80s was a bad decade for music. Not to say there were no good bands/songs... but it was a decade where the corporate labels were fiercely in charge.
They demanded quick albums and absurd tour contracts where some bands played over 80 concerts in one year.
The labels simply wrung out the talent.
Van Halen, again, is a great example. Van Halen I and II were amazing albums. Ground breaking music that formed and inspired a decade of musicians. But after that they just started cranking out bubble gum songs like Hot for Teacher, Girls Girls Girls, Jump etc. Extremely simple, catchy songs that took 5 minutes to write. Compare that to the hard hitting complexity of Beautiful Girls or I'm the One... pheh... two different bands.
