I think you are both right, Mick on the technical side and Cyan on the general vacant "stuff my pockets full of coin" happy horseshit. All of the pop culture stuff in the 80s felt and displayed the influence of money, rock'n'roll, movies, sports, television...and from my perspective, boy, did it get ugly.

Try to imagine this song being recorded in the early 80s...

Instead of having all the levels of boozy menace and sexuality the song oozes it would be totally fucked up by having some horrible sounding 80s keyboard/synth kick in at the break at about 2:40 into the song. Plus the warmth of all those vintage instruments and tubes would be replaced by some harsh, plastic, digital wank. I picked that Doors song for a few reasons but most of all because I think all the elements of a rock song are present that would get totally fucked up by the "sound" of the 80s recording process.

Now since Robert Palmer and Power Station are already on the table, listen to this song and tell me there is not something about it that sounds harsh to the point that it literally almost hurts to listen to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pQJvinmsiI

and to again use Palmer as an example, listen to this song from 1976 (try not to focus on the babes in bathing suits):

Followed by this disaster from 1980:

Basically, how do you transition from all of the warmth of that 70s sound to the annoying sound you get on that record in 1980? I mean I know some of it is these musicians just fooling around with the new technology and the idea that people like to hear something new and different but wow is it bad.

I feel like that Doors song grabs you by the throat because everything sounds exactly as it should and it sounds human. I mean you hear LA Woman and its real, it's a fucking fistfight in an alley, sex with a dark haired woman you just met in a bar...and you know, the 80s sound is a skinny moron in a pastel colored shirt dancing around and poking you in the arm singing "nah, nah, nanny, nah, nah" and instead of the woman in the bar it's sitting at home and playing with your Atari joystick. Where is the fucking humanity in that?