Swift is a pop star with country elements earlier in her career. That may be why you don’t like it. Though her “Pop” album 1989 was highly rated and I actually think its quite good (very underrated among some).
Amos Lee is quite good. Arms of a Woman is my favorite song. I’m still checking out his other stuff on youtube. He’s got a R&B sound.
I get exposed to the new music by virtue of working with mostly younger people, who play it at work. Most of it I hate, but that’s also because they tend to like rock, which I’ve always hated.
If you like upbeat, dance’y stuff, you might like The 1975’s “Chocolate” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfBKqaVk2Cohttp://
and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPf0YbXqDm0
From about 1997 until 3 years ago, I had little or no exposure to current pop music.
Now, I have an 11 year old son who plays the radio all the time and goes often to a skate rink where I hear all the current top 40 stuff- Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Imagine Dragons, Meghan Trainor, Charli XCX, Arianna Grande, Macklemore, etc.
Now, I will probably remain a “classic rock” guy til I die, but I have learned to appreciate some current pop, and even like some of it. Five years ago, I was as clueless about pop music as my Mom was about Led Zeppelin. I’m not so clueless now.
I just dropped in to say that one of the younger crop of singers mentioned upthread, Miley Cyrus, simply blew me away with her cover of “50 ways to leave your lover” (By Paul Simon) on the SNL 40th year show.
I then Googled her “unplugged” performances and chanced upon a series she does called Backyard sessions. Wonderful wonderful talent, yet she seems to be known more for her attention grabbing antics.
BTW - I think I qualify as an old fogey
Yes, that song was freaking awesome–unlike Kanye’s bit. But OP might like Kanye.
Actually, the Now albums (currently up to Now 90) are very good primers for what is big in the UK pop charts at a specific point (unless there’s an exactly named series in the US - in which case, apologies). They come out roughly 3 or 4 times a year and stick most of the biggest tracks from the previous 3 or so months in one place.
It’s therefore reductive to say, I’m not seeing x, y and z on there - because there is a good chance that they didn’t have a high charting single in the relevant period, so there’s no reason for them to be on the tracklist that fits with the ethos of what the compilation is doing. Furthermore, the first 10 or so editions of Now competed against other hits compilations in the UK that were run by rival record labels - some artists therefore don’t appear in the first so many of these, even though there were huge sellers by them in the relevant period, as they were kept back by their labels for their own in house compilations. The Now series eventually won the war and essentially all the major labels license relevant tracks to the series for inclusion. They thus become much better as primers around the late 80s and by the 90s become very good documents of artists that got big and, if it’s missing a specific artist, will still probably cover their genre of music well.
They definitely shift with the times - look at the tracklists from the mid-90s and it’s littered with Britpop bands and not much pop music. Now you’ll struggle to find guitar bands on the track list and it’s moved to EDM, R&B, Pop, etc, because those are the big sellers.
Elvis Costello is included in at least one Now compliation - there were year specific ones created at the end of the 90s and they included tracks by him from before the Now series started (it began in 1983) - A Good Year For The Roses is on the 1981 edition for instance.
Elton John was regularly featured on Now compilations throughout his career - provided he sold enough records to make the relevant track popular.
Lou Reed will have featured once - there was a cover of Perfect Day done for charity here in the UK in the late 90s. He was the first and last featured voice - with a cavalcade of people in between. Lou though doesn’t really sell singles so the likelihood of his appearing otherwise is limited.
In short, I reckon MMM has actually picked a reasonably efficient way of collecting tracks that are roughly the “sound of today” by using the Now compilations. Whether any of the tracks are any good on any of the editions of it is obviously up to the listener. Personally, I wouldn’t give house room to the vast majority of artists mentioned here - though I reckon both Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift’s recent stuff is decent enough.
I would have said all the same, except for a young friend who made me workout mixes that I specified the beat for, and it’s his music, and over time and miles, I’ve learned to really enjoy it.
None of that is dance/pop music. None of it is even close.
If you didn’t like pop music of your teenage years when you were the target age, if not exactly the target market, of course you’re not going to like today’s stuff. You’re not responding just to the songs themselves, but the style (which is apparently not your cup of tea).
There’s a lot of crap on the “Now” CDs (someone at the avclub.com blogged their way through them a a few years ago), but not all of it is awful. Figuring out what is and isn’t does take the ability to appreciate something even if you don’t like it.
Well stated. That thinking informed my post, but I did a piss-poor job of articulating it.
