I was born in the 70s, but was not old enough to remember them directly -- so I'll defer to your direct experience. Of course there wasn't zero access to media

I was born in the 70s, but was not old enough to remember them directly -- so I'll defer to your direct experience. Of course there wasn't zero access to media from other decades -- but I remember in the 80s and even 90s cultural access was very, very different. I could access an album from the 70s, but I'd have to go buy it. Or borrow it from a friend and give it back. I could see reruns on TV, but only certain TV shows and definitely not on-demand. (Or I'd have to go rent, which, again, limited access.) > I can hear a piece of music from 1965 to about 1980 that I'm not familiar with and pin it down to within a year or two just by its sound. Maybe it's possible to do that with music from the last 20 years, but I certainly can't do it. I also think some of what you're describing re musical trends is related to the above: Artists have a million outlets and tens of millions of tracks at their disposal to be influenced by, so the idea that there's a "sound of the year" as promoted by major labels and radio stations is just... gone. It's not like Justin Bieber songs are playing everywhere. He's a huge celebrity musician and I still would have to go out of my way to hear one of his songs. They just don't permeate my media sphere. Again, compared to the 90s when a hit song would be unavoidable. Anyway: I don't think it's the sole cause. I think labelling decades was also simply a branding and marketing trend that has fallen out of vogue, maybe due in part to the simple problem of what to call the "aughties." It's an interesting topic! I love the media environment today. God. When I was first tinkering with music in the 90s I would've killed for access to things like Spotify and SoundCloud. So amazing.