As we came out of the gas crisis recession, there was a nationalistic optimism I don't recall this country having since then. The pop music in the 80's was the best in my lifetime. And yeah, those were my high school and early college years, so some overall fond memories there.

BUT....

The cloud of the cold war hanging over everything was a downer (nuclear holocaust looks at climate change and says "hold my beer"). The fashion in retrospect was pretty bad, although better than the 70's disco or 90's grunge. The war on drugs was a mess. Inner cities were dystopian nightmares.

But if you were lucky enough to be in middle class or higher suburbia in the 80's, things overall were pretty awesome.