@Setanta,
As for The Beatles (and many other singers/groups like Bob Dylan, The Doors, Pink Floyd...) , I can clearly hear and feel huge difference between the scene then and now, in the complexity of emotions expressed through their music and degree of abstracion of their lyrics, which, I believe, helps a listener to sense the world from a different person's perspective and thus develops his skill of empathy. Now I hope that you agree, for Your own sake, that human communication and relationships ARE mainly an issue of people's emotional development and empathy, right?
I don't want to be labeled as an idealist. I know that, i.e., the Stones or Guns 'N Roses were singing of the same weed and blowjobs like Li'l Wayne and 50 Cent. After all, I like weed and sex too. But I think there is still a difference, when you practically produce a functioning advertisement of your "Lollypop" and when you describe to all your teenage fans how you felt during sex with "Sweet Child o' Yours." It's even educative on an emotional level. And this 'advertising culture' applies to Bieber and Lennon aswell. The way I see it, Bieber's songs and music videos have a form of an advertisement of his (seemingly) sweet personality, but on the level of a personal statement of an inner world, they are perfectly empty.
As for the marriage-in-the-history part, surely on one hand You have rulers who might have afforded to act individually (as it is normal today in the western world) and in a rather cold-blooded way in order to preserve their house (Henry the Tudor), wealth (Rothschilds etc.) and social status (all the European nobility), but on the other hand, ordinary people couldn't afford to have disputes amongst each other, because without functioning social welfare system, they were reliant on their affiliation to their group in order to survive. IMHO they had to struggle for emotional bounds with each other. They had to communicate.