I was born in 1973, so I am a true child of the 80s. I don't know whether it's nostalgia for a seemingly simpler time or what, but I think the 80s had some of the best music ever made--from bands like Duran Duran, Culture Club, Huey Lewis and the News, and of course the hard rock (glam rock, whatever you call it, it ROCKED!) bands like Def Leppard, Cinderella, Europe and Britny Fox. I LOVED the long, teased hair and make-up. Those guys were so sexy! Speaking of music, there was no better time to watch MTV than in the 80s--when they actually played music videos 24-7-365. Headbanger's Ball in the late 80s was something I looked forward to every Saturday night. There were other great video shows and channels too, like the show "Friday Night Vidoes" and "Video Rocks" and the "other" music vid channels, Hit Video USA (anyone remember that one from around 1987?) and VH1. I think the toys were better in the 80s than they are now too. Strawberry Shortcake was my favorite toy from that era. The new look just doesn't cut it. We didn't need highly technological toys to have fun. The Garfield of the 80s was the best and the 80s was also a time when good cartoons, like Woody Woodpecker, the Flintstones, Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes, could be seen on regular TV--not just on Boomerang and the Cartoon Network. There were other way cool things like Trend Scratch & Sniff stickers--remember when we all had sticker books?! Some of the other great stuff that is just a memory today: back patches of your favorite band on your jean jacket, Jellies shoes, "Back to the Future" on the big screen, "high" hair, frosted pink lipstick, neon clothes and accessories, soft sculptures (balloons, shooting stars, etc.) to hang up in your bedroom, the Magic Mushroom Air Freshner from Airwick (I LOVED those)!, "The Dukes of Hazzard" on Friday night Prime Time TV, etc. etc!

Cielos.....como extraño los ochentas yo naci en 1967 y mi mejor decada sin duda fue la de los 80s recuerdo mis estudios en la UCSD en San Diego en el 85 ademas de la musica, Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel Paul Young etc. excelente decada me encanto y aun la recuerdo con muchisimo aprecio.

OMG!!! I love the 80s because of the fashion, music, movies, and ecspecially because of Madonna, Blondie, Cyndi Lauper, and so much more.

It was the greatest entertainment of all time. "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" was great, and I skipped out on my summer job for a day after seeing "Ferris Bueller." The best had to be "The Breakfast Club," from the theme on. Of course, we can't forget about the comics page, either: "Bloom County." Ooop. Ack. Thhhhp.

I LOVE the 80s! I was born in 1985, so I can't say that I have seen everything that came out of the 80s, but I do know one thing, I LOVE the 80s cartoons! I mean, seriously, the 80s had the best cartoons around at the time. I don't think anything of today can compare to the cartoons we had when I was a kid. I had so many favorites: My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite. Ninja Turles, Care Bears, Popples, Alvin and the Chipmunks, California Raisins, Camp Candy, My Pet Monster, Brave Starr, Fraggle Rock, Muppet Babies, Denvor the Last Dinosaur, Dino the Little Dinosaur, Fluppy Dogs, The 13 Ghost of Scooby-Doo, Ewoks, Pound Puppies, Babar, Beetlejuice, Duck Tales, Gummi Bears, Winnie the Pooh, Dino-Riders, Rude Dog, Flinstone Kids, Garfield and Friends, Heathcliff, She-Ra, Hulk Hogan's Rockin' Wrestling, Inspector Gadget, Jem, Jetsons, Karate Kid, Kissy Fur, The Littles, The Legend of Zelda, The Mario Brothers, Fish Police, The Wuzzles, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, The Raccoons, Real Ghostbusters, Simpsons, Smurfs, Snorks, Yogi Bear... I could go on forever! And for those of you who THINK I've never seen any of these haha you are soooo wrong. I have watched many episodes of these cartoons, and my father taped them when I was younger. Those cartoons were awesome! I remember wanting to be a Ninja Turle and wanting to be Brittany the chipette. I always wanted to change my name to Brittany. I would never change my name now, but back when I was pretty stupid. They need to make an 80s cartoon network or something. Kinda like Boomorang only with all and ONLY 80s cartoons. That would be awesome!

I am totally an 80s child. I loved everything about it... the movies "Pretty in Pink", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Weird Science", "Goonies", "Sixteen Candles", "Top Gun"; the music Madonna, The Cure, Debbie Gibson, Depeche Mode, and the begging of New Kids On The Block, and Guns N' Roses; TV shows "Rainbow Brite", "Jem", "Kidd Video", "Get Along Gang", "Mr. T" etc. Good times all around. Crimpers, big hair and bangs, leg warmers, pegged pants, hyper color shitr, splashed paint clothes, and puff paints. I love the 80s - things were so innocent and pure. I will always have a place for them, and they will always live on for me.

