Yes.It was more "naive" and not so "serious" and even through the 80s and the "arena-rock"-era the artists were at least somehow free to a degree.It was not that "every single note" had to be polished by the producer.This changed somewhere in the mid-90s I guess.I already posted this youtube with Bob Rock and Kirk Hammett arguing about not playing lead guitar on the "St.Anger"-album.Things became so "serious" and "professionall" that almost nothing of inspiration left.It was also exactly the time when Gangsta-Rap and Techno/House gave (always in the name of "political correctness") good "handmade" music the rest.Drummers dissapeared completely from most recording studios,"modern producers" streamlined the songs in a way that mastering became more important than the recording itself.Listen to the masterings today.It is not even a problem when there is digital clipping.Main issue is "as loud,as violent as possible".Add to this that with youtube young people dont even listen to "the whole song" anymore but skip everything after max. 40-50 seconds.What will young people learn about music when they cant ecen enjoy a 2-minutes pinkfloyd-intro anymore;How to understand that "atmosphere" and "tension" is a huge part in music;Maybe this is the main reason why the quality of music is today lower than 20 years ago;
IMO we have huge problems in the way we see music today.And no..it is not just "the fault of internet" and that everything is going "faster and louder" but that it is not even ok to discuss this without to appear as "oldfashioned idiot" who did not accept the sign of the times.
Therefore you are very right.This will only change when the young musicians take rockmusic again very deep down into the "underground".There where it started.