The '80s was the last time I was exposed to much current pop music. I don't listen to commercial radio by choice, but I did have a job for a number of years where a radio was on all the time. During the early to mid '80s the shop radio was always tuned to current pop stuff like Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Eurhythmics etc. But when the "classic rock" format began to take hold in the late 80s, the work crew opted for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd over the pop of that period, so I missed it. There are a lot of pop "stars" whose photos I've seen on the cover of People magazine in the grocery check-out lane, but whose music I've never heard.

That leaves me with rather ambivalent feelings about '80s music. It's recognizable, so there's a connection of sorts, but I never liked much of it. I'll sometimes hear a song from that era (David Dye occasionally plays one on NPR's "World Cafe") and think, "What the hell's he playing that crap for?", but I'll sometimes think, "Take out the synthesizer and the drum machine, and that's not a bad song." I never liked Men at Work, but I've enjoyed what I've heard of Colin Hay's solo work playing his old Men at Work songs. They seem to have more soul which, I guess, was a key ingredient missing in much '80s pop.