The 80s had the best porn. 
Some typical 1980ās styles (courtesy of the Banzai Institute):
youtube.com/watch?v=8MqJ3iGBdOo
(zoom ahead by 30 seconds or 1 minute)
I grew up in Taiwan in the 80s. I donāt have memory of early 80s, because apparently babies have shitty memories. But I have very clear memory of mid to late 80s in Taiwan.
What was the culture like? (overall, or specifically in the United States, or better yet in California)
What was the youth culture like?
I had very fond memory of watching Taiwanese television when I was a kid. There were only 3 channels, I didnāt learn about cable until the 80s is almost over. Taiwanese TV back then had pretty wonderful children programs in early afternoon. Classic Japanese animation in later afternoon.
And then my favorite, on weekend thereās a lot of American TV series. Knight rider, Airwolf, MacGyver, Alf, The Cosby Show, My Two Dads, Americaās funniest videos, Golden Girls, Dynasty, 3ās Company, even Star Trek TNG in the late 80s, you name it, I saw them all. I learned that Reaganās wife was named Nancy on some show that was flashing baby alligators down the toilet. They were all dubbed of course. I feel Taiwan was culturally a lot closer to the US than it is today. Nowadays the Taiwanese culture seems to gravitate towards Japan, Korea and increasingly China.
Boy bands were becoming a thing in Taiwan back then. There was the Xiao-Hu-Duei that anyone lived through Taiwan in the 80s knew. Great bands like Oriental Express introduced me to what rock should sound like. Hong Kongese singers were also big in Taiwan back then, so were Hong Kongese movies.
What was the state of consumer technology? (examples please)
Didnāt own a walkman (actually i bought an AIWA, but since Sony bought it out, I guess itās retroactively a walkman) until the 90s and I was living in Germany. I saw CD for the first time in the late 80s. Saw VCR for the first time also in the late 80s.
But I have seen Apple II computer pretty much the same year that it came out and pretty much played with every version of Apple computers. They were owned by my uncle, who has been an Apple fan since the beginning. Had a mock Pineapple computer at home, and wrote LOGO programsā¦ Didnāt own an IBM PC until the early 90s.
How did people dress?
People dressed really poorly back then. But not just in Taiwan, pretty much all over the world.
The rest I probably canāt answer.
Uncle Sam was still in town in the 70s so the 80s there was still more of an American influence. Which today may be waning a bit.
ICRT was still similar to the old AFNT (which ended in 79) .
Early 80s: Video arcades.
Late 80s: Cheers.
does anyone know if rickrolling was originally an 80s thing too?
[quote=āhansiouxā]And then my favorite, on weekend thereās a lot of American TV series. Knight rider, Airwolf, MacGyver, Alf, The Cosby Show, My Two Dads, Americaās funniest videos, Golden Girls, Dynasty, 3ās Company, even Star Trek TNG in the late 80s, you name it, I saw them all. I learned that Reaganās wife was named Nancy on some show that was flashing baby alligators down the toilet.
[/quote]
betty white!
[quote=āhansiouxā]I learned that Reaganās wife was named Nancy on some show that was flashing baby alligators down the toilet.
[/quote]
WIN.
[quote=āhansiouxā]Nowadays the Taiwanese culture seems to gravitate towards Japan, Korea and increasingly China.
[/quote]
-shudder-
how about vhs and betamax? those were an 80s thing werent they.
so it was pretty much like the breakfast club? 
[quote=āZlaāodā]How did people dress?
Dingo, Flashdance, Membersā Only, āpreppyā styles. Jeans were popular through the whole decade, but went through variations (stone-washed or torn at the end, and women started having little zippers at the ankles). I donāt remember sneakers being the big deal that they are now. Leg warmers and jelly shoes? At one point stoner girls started wearing roach clips as earrings! Of course business attire was more or less what it is today, barring slight changes to the width of the tie and lapel. The idea of a āwomanās suitā became standardized (with shoulder pads!).[/quote]
Did preppy mean the same thing as it does today? Those shoulder pads are so outrageous and amazing, especially because theyāre worn and was seen as formal attire (unlike the āedgyā impression it delivers today), makes me chuckle every time I see them. 
Btw, does anybody remember any odd jobs that existed in the 80s that we donāt have now? Iām trying to think of things people used to get paid to do that doesnāt happen today. Possibly work related to technology (or lack thereof) in that decadeā¦?
[quote=āTheGingerManā]I shudder anytime the '80ās are mentioned.
What a truly horrible decade![/quote]
I agree āin generalā as the 80ās covered my 14 till 24 years of early adulthood and I do remember the no-future dark wave, the cold war (and the fall of the Berlin Wall in '89) as the IRA and many other.
However, each decade has its horrible periods. Maybe we were not- or less -affected as they happened in Africa and other āfar-from-our-bedā environments.
The 80ās were after all very beneficial to me. If one is facing a negative spiral of events, you either give in , or you get out. I got out, became rather self-made successful and am now verry happy.
