I agree. But I'm not sure what the solution is, or whether it's even a "problem" in the first place. Good music is timeless. People still listen to classical from hundreds of years ago, to jazz from half a century ago, and classic rock from 30 or 40 years ago. But that's because it's still around. We had parents, older siblings, and friends' older siblings when we were growing up, and we heard the music, so it's in us. They say that the music you heard when you were growing up will always be your favorite, no matter what comes after.
I agree that SNL has sucked 90% of the time the last 20 years, but they don't even show the originals in reruns anymore. When's the last time you saw the original Not Ready for Primetime Players? Ackroyd and Murray. John Belushi. If all you've ever seen is stuff from the last 20 years, that's all you can pick from. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fair segment of the population that think Mike Meyers was an "original" cast member, just because he was funny and was on when they were kids.
The situation with MP games is a little different, but maybe not such a mystery. Unlike TV (and music, kinda), games aren't free, and if you're laying out your own hard-earned money on a game, you probably aren't going to take a chance on a game from a few years ago, even if you've heard some good things about it. Not when all your friends are raving about the latest Halo or Doom or Final Fantasy or whatever. (I have no idea if any of those games are any good or are good examples, because I've never played any of them. I just seem to hear about them a lot.) They're pushing you to shell out $50 for it so you can all play, and they already have their copies. Or can you pay $40 for Diablo II (which still owns them all IMO) but you'll be the only one playing it.