Hm… They seem to be catchy. Actually, after round about 7 month I can’t remember anything but the first few beats of the intro music.
I think @Guga nailed it down perfectly:
Steve Kirk’s music creates an atmosphere. And this is great! The music isn’t in the foreground. It sets a mood but doesn’t distract you from the game.
Why does he has to use this silver selfie stick if there is already a camera?
Now that’s something you don’t hear often : )
I forget not everyone worships Led Zeppelin. They have a song of the same name, and every time I see No Quarter on the TwP soundtrack I get confused for a sec.
…and that’s exactly why I love it! I’m much more a fan of the guitars of the 90’s and not the synths and production of 80’s music.
(And now I better duck and cover)
Where will you hide when your flannel shirts and your ripped jeans always tell us where you are? 
,
Yeah, I totally wanted Cindy Lauper soundtrack for TWP. ; ). Seriously, musically 80’s were lots of things, among them awesome, mysterious or over the top soundtracks for horror and action movies. These things were (and I think still are) very popular, just look at Hotline Miami. I get the oversaturation thing, but TWP was the one game that I though demanded this style, because it’s exploring 80’s nostalgia in every other way. Having said that, I’m glad they didn’t go with chip tunes.
May I say some… blasphemy?
TWP feels more 90es than 80es, to me…
I had this feeling from the beginning, but I realized that now.
It would have been okay with me. And if had even the slightest idea how to work with the SID. I´d have the soundtrack remade in the old C64 style long ago. And I´m still a bit baffled no one else has done that so far.
I think the 80s music references are in the dialogue mostly. Robert Palmer, Billy Idol, Frank Zappa. I think that´s about it.
I think the reference to Laserdisc being an obsolete medium is a bit early for 1987. That was definitly more 90s.
A version for the PC speaker would be more interesting IMHO. In this style:
Hm… It was dead at the end of the 80s. The first Laserdisc players came out in 1978.
But overall I tend to agree with @Ema:
Yes, early 90s.
Well the DVD was still a bit down the road. And there was nothing else like it. And I can clearly remember a friend in the mid/late 90s pondering getting a laserdisc player because by that time there still was the “laserdisc exclusive material” for some movies. No really. that was a thing.
Yes, the Laserdisc was sold until the DVD took over. But it was a niche market. The VHS won at the end of the 80s. (Man, I miss a little bit the video rental shops from the end of the 80s 
).
Yes, now that you make me think of this, you got a point. I mean: first, it’s the end of the eighties, 1987; second, for us that live in Europe, things from the US didn’t come immediately here as it is nowadays, it took time (at least for me that lived in the early nineties and still live in the province of Southern Italy). That goes for objects and style. Musically speaking, it’s hard for me to trace a line, as for that I’m inclined to trust what @FormosaFalanster, @milanfahrnholz and @yrface said.
Good point!
But didn’t we Europeans export a lot of music into the US (in the 80s and 90s)?
A third thing is that the graphics style is more like the later Lucasfilm games, like the VGA Monkey Island, Indiana Jones IV, etc.
That’s an interesting question, but I can’t answer it properly. (Unless it’s a rethorical question 
). From the UK without doubt, I can’t tell the (rest of) Europe.
Regarding the graphic style, I challenge anyone to contradict you!
(Anyone would be your nemesis 
).
We should discuss this in another thread. 
But you know that someone is also part of anyone?
I actually love SID sound as well (especially if it’s Matt Gray’s music), but I wouldn’t like to play for many hours with that kind of music. It’s hard to make SID sound subtle. Maybe that’s the reason MM and Zak were mostly silent?
But it worked in other games, for example Turrican or the Last Ninja series. But I agree with you: I wouldn’t want SID sounds in TWP. But it would be nice to have them as a “soundtrack”.
Last Ninja is badass, I love the second part, but I wouldn’t call the music subtle at any point, even though it has some slow parts. SID has this abrasive tone, whatever you do. Turrican on C-64 seems to lack music during main gameplay, and the rest is… well, it’s an action game. It has music suitable for action.
Obviously I would check out SID version of music for TWP as well.
Ah! That’s what I call an inclusive way of thinking!