Lou Reed is something like a personal favorite of mine, but you could always put me into that drawer of singers who can`t really sing, who speak their songs.
If you want to be negative about the whole thing you can say all guitar bands after the Beatles were just a waste of time because the Beatles were the best. I think it`s far better to give new records a try.
I`m not sure if you can blame everything on the American way of life, but the United States are big. So, if you have a lot of people there, the percentage of stupid people is bound to be higher.