I have to agree and disagree with you. I am also appalled by the “Jewish” music nowadays but probably for a different reason. The fact of the matter is that we have always been influenced by the goyishe music around us. If you listen to Iranian Jewish music for example, it sounds very Middle Eastern. I don’t think anybody would suggest going back to harps and violins. We need to move forward with the times and all that.
What I am appalled by though it the total lack of feeling at all in the music. What is Jewish music? Shmuel Brazil in one of his CD jackets aptly explains the meaning of Jewish music to be music that uplifts and brings us closer to Hashem. Being a musician myself, I can tell you that any instrument can be played in any style in a way that brings out the feeling of dveykus to Hashem. It’s not the instrument or the style, it’s the way they are played and the feeling behind it. When I listen to Carlebach, Brazil or Moditz music, I am automatically lifted up with the tremendous amount of emotion that went in to those songs. When I listen to one of the modern tunes put out by these young ones, I am totally unemotional. The songs do not evoke any sort of feeling at all. I am left with the question of “what was the point?”. The tunes don’t fit the words and the words don’t fit the tune. Obviously, they were just a random pairing of words to tune. I could probably make up a better computer generated tune with a random Google search for some words to fit it. If that’s what we’re calling “Jewish music”, then we’re in pretty bad shape. I would call that “goyish” music.