Thinking in terms of decades is unrealistic. It's just a convenient way of labelling an era.Things don't happen like that. The 60s, arguably, finished in 1967. One could argue, as a couple of people above have hinted, that, in pop music, the eighties finished in about '85. I would agree. However, as GfS says, it all depends what you listen to - in any era.
The 80s, however, are interesting for us, in that there was a generation of young people who did not get involved in folk song,, music or dance. They are, to all intents and purposes, a lost generation as far as Folk is concerned. One or two of them have commented on this forum, that they have discovered folk along the way, and wondered how they missed it before; from which it seems that it simply wasn't on their radar. Interesting question is: Why? Possible factors: it was the Yuppy generation; it was the 'rave' generation; and, possibly most significantly, it was the age of computer pop. The only period in the whole post-rock and roll era, in fact, when the guitar wasn't the main instrument of pop music. Fylde Guitars went bankrupt in the early 90s, because nobody was buying guitars. It was all electronic keyboards and drum machines. I suppose, then, that people playing 'natural' instruments was something alien to them.

Discuss -nicely!
John Kelly (Player of stuff tat doesn't have to be plugged in).