[silvestrov]

I think autotune is the poster child for this.

Popsongs today sound so nice but also so forgetable.

I think this is why 80s and 90s pop is still so popular.

[vanderZwan]

Ironically, T-Pain, arguably the poster child of using auto-tune, has a great singing voice[0]. Apparently he used it on purpose to stand out.

Probably explains why it works much better for him than for others: he used it as an instrument, not as a crutch to hide a lack of singing skills.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ck0vJBygo

[neuralRiot]

I think 80s music is still popular because it is good. Many artists of that era like Elton John, Paul McCartney and specially Stevie Wonder had a very good musical background and the advances in electronic music tech gave them tools to explode their talent to new levels.

[dfxm12]

This is probably survivorship bias or familiarity bias more than anything.

Music from the 80s/90s that is popular today has stood the test of time; there's a lot more music from these decades that we don't hear today & is not popular. We've also heard those songs a lot more times than contemporary music.