Rubbish, there was loads of exposure to non-chart music. For one thing there were more music programs on the TV, from Chart Show and White Room to The Word... now we seem to only have Jools Holland. Radio was always as hard, but the best stations now are all on DAB but most people still just have FM.
And I do agree with Bandcamp, GrooveShark, SoundCloud, Pandora... but the vast majority of their users are us old farts who already had the bug for music. What I'm talking about is giving this bug to new people... and that means getting this in the mainstream.
I was talking about the 1980s, I forgot you're still a baby...
#kidsdontknowtheyrebornthesedays