It's curious to me how 80's had "a sound", at least it seems to me it did.
The 70's did too.
I think that were you to hear a song you never heard before, you could quickly say it it's an 70's or 80's song.
Now, being as my music tastes were cast in stone during my formative years (with a brief digression in the 80's, but I got better), I can't say what the 90's sound is (grunge? "alternative"? I hope not).
But it's also remarkable to me some from those era's today is utterly unlistenable to me now. Mike and the Mechanics, for me, is an example. Too much 80's.
And I can watch Miami Vice episodes all day long.
My tastes are fairly narrow however.
Pink Floyd's '94 tour to support The Division Bell is probably the best concert I've ever seen. Just an extraordinary show. This is a group that knows how to put on a show that fills a stadium.
Queensryche's Operation Livecrime, the live rendition of the entirety of Operation Mindcrime recorded during their Empire tour is probably my favorite concert that I did not see live. It's not the show of the Pink Floyd concert, but the power and energy from that stage, especially from Geoff Tate, is remarkable. It just goes and goes and goes. Energizer *** Bunny.
Favorite "song" is unfair. 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence from Dream Theater is a 42m monster cut in to digestible pieces. But it's a great "song".
All that said, I once went to see a Journey cover band.
This was remarkable. First, it was $5 to get in (technically, $15, but that covered fair admission of $10). Every song they played I recognized. Including some "I didn't know they played this" songs. I don't own any Journey albums, never had. But it's pretty remarkable the penetration that they had on AOR radio over the years that the 10-20 songs this band played were all recognizable to me.
Also interesting was less than 10 miles away, the "real" Journey was playing also. Steve Perry wasn't touring with them either, but they had Neal Schon. So, anyway, at a minimum, they had a "cover singer" just like the band I saw did. What I saw sure sounded like "Journey" songs to me, and I'm pretty sure the folks at the other concert didn't pay $5 to see them. So, it just brought up the question of what folks are going to concerts to see.
Why such a fierce look on your face? 
