American Pop—Pop Culture in the 1980s

American Pop—Pop Culture in the 1980s: From MTV to Reaganomics, the Rise of Corporate Cool, and the Birth of the Digital Age
The 1980s wasn’t just a decade—it was a spectacle, a brand, a transformation in how America saw itself. It was the era of MTV and morning in America, Wall Street excess and working-class struggle, home video and high-concept blockbusters, gated communities and mall culture, synth pop and cyberpunk, neon aesthetics and corporate takeovers. It was the decade that turned pop culture into a global export, reshaped technology into a personal experience, and set the stage for the digital and political realities we still live in today.
American Pop—Pop Culture in the 1980s is a deep dive into the icons, industries, and ideologies that shaped the decade, covering everything from the rise of celebrity culture, video game aesthetics, and fitness crazes to the corporate-driven futurism of EPCOT, the moral panics over music and media, and the battle between big business and counterculture. Through a mix of historical insight, cultural analysis, and a sharp sense of humor, Taylor Prescott explores how the 1980s built the foundations of our modern world—sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, but always with style.
Whether you lived through the decade or have only experienced it through reruns and nostalgia cycles, this book unpacks what the 1980s really meant—beyond the clichés, beyond the leg warmers, and beyond the endless remakes.