They never represent the 80's.
Both at their peak in the 90's.
You could include the Simpsons and Seinfeld if you just look at when they were conceived.
Both were started and going well in the mid/late-80's.
Just because they weren't as fashionable as they were later doesn't matter. You might as well say that combats weren't invented until after 2000.
Nirvana epitomise the 90s lashback against the 80's
Fuck see this whole argument shits me because most people who claim to remember the eighties have only experienced the major commercialised shite or think they know.
Yes you listed the shite in your first post but lets help you with some facts.
music.
From 1980 & if your argument that Nirvana were a 90s band then you have no ground to argue the following.
The Clash - post their punk releases, this includes London calling as it was released Dec 14 1979.
the jesus and mary chain
The Smiths
the cure
talking heads
the triffids
the go-betweens
echo and the bunnymen
the furs
nick cave/birthday party/the melbourne grunge movement (wreckery/blue ruin/hollowmen, etc)
the mid eighties sydney grunge movement (lubricated goat/box the jesuit/beasts of bourbon/the scientists although originally from WA) http://antipodeanunderground.com/blog/ & http://blackeyerecords.blogspot.com/
all quoted as being influences on ...
sub pop record bands - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub_Pop
killdozer
tad
dinosaur jr
ministry
caberet voltare
bailter space
4AD including the pixies
shoegazer as a music genre especially my bloody valentine, swervedriver, etc - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoegazing
etc
etc
See people like yourself argue grunge was a 90s thing, bollocks. Major labels picked it up in the 90s but it was born and is a product of the 80s.
As for film:
blade runner
dogs in space
highlander
luc besson's early work
betty blue
mad max 2
starstruck
die hard
troma films
etc
etc
See HF your original post about 80's culture is just like the media's reportage of Newcastle, lazy, clichéd and inaccurate.
I was immitating a channel 5 talking head, why would I be anything but?
I'm fully aware there was a good deal of interesting stuff being done in the 80's, the point is that almost none of it permeated into the wider public conscious at the time.
As a kid sat in the house with a radio and 4 tv channels there wasn't much airtime given over to bailter space.
EDIT: Oh, and Bladerunner is cack.