I listen primarily to Classical Music. For a variety of reasons, after World War II most newly composed Music has had trouble entering the canon of basic repertoire. Most of the energy of discovery or rediscovery has been on Composers that were outside the acknowledged Masters— first Late Romanticists such as Mahler and Bruckner, then with the Historical Informed Period Practice (HIPP) movement, Baroque and Pre Baroque composers. When I attend a Concert and a new contemporary piece is on the program, everyone in the audience seems to grit their teeth for the ordeal—faces remind me of being at the Dentist office in the pre Novacaine days—and then we relax and wait for the next Warhorse to begin.
The OP describes what to me seems an analogous situation. The great Pop Music of about a 30 year span has achieved canonical status. And while I am aware that new Pop Artists are always amongst us and selling out concerts and downloads, I think everyone here would agree that the scene doesn’t remotely resemble the halcyon days of yore. Classical Concerts resemble Audio Museums, and the Music Direct Catalog, which in these days of the extinction of stores that sell Physical Media represents an important source of such media, is the Pop equivalent of the Classical scene.
The OP describes what to me seems an analogous situation. The great Pop Music of about a 30 year span has achieved canonical status. And while I am aware that new Pop Artists are always amongst us and selling out concerts and downloads, I think everyone here would agree that the scene doesn’t remotely resemble the halcyon days of yore. Classical Concerts resemble Audio Museums, and the Music Direct Catalog, which in these days of the extinction of stores that sell Physical Media represents an important source of such media, is the Pop equivalent of the Classical scene.