IMO, the early 80's started the trend which pointed out that most of the music is in the midrange.. The response, was an effort to clean up and boost the clarity, They would cut the bass response. And they cut it too much IMO. Yes, the music was clean and maybe even accurate. But it was DEAD. It had no life. It laid flat. At least in the R&R genre.
I suspect the R&R’ers may have heard it before the majority because bass is nearly impossible to do without a GOOD bass line and drums (rythem section) Then too, It took some time after that bass reduction beforet a solution was offered. It was a sub woofer. Now you can have the bass back...but ya gotta pay!
At the time in the 80's I believed it was a cost cutting measure since Bass costs more to reproduce. So the clean mids fit the audiophile desire , while the sub was a winner to the marketers. because It equaled extra $$$. The speakers didn’t go down in price. Instead, they went up in price and were sold as “clean & accurate sound ” in the same manner that lack of chrome on cars in the later 60's, was sold as “Streamlining” Its just modern marketing. Creating new markets.