I found an old PSU (Penn State) article from '92 that had a title that I would never imagine. I know it was done by just a college student, but isn't it crazy that some people who spent their grade school years in the '80s were already craving the decade, even if from a 2008 standpoint, 1992 would almost have a "pseudo-80s" feel?

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/1992/10/10-14-92tdc/10-14-92dops-letter-1.asp

This leads to my conclusion that the '80s backlash in the '90s was not as strong as most people think. Grunge and gangsta rap never quite appealed to the masses that the music of the '60s-'80s did, plus there were still a few '80s holdovers left on TV at the time, such as Cheers, Designing Women, Perfect Strangers, L.A. Law, and Knots Landing.

1992 was early for "nostalgia," which I don't like in general, but the rise of hip-hop into the the mainstream and the sudden onrush of grunge definitely swallowed in 1989 the New Wave music I liked circa 1981 through 1988.  The student you mentioned was in high school in the '80s and going to college in the early '90s.  I west through someting similar.  The "nostalgia" has less to do with how much pop culture changes and more to with how one's own life changes in college.  The statements you make with fashion or music at a University are not going to rock the boat.  You'll be able to find some friends who do Goth fashion and like Goth music, but there's no clique of jocks or popular kids interested in beating up on you.  It was different.

I do remember my friend from the radio station at college in 1994 (I went back to school after a bunch of other ventures fell flat, so I was a bit older), who started producing an all-'80s music program.  I did a similar one in the summer of '95.

I spent years trying to develop a taste for music not based on the whims of fads.  Eventually, I went from Electronica to
Electroacoustic music  The listening appreciation course I took freshman year turned me on to Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School, 12-tone method, and then there was an eccentric named
Harry Partch, who built his own instruments, created his own notation system, and his own microtonal system.  That's the basis for my radio program today.  I'm free of ephemera.

I found an old PSU (Penn State) article from '92 that had a title that I would never imagine. I know it was done by just a college student, but isn't it crazy that some people who spent their grade school years in the '80s were already craving the decade, even if from a 2008 standpoint, 1992 would almost have a "pseudo-80s" feel?

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/1992/10/10-14-92tdc/10-14-92dops-letter-1.asp

This leads to my conclusion that the '80s backlash in the '90s was not as strong as most people think. Grunge and gangsta rap never quite appealed to the masses that the music of the '60s-'80s did, plus there were still a few '80s holdovers left on TV at the time, such as Cheers, Designing Women, Perfect Strangers, L.A. Law, and Knots Landing.
Well no Grunge and Gangsta Rap didn't appeal to older people like 70's or 80's music did put the boomer's who didn;t like Grunge or Gangsta Rap in the 90's listened  to R&B in the 90's like Toni Braxton or Boyz II Men or TLC. The poppier non R&B stuff like Ace of Base or Jon Secada the boomers did gave that type of music a chance too in the 90's. I think some of the pop-country stuff towards the end of the 90's Boomers liked that kind of music too.

Interesting article, and a different viewpoint certainly.