my dad was born in the late 50s, so he spent most of the 80s in his 20s. and, while he may have preferred to listen to prog, it largely ceased to exist after about 1977 - which was about when he turned 20, and also about when hair metal started.

he liked technical music. for a while, hair metal was the closest thing to it that he could find.

he was constantly on the brink of bad taste. of the two of us, he would have been far more likely to enjoy a guns 'n' roses or even a metallica record, but he would have argued that metallica was too heavy for him (he didn't like the vocals, basically.) and he at least had the good sense to realize that axl rose was an idiot, even if he couldn't figure out that david lee roth was.

regarding 80s music in his collection, i ignored all that stuff and went straight for the gabriel & the waters & the tears for fears & the srv. when i was very young, it was mostly the synth pop i found to be compelling...and you can hear that in my early work. dramatically.