Was 80's music really crap?

You hear it over and over again: people making fun of music in the 80's. They call it crap and say 'What the hell were we thinking back then?' It even seems to be trendy to say it. But is it true?

As a big Prince fan, whose work in the 80's I find the best (as many other Prince fans), I don't agree wholeheartedly, of course. His work is the inspiration of so many other musicians. Famous jazz musicians, like Miles Davis and Maceo Parker, agree that they find his music about the best music they know. But it's not just Prince. What about say the Eurythmics and the Simple Minds? Can anyone really say that their music was crap? I loved their music, and still do. And although I'm not a fan of U2, R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen, the Talking Heads, The Pixies or Joy Division, who also became big in the 80's, I wouldn't call their music crap.

Of course, there was crap in the 80's. Michael Jackson and his siblings, Madonna, Mel and Kim, Sabrina, Paula Abdul, Spandau Ballet, Modern Talking, and many more that I have forgotten because I couldn't care less about them (why do I still remember so many of them?). But we now have crap music as well. Britney Spears anyone? Do you really like Eminem for his music, not for his bad mouth? We have tons of RnB music on the TV - some of it is actually good, but most of it just thrives on RnB's popularity. In Belgium and another big part of Europe we have countless groups who make diluted trance music, with a sexy singer in a videoclip because that still sells.

Well, maybe the people who complain about the 80's music, actually loved that music back then, later realized their mistake by growing up, and now overreact by spitting on the whole decade. I however, actually have fond memories of the 80's.