The 80's were definitely an odd decade, but it was an awesome time for music. If I were going to single out a 10 year run, I think I would go with 78-88 as the most productive time in music. There were a lot of different genres that were crisscrossing the pop charts. More importantly, record sales made artists money. You still had major, iconic bands from the 60's and 70's doing studio work and getting air time on AOR stations like WNEW. You could turn the dial on the car radio (yeah that's how us old folds used to do it) and hear new music from Metalica, the Ramones, the Police, U2, Michael Jackson, Tom Petty, the Who, the Stones. It was the decade that brought us both hair bands and break dancing.
For those of you who didn't live through the 80's and don't respect the music from that time I would recommend that you pick up a few albums and listen to them start to finish: Back in Black, Look Sharp, Thriller, Raising Hell, Born in the USA, Pyromania, and the Joshua Tree. If you cant find something you like in that mix, than you probably don't really like music.
