Well, if there's on thing I enjoy about the 80's in general, it's the atmospheric aesthetic to a lot of production back then. Sure everyone was using keyboards to the point of overdose, whether it was pop or New Age or AOR, but there's something oddly immersive about an era in music dominated by cocaine synthetics.
Today, the mainstream really has no idea what it wants to be, and while party-oriented, Top-40 stuff have gotten 10x more annoying than anything cut before 1999, music on the whole isn't any better or worse from year-to-year than it was in the past.
I think most people who really get into music though, regardless of genre, eventually find something from twenty or thirty years ago to get attached to. For me its always been progressive rock, certain breeds of metal, AOR and a lot of jazz or ambient leaning material. For someone else its Husker Du or Ultravox. For another person it might be The Church or the endlessly winding discography of Frank Zappa.
Point is, while this generation certainly doesn't necessarily appreciate or take the time to really soak in stuff like past generations might have, its not a lost cause.
