I've heard plenty of songs that have a great hook or melody, but was destroyed by someone that wanted it to sound 'gross'. I was listening to Soundgarden's 1996 release superunknown and was kinda blown away by how well that record was recorded. Not over the top loud, just well recorded. Daft Punk's last record was also very well done. I own both on vinyl. Some of the more mainstream stuff, not so much. I still like rock music, but after so many years of playing it, it all starts sounding like a formula, and that's a turn off for me.
I don't claim to be an audiphile by any stretch of the imagination, but I know what I like and what I don't. We run C-QUAM stereo on shortwave because we care about quality, and whatever vehicle to carry a great song to someone's ears is worth trying. I've received some airchecks over the years that have sounded very nice, even in mono. I left SSB because it was too difficult for people to get the tuning right, and its hard to enjoy a song if the intonation isn't correct.
I still refuse to accept the notion that AM has to sound like crap. If our stations sounds bad, you either need better propagation, or a better radio. Thanks to SDR's, that is becoming a smaller and smaller problem.
+-RH