Bruce Almighty said:

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I'd rank the 80s behind the 60s, 70s and 90s.

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behind the 60s and 70s for sure. I prefer the 80s over the 90s although there are plenty of 90s I do like.

It is partially age dependent I am sure. I turned 14 in 1980. MTV debuted before my 15th birthday. I was in that 80-89 wheelhouse through all of HS and college.

One thing people might forget about the 80s is it followed the late 70s and the disco era. As bad as any hair metal was it was so much better than the disco era. If you lived through that you were thankful for hair metal and MTV. Also despite there being plenty of great rock in the 70s lite rock or yacht rock had also permeated music and hard rock was less prevalent you had to search out AOR stations.

Grunge may have saved us from hair bands, but punk rock killed disco and hair bands filled the vacuum.

Aust Ag said:

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When I was a kid, I thought Hank W. was like 50 when he died. But he was only 29.

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Old people never change their style. Old women still wear the same glasses and hair that they did when they were in high school. Old people clothes are just old clothes, so old people still dressed like Hank Williams in the 1980's. Old people suits look like Glengarry Glen Ross now.

That said, Hank Williams probably had the liver of a 75 year old.

MW03 said:

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In my head I had assumed Benedict was 50 or so.

TIL Jason Alexander was ~30 when Seinfeld premiered.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Bruce Almighty said:

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I'd rank the 80s behind the 60s, 70s and 90s.

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behind the 60s and 70s for sure. I prefer the 80s over the 90s although there are plenty of 90s I do like.

It is partially age dependent I am sure. I turned 14 in 1980. MTV debuted before my 15th birthday. I was in that 80-89 wheelhouse through all of HS and college.

One thing people might forget about the 80s is it followed the late 70s and the disco era. As bad as any hair metal was it was so much better than the disco era. If you lived through that you were thankful for hair metal and MTV. Also despite there being plenty of great rock in the 70s lite rock or yacht rock had also permeated music and hard rock was less prevalent you had to search out AOR stations.

Grunge may have saved us from hair bands, but punk rock killed disco and hair bands filled the vacuum.

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The thing that kills me about the 80's is the production techniques used that just sound so dated now. The biggest offender is the use of gated reverb on drums, more specifically the snare drum. Also, they used every modulation effect imaginable on the guitars. I don't mind a bit of delay, especially on lead lines, but everything from then went overboard.