perhaps its due to the your own personal taste. by that i mean that it's not quite the same music that you've grown accustomed to as you were growing up. personally, i like the way music evolves with every generation, may it be due to the listeners or the musicians themselves. there's an entire pallet of sounds in the world that could be used for music and it would be unfortunate if we would keep reusing the same old sounds and ignore the other ones, just because we're not used to them. also, we can't really start a musical revolution and prevent people from making "bad" music, nor can we deprive people of music they choose to listen to. and yes, there are people out there who enjoy mainstream music. that's why it's referred to as "mainstream", because of its popularity with the public.
also, i find it hard to define "bad music". what is it that actually makes it people cringe when they listen to it? does it really matter if other people don't like it? i am one of those who write songs for myself and not for anyone else. if any of you listen to my stuff, you'll most probably flame it or just plain ignore it, but that doesn't bother me at all. i find it unusual that people try to "adapt" themselves to whatever it is that others enjoy. again, i write songs for me and for no one else. if i play in a bar somewhere and for some reason i decide to play my originals, i wouldn't care if people boo me or praise me. i don't even care if people listen or not. i'm just happy about the fact that i was given the chance to express myself onstage. the song could be bad, but it allowed me to capture whatever it was that i was feeling at the time i wrote it. it's almost therapeutic for me. if someone approaches me after my set and gives me their opinions about the songs, may it be positive or not, i would find it a compliment still that they actually gave me a few moments of their time. i know some people think that you're not an artist unless you have an audience, but i don't claim to be that either. i'm just someone who happens to have some time to craft some songs. when i write a song, i don't say to myself "this has got to sound this way..they'll absolutely love it". the thought that others would get to listen to my songs one day doesn't even cross my mind.
at the end of the day, it's up to us to choose the music we want to listen to. if you find some types of music cringe-worthy, just don't listen to it. i'm sure other people enjoy that type of music and it's not up to us to choose what others should listen to as well. after all, we don't like being force-fed ourselves.