Well, I'm starting to wonder about that. My evidence is only anecdotal, but I keep finding it everywhere. My step son (19) and his friends seem to spend far more time mining older music than listening to new stuff. They're more likely to sit around listening to Led Leppelin albums than anything current. If I walk into a music (instrument) store, I'm almost 100% sure to find some kid sitting there picking out Hotel California, and some other kid trying out an overdrive pedal by mashing out a bunch of AC/DC riffs. Hell, I've overheard groups of kids discussing the upcoming ABBA reunion. When I go to shows these days, the highest turnout of young people seems to be at things like Fleetwood Mac, Journey, Def Leppard. At the clubs, it seems like the best way to get people (of all ages) to hit the dance floor is by playing a 90s Prodigy track, or Blue Monday. The "kids" eat it up.
I love a lot of music, and I'll go see anything. I just went and saw Logic (with Kyle and NF), and I'll probably going to see Childish Gambino in a few weeks. But whenever I go to things like that, I don't see the same level of adoration from the kids. It's more like a casual fun time with the flavor of the week.
When you hear teenagers saying the opposite...asking why 20th century music was so much better, it's kind of odd. I suppose there's always been that segment of youth that tries to be cool, and seem cultured by digging into history. But these days it seems to be the norm, rather than the exception.
Just my random observation...
192 kbps? Are you kidding? I can tell the difference almost instantly, and I've proven it in blind tests over and over. Now, I'll admit, I'm only very slight better than pure chance at guessing 320 kbps, but even then, I know that if I ever accidentally load up an album in mp3 instead of FLAC, about 10 - 15 minutes into listening to it, I'll start to feel like something's not quite right about the sound, and I'll end up checking and realizing what happened. OGG at Q10 (variable bitrate that goes up to 640 kbps, averaging 500), I've never been able to discern, except once my ears caught a tiny artifact on something where the original source had tape hiss and a high pitched shaker in the percussion.
I find it's psychological. Whenever I've demonstrated the "impossible ability", I've always described what I heard as the dead-giveaway that I'm listening to an mp3. The other people around will suddenly hear it to and go "oh my god, I hear what you're talking about! How did I never notice that before?! It's awful!"
Ernest asks Frank how long he has been working for the company. "Ever since they threatened to fire me."