What did people think of the mid-'80s in the late '80s, for example? When did various styles/trends/musical forms become dated in the '80s, through the decade?

I remember parachute pants were big somewhere around 1984, but were out of style a couple years later, only to be replaced by M.C. Hammer pants (forget what they were called) and, in my neck of the woods, Z. Cavaricci baggy pants.

What did people think of the mid-'80s in the late '80s, for example? When did various styles/trends/musical forms become dated in the '80s, through the decade?


That is hard to say, because so many things changed through that decade.

In reguards to music, the decade opened with the end of the Disco era.  You had a brief run of American bands with a pop-rock sound (Steve Miller Band, Alan Parson's Project), who where then swept away by New Wave.

You also had the New York punk sound.  Blondie, Talking Heads, New York Dolls, etc.  Add to that the Heavy Metal music.  And by the end of the decade, you had the increasing popularity of Rap and the beginnings of the Grunge sound of the 1990's.

That decade probably had the most changes in music then any decade in history.  It was like every year you had a totally new form of music come out.  And the trends were often random.  In the middle of it, you had several smaller music fads like Insturmentals, Retro rockabilly, medleys, and others.