With the whole 90's sucking ... I'd take it over the last few years I mean I liked alot of post nu metal pre lady gaga era stuff (Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Strokes, Vines etc) but modern pop music is so so bad I mean Britney and Vanilla Ice looked good compared to stuff on the radio now. And the 90's had Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, some alright U2 stuff, Blur, Sonic Youth. 80's and before still had the best music though.
When it comes to 80's guitar most stuff had chorus and delay. I mean alot was post production but there were heaps of tones like The Smiths, The Cure, U2, Glam, Thrash Metal, The end of NWOBHM, The really clean poppy chorus guitar stuff, Stray Cats, The Cars, Underground Punk and Hardcore, The Pixies.
I think it was all about cranked volume - especially if you're talking the early 80's. You can hear the strings on the necks and their tones sounded very woody and 'planky'; a very natural sustain. And because they'd have to 'crank up' back in the day, you'd get the sounds of a cranked power amp and hard-driven speakers - and you could just hear everything a tad clearer resulting in 'woodier' nuances. Sometimes tones were just more naked that way. IMO