to apply when listening to atonal music, but in my opinion, if you need a calculator to appreciate something, it ain't art.
We should be on our knees thanking whoever popularized the blues and jazz in the early 1900s, because if that didn't happen, we'd all be sitting in cafes pretending to enjoy the nuances of nested tritones. Silly, silly white people.
I'm a huge fan of the composers of the late 1800s--Mahler, Brahms et. al.--because their music was tonal (i.e. it made sense) but avoided being cliche. I can identify with Mahler in particular because he was this Jewish guy who, while writing his symphonies, underwent a major crisis of faith, questioning his beliefs and constantly asking himself why we're all alive if we're just going to die anyway. All of his doubts, his despair, his cynicism, and his ultimate faith that there's a deeper meaning somewhere out there--all of that went into his music. The end result was a body of work that is still incredibly emotionally involving 115-odd years after its first performance.
And now? Well, right now the Backstreet Boys have a new album coming out. Take from that what you will.