Well first of all, an era is not a genre, it's a period of history. In the case of music sometimes a particular musical style or genre is so prevalent that it is used to define a period of history, that is where we get phrases such as The big band era, which is probably the most common use of the term as it regards music. Eras are pretty much defined after we've moved past a particular period of history. No one was defining the 30's as the The Big Band Era until long after it's popularity had waned, and only because of the impact that it had on the culture at large, and because it reflected the zeitgeist of the emerging culture.
Also, there are too many diverse and different genres in the 21st century to really, at this point, designate this period of history as being defined by any one of them. Maybe we'll be able to look back at some point and see some common denominatorin music that defined this present historical period were in, but the sheer density of media that we're currently inundated with makes that highly unlikely.
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