Y’all know me, I think a large part of the “music’s barely changed since the 60’s, and they sure don’t make it like they used to!” is Baby Boomer entitlement and cultural fascism… but I have to say, I disagree with the point that there hasn’t been such a seismic shift since as there was then. While it’s true that a lot of the canonical punk bands (that is, the bands like the Ramones and the Clash whose entire careers were on major labels) had a back-to-basics approach (at least superficially, or at least at first), the punk explosion as a whole had just as much impact as the dino-rock explosion in the '60s did. For every band like the Ramones or Sex Pistols who looked back to old-school bubblegum pop and garage rock for their inspiration, there were many more forward-thinking punks slightly more under the radar whose contributions to the movement would have reverberations throughout the next decades - the “new wave” style as it came to exist in the mainstream '80s (no nitpicking about what “new wave” meant to British punk in the '70s, please) has its roots there, as does the “alternative” style that dominated the '90s. The movements that would later be called “punk” changed a lot of fundamental assumptions about music, art and performance (not to mention the production and distribution of said art) that we still feel the aftershocks of today.
All good - but punk broke in the 70’s, so that is still 40+ years ago.
Boyo Jim - not sure what to say; I referred to music being a central focus on the generation gap back in the 60’s and 70’s - not sure how there can be a gap if there isn’t “repudiation” on both sides - parents don’t understand what their kids are listening to (and it scares them); kids reject what their parents listen to and focus on “dangerous” music (which excites them). QED.