I loved the eighties, because it was when rap music was fun!! The lyrics made some sense compared to what they are rapping about, today. I loved, first and foremost, Run DMC and Jam Master J!! They made hip-hop fun, then there was Whodini, Newcleus, LL Cool J, Salt n Pepa, Beastie Boys, Boogie Down Production,and of course, Public Enemy - just to name a few. I loved our fashion of that time. Adidas sweatsuits, shell toe Adidas, Puma tennis shoes, etc.

The cars... What else but the cars? After the early 90s all the cars look like bulging crap. 1988 Honda Prelude forever!

Well, I was born in 1967, which means that I became a teenager in the very year that the eighties was born. Thus, I have a perspective that is perhaps somewhat ... fuller than those of the average poster here, who seems to have been born in the 1980s. How can you have any meaningful experience of a decade you were born in?? I mean, you would have been 10, max, when the 80s ended!! Perhaps I am giving undue privilege to adolescence. Anyway, as someone whose gaze is unvarnished by nostalgia, I am here to say that the 80s kind of sucked. I have happy memories from the 80s, but they have nothing to do with the decade. People forget that it was a time of deepening conservatism, the rise of the religious right, crassness on a mass scale, Reaganomics, the scaling back of women's rights, environmental catastrophe, rampant greed, etc., etc., etc. As The Simpsons once said, it was the decade in which people finally stopped caring. (Yes, I know that The Simpsons' first season was in 1989.) And yes, I know that there was some good music. There was also an awful lot of crap, like the endless parade of middle-of-the-road, would-be metal bands, and soulless would-be new wave techno bands, not to mention Bryan Adams. The decade of rap music also shot John Lennon, and stonewashed jeans just don't compare with infomercials, prozac, Chernobyl, crack cocaine, liposuction, and the shopping channel. "Thriller" just wasn't that good. The 80s was the 70s after it got strung out and depressed because all the 60s had to offer, in the end, was cheaper acid, disco, and off-the-rack utopian pieties. The 80s were only great if you had nothing to compare them to. Even the 70s was better: I would rather hang out with burnt-out hippies than coked-up yuppies. Well, we can't choose when we're young, I suppose. Of course, the 90s were just as bad. At least there was more money in the 80s, and the Internet hadn't yet replaced the ABC After School Special with porn. Young people hadn't yet been bought and franchised by Sprite, CNN, and MTV. Of course, the 1980s did give us Star Trek: The Next Generation. I'll give you that.

I was born in 1982 after I heard a lot of music that was way back in the old days. Ever since I listened to the music, I just loved Wham!, Culture Club, The Bangles, all the songs I remember. BUT I GOT 3 WORDS FOR EVERYONE.... I LOVE 80s! I'm also a huge fan of the Culture Club, The Bangles, George Michael, and most of all... I loved the Best of Wham. I even get to listen to the music that I downloaded my own website and listened all the music over and over again! You know.... I maybe a great singer... but I can act on every show I could do anything. Besides, I'm 22 years old and I would rather get to see the groups if there were really young again. At least they look handsome on the inside with all the men... except THE BANGLES, THEY'RE GIRLS! Feel free to talk to me and I'll get to chat some other time.

Further to Richard Taylor Draper's message, I too remember the cartoon about the five robotic cats living in the castle and being able to morph into one giant robot. But does anyone know what it was called? Thanks. I was born in 1977, so I was able to become aware of my surroundings before the 80s arrived. What the 80s meant for me was some of the best films, Goonies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and The Last Starfighter. The greatest band started up, U2 and some others were already enjoying the limelight of success.

I loved the innocence of the 80s. In about 1983 I told my class I was going to hang out with Ricky Schroeder for the weekend... AND THEY BOUGHT IT! Possibly because I bolstered my story with pics of Ricky cut out of a magazine. "See, I took his picture!! I was THERE, okay?" 1st graders are so gullible.

I'm a 1983 baby and I can remember the fantastic cartoons such as, He-man, Transformers, Inspector Gadget. Also can you remember Worzel Gummage, Beauty and the Beast series and Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe? The music by Swing Out Sister, Adam Ant, MC Hammer, Sonia, Kylie Minogue, Anita Baker, Whitney Houston. The clothes were crazy ra-ra skirts, denim "drainpipes", banana clips for your hair..running around in my mus stilettos and butterfly elastic belts..BRING IT BACK!!!

