Music in Context

Some people argue that a song cannot be fully appreciated unless you know the historical and social context of it.  I've noticed that when I talk to people of different generations about music, they tend to assume that I wont understand the music they grew up with.  They assume that, since I didn't live through it, I can't fully appreciate it.   But I don't believe that I should have to research the historical context of the song, or read an autobiography of the musician to understand the song.  Call me lazy, but I don't think the audience should have to do homework just to be able to appreciate a song.  A great song is one that resonates to people of all generations.  One that addresses general themes of life that never become irrelevant.  In Clive Bell's essay, "Art", he says "The ideas of men go buzz and die like gnats; men change their institutions and their customs as they change theirs coats; the intellectual triumphs of one age are the follies of another; only great art remains stable and unobscure.  Great art remains stable and unobscure because the feelings that it awakens are independent of time and place, because its kingdom is not of this world."  This can be applied to music as well, especially if you consider music to be art.  It is something that transcends circumstance.  It shouldn't matter what the musician was going through in his or her life when he/she wrote the song.  It shouldn't matter what the political conditions of the world were.  It should only matter how the song moves people regardless of when they were born and how much they know.