I grew up in the 60s, listened to the most popular Beach Boy tunes on the radio, and never bought one of their records. In the 1980s, I heard Carl Wilson's song "Heaven", from one of his two solo LPs, on the radio and purchased both of his LPs as a result. Still had never bought a Beach Boys record. All the reviews I can remember said their later stuff was inferior.
When I read an essay in Peter Bagge's "Hate" comic on late-period Beach Boys, I decided to dip into their catalog, purely to get more Carl. So within the last 5 years I ended up buying ALL of the Beach Boys CDs, and there is some great stuff on all of them. I can say this pretty much without the rose-colored glasses of youth.
And regarding that "wayback machine", recorded music has been around since, what, the 1930s? To focus on only the latest music, as if that is somehow superior, is cutting off your nose to spite your taste.