I wish I could go back. I was teenager in the 80s. I graduated in 1986. If I could go back for 2 weeks, what a vacation it would be! I remember going to the dances in my tight Jordache Jeans and my pairie shirt "ruffles and tie and all" I loved it and at the dance the best time slow dancing to "Open Arms" - the most kick butt slow dance song ever written! And Duran Duran, don't get me started on that. I miss the 80s. Never again will days be like that again.

I too, to some extent, am an 80s fan, but my memories can get bittersweet at times. I was born in 1971 and grew up in New York, so this period was basically my entire teenage years. I remember the cool toys (Transformers, GI Joe, Go-Bots, too expensive for me to buy or get at the time, but I played with my friends who had them.) Also, being black (Haitian-American)I remember of course the rap and pop music. I was never into rap until I heard Eric B. & Rakim and Public Enemy's Takes a Nation of Millions. I had previously found The Fat Boys and Run DMC to be rather silly, but the harder edged sound of Rakim, and the political message of Chuck D made this "nerd" that I was at the time take notice. Yes, the 80's had most of the positive aspects that many on this site has listed, but there was a darker side. #1, those clothes were NOT cheap. I HAD to save up for those "two-tone jeans" and black suede pumas! I went to Catholic school, and "dress up day" and "dress down day" were the worse if your family was low income. #2 New York City, for those who remember, was literally on fire with racial tension and outrage, back then. Police brutality seemed as if it was condoned, certain nieghborhoods were off limits if you happend to belong a particular racial/ethnic group (Howard Beach and the Bed Stuy anyone?) I remember having to explain, as (the token Negro) in my AP History class, why Al Sharpton's city wide protests were an appropriate response to the city's failure to address various civil rights issues. Interracial dating was rare and turned heads. People...the radio DID NOT play Hip Hop until late in the evening before '88. Well, I could go on, but I just wanted everyone to know, that the 80s was not a complete paradise for everyone. For some of us ethnic minorities, it was a dark time indeed, and the sun came out towards the end with Clinton's election. But yes, the 80s still rocked! Just not all the time;0)

O grupo Skid Row é a melhor banda de todos os tempos e Sebastian Bach o melhor vocal do mundo!!! A maior emoção para os brasileiros foi sem dúvida o show que esta banda fez no Rio de Janeiro no ano de 1992 até em portguês o Sebastian Bach fez questão de exaltar a beleza da cidade maravilhosa que é o Rio de Janeiro. Estamos com saudadessss do Skid Row e do Bas.

Things I remember that were cool: actually turning on the TV to American cartoons, not Japanimation; Star Wars, ET, Goonies; those huge plastic charm necklaces; jelly bracelets; Kangaroos (the shoes...but the animals are cool too); everyone had Luke Skywalker hair; no internet, cellphones or faxes (not that's that's cool actually, but it's weird to remember); cheap gas; Russia was really scary and I thought communists were under my bed; "We Are the World"; the clothes...fingerless gloves, blue or red shorts with the white stripe at the sides; knee-highs; oh and half shirts: I remember when I (as a straight guy) would go out in public and to school showing my bellybutton and it was totally normal. You don't see those too much anymore, now only on girls (probably better).

I was born in 1980. And yes, I consider myself a little girl of the 80s! I played with My Little Ponys, I loved Rainbow Brite, one of my favorite shows was the Cosby Show. Anyways, while I have some memories of the 80s, I would have to say that I consider myself more of a 90s kid. As I can remember alot more of the 90s, and that was when I did most of of my growing up. I am a little upset with alot of people who were born in the 60s and 70s and there so overprotective of the whole 80s thing. Like saying that someone who was born in 1980 or 1984 is not considered a true 80s kid! In my opinion anyone who was born in the 80s, particularly 1980 to 1985, is considered a "little kid of the 80's"! While we may not have alot of memories like you people born in the 60s and 70s, we have some! We lived through the decade, playing with My Little Ponys and Ninja Turtles and we watched all the great 80s cartoons and some TV sitcoms! ( Full House)! So, just think of us as the 80s babies! As I said before, I was born in 1980, so am I classic little 80s girl in my opinion!

As i turned 30 a few weeks ago I realzed how wonderful the 80s were and how I wish I would have known how much I would be missing them. From Goonies, to Small Wonder, to the mall... I miss them very much, and even though I have lots of money , married to a beautiful wife, I can't help but get sad when I think of those innocent times with my family and young friends. "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" Riding around on my BMW, kissing a girl for the first time... wonderful memories!

I was born in 1982. The reason why I love the 80s is everything. I missed my cartoons like Transformers, Voltron, He-man, Ghostbusters, and Ninja Turtles. My favorite movies were Robocop, The Terminator, Die Hard, The Fly, and E.T. My favorite baseball player back in the 80s was Don Mattingly from the New York Yankees.