The '80s: not all bad

Ah, the '80s. The decade the ozone cried out in pain under a massive assault of aerosol hairspray. The time when otherwise intelligent young men and women chose to go out — in public — with their jeans folded and tucked into their socks. The padded shoulders of blazers that made women look like football players. The alarming slang (totally grody, man). But the '80s weren't all bad. The pictures here prove it, showcasing highlights that began or reached their peak during the decade of embarrassing photographs. To read Prerogative Editor Samantha Perry's accompanying plea against the comeback of '80s fashion from our current issue, visit the Prerogative website. To see our full list of '80s highlights, visit our MySpace page's blog. And tell us ... did we leave anything out? (Of course we did; we could only include so many John Hughes films, you know.)

From top: A "Gremlins" toy Gizmo, Atari, "We Are the World" poster, some '80s album covers, "The Lost Boys" poster.