I see your point but I think what hurts his generation of music is the illegal downloading and just state of the record business. Now I will base this on NY and the USA. In the 60's and 70's when an act was big and had there heyday they became heritage acts. In NY they played smaller theaters (2,000-3,000). They even came out with new music. Granted the music never made it on the radio but at these shows they sold there music (cassette) and made a s**t load of money. The album never charted because it wasn't released the old way. So they were getting $10-$15 for new music plus the show and they did this throughout the USA. So while I laughed at my dad for seeing some "has been" it was still paying for the artist. With downloading and the industry not changing with the times our artist....rock....its harder to make a living.
So if things don't change and there is no help from radio you are right its a small niche