Well, besides mellowing though, there’s a lot more “slickness” I guess I’ll call it, and softness to the music of the 80’s that just wasn’t there in the 70’s. That goes for new and established acts alike.
Also, one thing you’ll hear in interviews of 70’s bands is how they were mostly allowed to do their own thing. In the 80’s record companies took a more hands on approach to try and milk their bands for all the money they could.
Specifically the 80’s had big hair and mullets. In the 90’s big hair died down and mullets became mocked for some reason. The only trend I remember not liking in the 90’s was rattails. And I usually only saw them on 8 to 10 year old boys.
Alt vs Grunge: People listening to the music knew the score. People who merely HEARD it will think the two terms are synonymous. And the Grunge Look (ratty hair, torn jeans, shirts out, etc…) was everywhere, it seemed.
IMHO, a sitcom that typified the 80s, or what the 80s wanted to be, was the Cosby Show. Black family Brady Bunch (minus certain details). Everybody was smart, cool, successful, pretty, well dressed, etc… Thursday was Sitcom night. NBC was the Thursday night sitcom champ for quite a while (even into the 90s with Seinfeld and others). Four 30 minute sitcoms, and then a one hour drama is how I remember it.
VCRs and video clubs were also a big thing in my version of the 80s. Remember having to pay membership dues for the privilege of renting Beverly Hills Cop?
The 80’s as I recall: Max Headroom and Michael Jackson… promoting soft drinks.
80’s the decade where pop music destroyed the term metal…replacing it with butt rock e.g. Whitesnake and EnufzEnuf
90’s the decade where pop music destroyed the term alt rock…replacing it with golf rock e.g. Hootie and the blowfish or the Wallflowers
Grunge is just a subgenre of alternative rock. Alt rock is a useless term anymore.
I think the early 80’s was a glorious time for music, purely because MTV was desperate for videos so several forms of music that would never have been nationally played otherwise got broad exposure.
Max only sparked though, no open flames.
As expressed by Time as the Man of The Year.
It should be noted that the “IBM PC” was introduced in the 80’s the “personal computer” had been around, but not as popular or within reach for most of the 70’s
I think Time decided it had come of age by 1983, and crossed over from hobby/geek to business/family use. By today’s standards, it seems incredibly early to call it a household item.
The thing about “grunge” is that it brought alternative music to the forefront. Prior to that, it was only played on more college radio stations. Now all of sudden, everyone was listening to alternative.
And Pearl Jam and the Chili Peppers were two of my favorite bands when I was in high school. Yes, I also listened to pop crap, so did everyone else. But when people say “grunge”, basically it was really alternative music in general that became really popular. (Besides, most of us were still taping all of our favorite songs off of the radio back then)
1980’s
[ul]
[li]Home PCs took off.[/li][li]The CD was introduced to the public.[/li][li]Boomboxes were popular.[/li][li]We had parachute pants, muscle pants, and women wore leg warmers.[/li][li]Here in America, “Latchkey kids” and “Yuppies” were common terms.[/li][li]Being a melting pot as encouraged and celebrated.[/li][/ul]
1990’s
[ul]
[li]The Internet took off.[/li][li]The DVD was introduced.[/li][li]Boomboxes were still around.[/li][li]Cell phones took off.[/li][li]Cultural diversity was encouraged and celebrated.[/li][/ul]
Materialism unbounded, & style over substance.
But such style!
You’re entirely right. Practically any decade back to the '60s was a better time to be young.
But, at least you grew up with more and better computer games than any generation before! 
Despite all that, the '90s were actually pretty optimistic and celebratory, much more so than the '80s. The Cold War had ended with America triumphant, it looked like world peace might be at hand at long last, and the American economy was booming.
Now THAT is what I think of when people talk about “hair bands”: Poison, Ratt, Quiet Riot, Warrant, Winger, Nelson, Skid Row, etc. And remember the “power ballad”?
Blake, I can think of a number of grunge bands beyond Pearl Jam and Nirvana, that I and some of my friends listened to: Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, L7, Hole, Candlebox and Soundgarden.
And “grunge” wasn’t just music – more people were going around wearing flannel shirts (I used to steal my dad’s) and holey jeans, and Doc Martens.
(And I think rat tails were an 80s thing, IIRC. My cousin had one when we were kids.)
80s? The final struggle against apartheid. And Depeche Mode.
90s? Learning to be a democracy. And Pearl Jam.
If you’re talking about music in the 80s, you have to talk about MTV. I could be wrong, but it seems like they drove the massive influx of synth-pop in rock music. Pat Benatar went from “Heartbreaker” to “Love is a Battlefield,” and Van Halen from “Jamie’s Crying” to “Jump.” Every band seemed to be looking for a way to integrate the synthesizer and a dance beat into their music, even if they were just dancing in the dark.
Also, Blake is right about sitcoms in the 90s. There were plenty of them in the 80s, but aside from Cheers, no one admitted liking them. Television was still something you did because you had nothing else to do, for the most part.
for me, i didn’t live in the 80s… but since i’m a finance guy, definitely a cut throat business culture highlighted by corporate raiders and fat-cat mortgage brokers like in liar’s poker… “trading on the spread” pretty much sums it up
the 90s to me: good music, happy times, a renaissance in terms of education and technology, liberal times highlighted by clinton, the last decade of the USA being a model society, temporary loss of racism (after 94) which has returned, peace (in general)… to sum it up, loving life and everyone else
Great points, you really nailed it. I’m 40 and this is exactly how I remember things.
What universe are you from? The wealthy are despised in America and the Religious Right peaked in the '80s and early '90s-whatever their rhetoric the Bush Administration failed to enact any socially conservative policy, gay marriage has been legalized in several states, DADT has been repealed, and more Americans are irreligious than ever before.
Anyways the '80s to me are a rather gritty and cynical decade with sky-rocketing crime and drugs, bizarre fads, heavy-metal music, threats of nuclear war and yuppies.
The '90s on the other hand is to me a sort of “breathing space” between the Cold War and the War on Terror-a new “Gay Nineties”.