The decade has a bad reputation; I personally find it difficult see past hair bands playing pointless power ballads with vapid lyrics, or how Joe Piscopo was considered sexy, or how at Live Aid, Phil Collins played in London, jumped the Concorde, then played in Philadelphia… and people cheered! People cheered because Phil Collins played music. You can’t tell me that wasn’t just a messed up decade. But fixating on 80s pop culture’s ludicrousness only prevents us from appreciating some truly great music. The punk scene of the 70s evolved into alternative in the US (The Replacements, Violent Femmes, and They Might Be Giants) and ska revival (Two Tone) in the UK (Dexys Midnight Runners, Madness, UB40, and The Jam.)

In a turn of events unseen since the 60s, music scenes in cities betwixt New York and L.A. actually gained national attention. Sure, new wave and alternative sprung up in New York and CBGB’s, but it also found roots in Atlanta (R.E.M.,) Minneapolis (The Replacements and Hüsker Dü,) and anyplace else with a college campus. With America becoming increasingly conservative, alternative retained punk’s anti-establishment and independent nature, but it also reincorporated pop sensibilities of 60s bands.

Two Tone blended ska, punk, reggae, and soul into a whole new sound in 80s England, resulting in bands like UB40, Madness, The Specials, and others. Much like alternative in these United States, social problems like poverty and drug use, conservatism, and Thatcherism spawned the working-class feel and rebellious lyrics of Two Tone. The Jam exemplify ska revival, starting as punks--technically mods playing R&B really fast--in the late 70s, they were The Kinks to The Clash’s Rutles, then they incorporated horns and reggae into their sound, and became ska. It’s that easy.

So yes, the 80s seem to be the cultural low point of the United States and the worst decade in our history, but remember, they were like the Italian Renaissance compared to the 1840s.