Music exists in time, as it is performed. The phenomenon of recording musical performances and replaying them later is therefore rather an oddity, to which we have become accustomed since the marketing of thephonograph and the home wireless set.
As a child I felt that listening to old recordings, particularly of the human voice, was something creepy, akin to calling up the dead! We are lucky to be able hear something of the art of such singers as Patti, Sembrich, Sobinov and Moreschi - thus gaining insight to develop our own readings of our own repertoire. Listening to recorded performances can also give us delight and inspire wonder, of course!
Recorded music has become almost omnipresent though, with the polished perfection of studio recordings sometimes leading to false expectations for live performance. A popular recording often has a much longer life than the same performance would have had live, thus prolonging the life of certain styles and mannerisms. If you have no access to new recordings, you will keep listening to your old ones. Maybe this is part of the reason for the longevity of certain styles, such as the plummy English treble sound, surely prolonged by the popularity of the Ernest Lough Hear My Prayer recording, broadcast as a Family Favourite for many decades after its 1927 release.