I take issue with your use of the word "now."
Mass production of bands is a fairly recent phenomenon that's only come about in the last maybe 40 years, and truly peaked in the 90s. There was once a time before thousands upon thousands of bands were being worked upon simultaneously by record companies all going through the same process of creating the same album through the exact same template with a different name and face. Even just twenty years ago, things were a little looser and artists were given a lot more creative freedom. Music has always been made to sell, but it used to be chosen based on more criteria than 'can we market this to casual music listeners aged 13 to 28'.
The face of popular music has definitely changed over the decades, and it's not because of rose tinted glasses, bad bands slipping through the cracks of time, and the need of the older generation to dislike what the kids are up to. While people who consume music grow older, the market itself doesn't change. Music is made to cater to a certain audience, and once you age past that, you're past it. So essentially, popular music has always been made for young people.
Compare the music for the young people of yesterday to the music for the young people today, and there's a clear difference in terms of recording and production. The quality of a song and the quality of the recording/production aren't mutually exclusive. Good songs are still being written all the time, but are often ruined by poor performances, rushed recording and illinformed production techniques. Yet, these songs cost millions of pounds.
Major record companies don't spend millions of pounds to ruin the production because they're stupid. They do it because those techniques provide an immediate 'hit' for the listener. These aren't neccessarily 'bad' producers, they're just a whole different breed of producer. While over time, it begins to sound horrible and grating, upon first listen it sticks far better than a more faithful/realistic recording of music. These same techniques are applied to countless records released all for the same purpose. The people involved aren't paid to record music. They're paid to record a disposable product, and that, they are very very good at. Why pay somebody to make something sound good, when you can get away with making a cheaper, more immediate, product?
Thirty years ago, that didn't matter. Recordings were still faithful and realistic. They were made to sell, sure, but weren't made to be disposable. Not in the same way I'm talking about.
Back when, it was about creating a product that would be good enough to be popular and sell by the thousands. Gradually, practices changed as companies realised that products didn't have to stand up to the test of time or sound good in order to generate a profit.
Popular music now is about selling people a product before they realise how poor the quality is.
So yes, popular music is disposable 'now'.
You use it, you're done with it, you throw it away. The aural equivalent of toilet paper.
