I think it's interesting that the 20th century saw a shift in attention from musical periods to music of particular generations. I do wonder though, if that is changing. Music is of course, still something teens latch on to as a way of defining themselves, but for non-teens, it certainly seems like people are freely selecting music from any and all generations and periods. In fact, a lot of new music seems to take that as a given, as styles are mixed and altered in any number of configurations. It almost seems like there is a desire to move beyond the concept of musical style. As to the question "is music representative or not?" well, I don't know. I certainly think that a lot can be inferred about the people who created that music, but inferences are not necessarily representations. I guess I'm not so clear on what is meant by "representative" in this context.