I do look back often to the 80ās and still listen to Ann Clarke, Echo & the Bunnymen and am thankful of having experienced that grey period of mankind. Good memories of a bad period.
Apart from 22 Acacia Avenue, I had me Balls To The Wall on this one, in the early 80ās:
Metallica in the 80s
Iāve always considered ceevee a bit of an illiterate second-language student, but him mentioning Echo and the Bunnymen has certainly raised my opinion of him. 
Spare me your cutter Jimi
PS. It is BUNNEYMEN (I tested you obviously ) - illiterate yourself 
Anne Clark left the biggest scarves of the 80ās in my 3rd Millenium brain.
PIL , Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, the Sex Pistols and others were just juvenile kids in comparison with Clarkās deep throat cutting poetry.
Exhibit 1 : Sleeper in Metropolis
Skip the German Freulein and look at the wallpaintings used in the Clip. They reflect what was top-of-mind : Madonna and Nukesā¦
Exhibit 2: Anne Clark - āSelf Destructā Lyrics:
[quote]Suicide is an urban disease
Spread by peolple and places like these
A quick self destruct from the 21st floor
A smell of gas through the kitchen door
A stab in the back from the workers and bosses
Theyāre counting their gains as you count your losses
As you count your losses
Blow the world apart with the press of a button
We all say it shouldnāt but we know it will happen
Again and again like the rain and the ark
Onwards forever eternally dark
Eternally dark
The grit in your eye soon enters your heart
And all that was strength is just falling apart
Weāre jumping from one bed and into another
Searching for something that weāll never discover
Never discover
So we go on breeding - breeding contempt
From all of the repression that this has meant
If the bombs and the fire donāt instantly kill
Then the greed from the ashes certainly will
Certainly will
This place is not my place
This place is not yours
Weāre set on self destruct
For no reason or cause
If the bombs and the fire donāt instantly kill
Then the greed from the ashes certainly will
Certainly will[/quote]
hah! I thought that title belongs to the 70s. you know, when there were legit x-rated theaters that people went to see.
Iām surprised, or perhaps some have forgotten, my dedication to Elvis Costello.
Not sure I would have made it out of 1989, without Declan.
Van Halen, 1984 album. Good olā 80ās rock.
Well, Iām not from the US, so not sure if itās useful. My strongest musical memories from the '80s are Run DMC, Duran Duran, and New Kids on the Block. Movies like Say Anything, Electric Dreams and Toxic Avenger. Going to the movies and watching trailers that were as good as the main feature, and ice-creams during half-time. They donāt seem to have that break in the movie theaters, now. Playing PacMan and Frogger at the local fish and chip shopās arcade room on Friday nights. Fashion-wise, oh my; the disaster that was the body suit with clips at the crotch (which unfortunately came back into fashion for a short period a couple of years ago, I remember). Those t-shirts that changed color when you sweated. Oh, the misuse of technology! Leg-warmers. All us girls HAD to have them. We couldnāt afford to buy them, so my mum knitted up some lavender ones for me. Ra-Ra skirts. All three (the body suit, the ra-ra skirt, and the leg-warmers) all on the same girl, at the same time. Break dancing! The high school boys being banned from anywhere closer than 10 meters from our junior-high school gates, after they spent days break-dancing at the fence, complete with āinappropriately suggestiveā gestures.
Job-wise, I think technology started to take over a few jobs during the '80ās but more so in the '90ās. The '80ās was the time of the AVON lady in NZ. Not sure about the US. My mum did well of it during the '80s but it definitely died down the next decade.
The 80ās were the flowering of rock videos, yes?
I remember this one in particular:
From as far back as I can remember, Iāve been fascinated with space travel, science fiction, exploration. I was five years old when, in 1986, the Challenger space shuttle and its crew were destroyed. I remember how devastated and upset I was. I remember President Reagan speaking on the television afterwards, and how much better he made me feel. I thought of him when Columbia went down years later.
1980 - PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES WIN THEIR FIRST WORLD SERIES!!!
Culture - Van Halen, Journey, Michael Jackson. Birth of MTV. Cocaine wars. A computer programming class using a STACK of punchcards to create even the simplest heading for a spreadsheet. Space invaders video game, Pacman video game. Miami Vice (was this the 80ās?). Hardcore Christian Fundamentalism gets political (Pat Robertson, Gerry Falwell, Pat Buchannan, Tammy Faye and 5 pounds of make-up). Doonesberry cartoon. The first Halloween movie. U2 appears on the horizon.
Finance - Astronomical interest rates. At one point the prime rate in the U.S. was above 20%!! Hitch that to your wagon and tow it. S&L Crisis (nationwide), Oil and Gas economy collapses (mainly TX., OK., and LA), Agriculture economy collapses (midwest), RE economy collapses (NE). All of these events were preceeded by significant over-confidence and over-investment resulting in failures, consolidations, buyouts, bailouts and lots of new government regulation and spending (some things never change!)