Led Zep without Robert Plant??!!

There was the Magnificent Seven who dominated in the late 60's-early 70's period

Beatles, Doors, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Springsteen, The Who, & Led Zeppelin. -- not to mention the second and third tier stuff that is miles better than almost anything that's out now.

Besides them, the only other rock group that seems to fit in with the pantheon would be U2.

I believe the thing that has greatly hurt music has been the decline of the independent DJ (replaced by poll-driven playlists). Another cause was when the AM stations started coming over the FM side, crowding out FM's album-oriented format. But it may also just be that a lot of things just converged at the same time in the late 60's which allowed so much great music to emerge at the same time.

Originally posted by Mexico
Well in fairness Me chemical romance have the musical talent of particularly talentless bricks all things considered.
Check out Mogwai, best thing Glasgow has probably ever produced 😛........ Actually Scotland has produced a disproportionate volume of very good music in the last while......

Arab Strap, Mogwai, Boards of Canada, Aereogramme..... depends on your taste really I guess....

But how much popularity have any of the acts had?

The important thing for groups like Led Zeppelin is that they became popular. This allowed them to make a living at making their music and focus all their effort at producing all the stuff they did. And they have been a major influence for many other musicians during their time and since.

But what good is it to be able to make good music if it gets buried and no one besides a small few ever hear it?

Back in the 60's and 70's, there were radio stations that would play the good stuff and give it the exposure it needed. But radio stations today play little more than bland grocery-store music. But radio was just as profit-seeking back then as it is today. What changed? Why was it profitable to play good music back in 1969 but not profitable to play it in 2009?

Originally posted by Melanerpes
But how much popularity have any of the acts had?

Mogwai and Boards of Canada are popular and I'm sure they've sold at least a million records together. In any case they can very easily make a living from their music.