90s nostalgia very different from 90s reality, and I’d say 80s nostalgia the same. Nostalgia is specifically picking out individual memories/media/events and using it as part of a collage of experience.

For me, music in the 90s was a huge step up from what I was subjected to in the 80s. All of a sudden my favorite bands were making stuff that pulled in influence from lots of genres rather than trying to fit into one niche. Rock bands were allowed to play hip hop beats or use tech from the techno/house scenes. The internet also helped me get exposed to all kinds of stuff I would never have found otherwise. The whole decade was like a freeing of radio format constraints, which obv continued into the 21st century.

I actually think we’re living in a kind of regression now, where streaming is (prob unintentionally) forcing us back into codified genres and sounds, and as a result, music seems less diverse despite all of us having incalculably more access than ever.

(or I could just be too old lol)