"Youth culture doesn't look backwards for its inspiration but believes it is living with the very latest that music can offer; and apart from a short period in the sixties, when music seemed to be driven by genuine musicians, young people buy into the crap sold to them buy businessmen."

I really disagree with this statement; even in the 1980's kids were looking at 1940's Swing, 1950's Rockabilly and 1960's Ska/ Soul and that wasn't something that was served up to them, it was something they were doing for themselves and which the media later caught onto.

What about the rise of groups like The Pogues and The Men They Couldn't Hang, The Levellers (a bit later)?

Even today, I know a number of young people who are listening to 1980's music and letting it shape their own music.