Was Music Really Better in the ’80s And ’90s?

Or is this a simple case of nostalgia?

Photo by The National Library of Norway on Unsplash

Introduction: Nostalgia, Rosy Retrospection, and Declinism

I often listen to relatively old artists like ABBA, Tears for Fears, Guns N’ Roses, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Duran Duran, Alphaville, Pearl Jam, David Bowie, Queen, Bon Jovi, and 4 Non Blondes. And under any of their songs, invariably, are comments declaring the decade to which they belonged as having been the best one for music.

And eventually, I became curious: was music really better in the ’80s and ’90s?

To answer that question, one must first grasp three concepts:

• Nostalgia: A sentimental, bittersweet feeling regarding a past moment or period. When one is nostalgic for the 1980s, one wants to return to the 1980s.
• Rosy Retrospection: A cognitive bias whereby one remembers the past as being better than it really was. While nostalgia and rosy retrospection might occur in concert, they are distinct. One might be nostalgic for the ’80s despite its drawbacks, whereas in the case of rosy retrospection, those drawbacks will not be remembered in the first place.
• Declinism: Another cognitive bias whereby the past is viewed in an overly positive light and the…