When I was in middle school (junior high it was called then) and listened to people like Peter, Paul and Mary, The Dave Clark Five, Chad and Jeremy, or Peter and Gordon, my dad, who would have been in his mid-late forties, and who introduced me to loads of big band, classical, Broadway show, and jazz players, came home and said, "I just ordered a record I think you will like by a duet called, of all things, Simon and Garfunkel." The were wonderful and I was hooked, as was he. When my daughter, now in her twenties, was in her early teens, she discovered them for herself, and was thrilled, and when she started telling me about them and playing her new CDs, she was astonished that I knew all the lyrics to every song.
Enjoyment of a particular genre of music is, I think, more about what we have learned and what we have shared, and the gap in appreciation of a specific type may well be less about generation than about social circle. When all my daughter's friends were listening to Top 40 on the radio, she did too, but she also heard traditional, classic, reggae, "oldies" (a term that always sounds a little silly applied to the music of the 60s and 70s, to people who love music from earlier centuries) and an eclectic variety as well. Most of the music she enjoys is older than she is. She did realize that when she heard a Top 40 group live it was a big show, major social event, costly, and shared with thousands, almost none of whom would ever meet the musicians personally, and when she went to hear a traditional singer, she was likely to get a seat at the front table and hear from the stage, "Hi, how's the softball team, what would you like to hear?" Her CD case is now full of Simon & Garfunkel, OutKast, Bob Marley, Gordon Bok, Buddy Holly, Pink Floyd, Blues Traveler, Tommy Makem, and the Philadelphia Philharmonic.