Here is the big difference that I see.
The vast majority of our hymns in the hymnbook (that we use) were written in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Ancient according to some people's standards. As I glanced through the authors of the hymns and the composers of the music, and the names I saw were mostly Godly men and women whom I still recognize today: Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby, Handel, Philip Bliss, Horatio Spafford, John Newton, etc. Some men were great preachers. Some were mature Christians, gifted with a talent writing from their heart. Some wrote of out great tragic experience when God spoke to their heart in time of distress. Some wrote directly of the attributes and praise of God and were even theological in nature. In fact many were.
Fanny Crosby was blind, but gifted. A great number of hymns come from her.
Charles Wesley complained to his father. His father challenged him that if he didn't like the music of the 18th century than to write his own hymns. He was a musician and so he did.
Horatio Spafford wrote only one hymn in his life. His daughters had perished when a ship sank at sea. This is after he lost his business in NY, and also suffered loss in the great Chicago fire. He wrote: "It is Well With My Soul."
John Newton, a slave trader, came to Christ, and wrote: "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me."
Handel wrote a number of hymns: the greatest being Handel's Messiah.
The list goes on and on.
The music we listen to today sometimes has good words, but the music is a cheap imitation of the world. Since the world has rock Christianity has rock. Don't tell me that the world had Handel's Messiah, or even music like "It is Well With My Soul." They didn't.
Today's CCM is a best seller. You can find it in any secular music store. The testimony of many unsaved people is that they buy it for the music and don't care about the words. Why? The music is a cheap imitation of the world. It wasn't so in previous generations. And that is the difference.
