My sense is music in those eras was more a shared experience, we all knew the popular songs, they were a soundtrack to our lives. We had limited sources for listening to music, and those sources tended to play the same songs and artists.
As music and the music business has evolved we have ever increasing genres and sources to hear those multiplying genres. Certainly, popular forms of music still exist, but even those have diverged from each other. And then we have a huge amount of more obscure music to choose from, and the means to hear this music via streaming. I could argue today is the golden age of music.
Still, I understand the sense of loss of the shared soundtrack of our lives. Music was reflective of the greater cohesiveness of the general society, now we can easily have entirely unique playlists/soundtracks to our lives.
As music and the music business has evolved we have ever increasing genres and sources to hear those multiplying genres. Certainly, popular forms of music still exist, but even those have diverged from each other. And then we have a huge amount of more obscure music to choose from, and the means to hear this music via streaming. I could argue today is the golden age of music.
Still, I understand the sense of loss of the shared soundtrack of our lives. Music was reflective of the greater cohesiveness of the general society, now we can easily have entirely unique playlists/soundtracks to our lives.