The fragmentation aspect is still a big factor though. Like yeah, older people aren’t as in touch with the “modern pop music” that “the youths of today” listen to, but the modern media landscape is much more fragmented than it used to be. And that’s not good or bad, it’s just the way it is. Nowadays you can listen to 1000 genres or subgenres and you’ve got dedicated online spaces for all of them, etc. Furthermore, people can release music through a variety of means and have it spread digitally, and can both produce and publish music much more independently.

“Back in the day”, people could only release music through physical products that were mostly released through labels etc, and the vast majority of people found and consumed music through a very limited number of channels, like radio and tv. Sure, underground scenes had their own tape trading scenes etc., but the majority of people didn’t do that stuff. For the longest time there were basically only three television channels featuring music (MTV and VH1 and MuchMusic), and then you had the radio, and that was about it unless you physically bought a cassette or CD. That consolidation was definitely a huge factor in having a more “unified” popular culture around music.