With its shimmering synths and outright rejection of genre markers, the music popularized in the ’80s seemingly shares few commonalities with the string-drenched solemnity often found in country.

Country music from the 1980s often gets overshadowed by the decades surrounding it. The 1970s were huge for the likes of Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. It was the decade of Outlaw ...