I've had several emails on these lines:
It is truly amusing that, as your reader stated, 'people look back at the 80s as a wasteland music-wise.' In retrospect, as a child and teen of the 80's, there were numerous and influential artists who were simply ahead of their time. U2 and REM, the two alt-giants of the era, were not widely popular for much of the 80's. Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys, the Misfits, and X emerged in the 80's, as did the Cure, XTC, the Simths, the Pixies, and the Pogues. Husker Du was, in fact, just one of the artists that made Minneapolis the 80's version of 90's Seattle. Prince, Soul Asylum, the Replacements also fleshed out the Minneapolis sound. Throw in, for good measure, Elvis Costello, The Police, Kraftwerk, Run-DMC, Sonic Youth, and Public Enemy. I’m sure I'm missing some others, but still quite an impressive legacy.
Amen.