For someone taking music at college you clearly have no grasp of the terminology yourself. A good beat and Lyrics do not make a good song at all.
Many dance tracks have no lyrics, and neither do any classical music from past Musical Era's. A poem can have great lyrics but has no music to it at all, meaning no beat. What your doing is confusing a good hip-hop song which is about beats and lyrics, with every other musical genre.
For instance a decent rock song would be based on good guitar riffs that go well together, as well as lyrics. jazz music is all about blending, considering a lot of jazz is just completely ad lib.
Also, thinking a particular Genre is ****, isn't anything to do with having an ear for music, its down to personal preference. I hate Emo music, but that doesn't mean the music is entirely ****, becuase someone else will like it, and enjoy it so much they will have a good slash-fest to it. Just like hip-hop tunes inspire idiots to steal cars and whatnot.
Now as someone doing music on college, you surely know that beat is just a measure of music, as in timesignatures (4/4, 3/4, 5/8) etc, and these have absolutely no bearing on how good a song is, just the amount of notes in each bar.
Don't believe me? Ask your music teacher, or read up on subject material before you go trying to use it. He'll I did Music at GCSE level and got an 'E' grade because I detested the theory and the fact they would only accept classical music compositions, which was ****ing outstanding for someone like me who played the drums. But even with my 'E' grade I still new what "beat" meant.