While I love to bemoan the current state of porn, it is also useful to keep things in perspective. Any so-called "golden age" is largely elusive.

The 70s had some pretty scary talent, poorly shot, and, of course, the giant hairy bush threatening to poke out the eyes of anyone brave enough to explore it.

The 80s, often hailed as the actual Golden Age, had a very thin talent pool with it's share of blissfully forgotten bottom-feeders as well as Sharon Mitchell. Also, the peak of the "bad synth loop" soundtrack, mated with the "bad video loop" wherein a 10-minute scene could consist of the same 5-second clip run over and over and over, only slightly out-of-sync with the soundtrack. Also, the camera work was generally atrocious. Male talent was featured in their sweaty, O-faced glory for huge chunks of the scene, and the dreaded ball-cam closeup was also inexplicably favored.

The 90s saw an explosion of talent and product, much of it dreadful. Cookie-cutter blondes with bolt-ons mingled with the emerging gonzo industry's demonstration of exactly why most "talent" should stay amateurs. The four-hour comp VHS, with one recognizable talent at the beginning followed by 3 3/4 hours of nameless gonzo babes dildoing themselves for 45 minutes per scene wore out more fast-forward buttons than the ball-cam did. And Vivid Video pioneered the stereotypical over-indulgent feature "film", with 20 minutes of listening to TT Boy deliver expositionary dialogue before the first glimpse of any kind of female body part.

So, although I reserve the right to piss and moan about the latest pissing and moaning passing itself off as modern porn, at least it isn't the 60s with 8MM loops and faded old Playboy centerfolds.

Edit:
1) Penny Flame
2) The Great Aurora Snow
3) Dammit, I have to say that Sunny Lane can turn in a great scene
4) Candy Manson, despite being a sterotypical bolt-on blonde
5) Is Hailey Page still working?

The final five slots left as "oh, yeah, her too!" wildcards.

Does it undermine my 80s-bashing to compare to:

1) Amber Lynn
2) Ginger Lynn
3) Christy Canyon
4) Taija Rae
5) Samantha Strong
?