MMM, EDM + autotune is the thing now just like disco was the thing in the 70’s. Kiss did I Was Made For Loving You, right? 
Mean MM, being an old foggy myself, I hear ya brother. Then again, thanks to my kids, I am constantly tripping over really cool new bands and stuff that the rocker in me can appreciate. As for checking out some of the newer offerings, I’d highly recommend you look at Post Modern Jukebox (try YouTube). They do arraignments of modern tunes that are amazing and often lead to me going to check out the original artist. The bluegrass version of Blurred Lines got me hooked.
I am a fogey of even earlier vintage than the OP and quite agree - but isn’t this the stereotypical experience - all recent music=crap?
I will admit to nat having sampled many of those noted above and those I have leave me cold, with the exception of Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, also Grace with lots of other inspirational musicians - Warren Hayes as one example.
But the one who really knocks me off my perch is the astounding Jackie Evancho.
While pop is not her forte (according to her), just have a butchers at this, a cover of an Ed Sheeran song - I’m not impressed with Mr Sheeran and his version of this, despite almost 54 million you tube hits, is a very poor effort compared to Evancho’s cover.
There is a reason she chose this and made the video the way she did, which is rather beside the point in this discussion but gives a glimpse of her personality, as incredible as her musical abilities.
And her cover of Say Something from her most recent pbs concert.
Devastatingly talented.
A few years ago I tried what the OP tried. Since I kinds of faded out on paying attention to pop in the mid-80s, I was looking for stuff since that I could like.
I found The Gipsy Kings and Matchbox 20. That was all.
My term for this “music” is either “bleeeccch!” Or other gagging or vomiting sound, or “Instant ‘music’, just add water”, or perhaps Advanced Music Substitute, it’s almost, but not quite, entirely unlike music…
I kind of like Bruno Mars, myself.
Maybe go for more indie stuff. There’s a lot of music now, and honestly, the likes of Bieber and Katy Perry aren’t that important.
I mean, this is the age of Adele!
I wonder what you’d think of Halsey. She doesn’t seem all auto-tuned, but the instrumentation is…mechanical.
Wait, these are all (except the White Stripes, and arguably even they) very masculine acts.
So, I can tell you about master guitarist Kaki King, or atmospheric weirdos Florence and the Machine, or soul diva Adele, and you probably won’t care. 
Maybe Bon Iver? He’s got a beard and everything!
My only exposure to new music these days is SNL, and I reject most of it. But when Justin Timberlake started showing up on a regular basis, I realized that everything I said against him was exactly what my dad said about the Beatles back in the 60s, so I listened to him with a less biased ear. None of it is memorable, but I’m pretty impressed with the dance and production.
I’m 54 years old and teach English abroad. I also try to expose Chinese and Korean kids to American pop culture. Those girls ask for Taylor Swift by name. Katy Perry, too. Some of it grows on me. I even have a favorite One Direction song, God save me (It’s “The Story Of My Life.”)
I stopped following new music around the time MTV stopped primarily showing videos, so to me the White Stripes and Sheryl Crow are still fresh young faces. I like Charli XCX better with the volume muted. I can’t stand Lana Del Ray; everything notable about her comes from a scalpel or an AutoTune.
Back in '97, Rolling Stone put the Spice Girls on their cover and realized they might be crossing some kind of line with their older, Blues-Rock snob readers. They addressed this directly in their editorial by noting that “Rock and Roll is whatever the world’s 10-year-old girls say it is.” That’s as true now as it was then.
I’m trying hard to think of any year where that would be true. I looked at the Billboard #1 hits for 1978, for instance, as I remember tons of great music from that year. In a year that saw songs such as “Werewolves of London”, “Who Are You?”, “I Wanna Be Sedated”, as well as the debut albums of The Cars, The Police, and Kate Bush, what was the most popular?
Player "Baby Come Back"
Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive"
Andy Gibb "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water"
Bee Gees "Night Fever"
Yvonne Elliman "If I Can't Have You"
Wings "With a Little Luck"
Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late"
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John "You're the One That I Want"
Andy Gibb "Shadow Dancing"♪ (1978)
The Rolling Stones "Miss You"
Commodores "Three Times a Lady"
Frankie Valli "Grease"
A Taste of Honey "Boogie Oogie Oogie"
Exile "Kiss You All Over"
Nick Gilder "Hot Child in the City"
Anne Murray "You Needed Me"
Donna Summer "MacArthur Park"
Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"
Chic "Le Freak"