I think we select music from a particular era because it appeals to our view of the world, and we tend to filter out music that doesn't. Then we project that gestalt back onto the world, so that we don't see the music in terms of the world ("era") but the world in terms of the music ("identity"). Probably every generation does this. An early example from literature (about literature) is Don Quixote, whose title character reads too many books about knights and damsels, and eventually believes he's living in that world.