How I saw most of that genre back then..

Mind you, I was in my teens. I was strictly classic rock and prog rock, and later got into blues as well.

To be brutally honest? Most of that alternative or new wave music just didn't appeal to me. I didn't identify with it. It mostly sounded like the realm of depressed people. My inner girl lover was still feeling positive at that time.

If I had related to it, there was also mockery of its perceived effeminate nature besides. I think I could have surpassed that last hurdle even then if I honestly connected to it, but I just didn't. I can say again as for The Smiths, I sensed even then that they were extremely legit artistic, even though I wasn't drawn to them. Some of my friends were big into that genre. It was a time of overlapping musical preferences.

I knew of Erasure. They were never on my radar. To me, they were just another strangely effeminate group of males probably like Echo and the Bunnymen to my teenage mind.

It was only years later that I was able to ditch my decisions and go back and say yeah, this or that song by this or that band from that genre was actually pretty good and very creative.

Which probably points at a certain part of my personality. I tend to view ALL current "popular" things with cautious suspicion. It is only later, after they no longer hold sway over people, that I can go back and honestly rate stuff as garbage or genius.

Now I need to investigate Erasure.