If you’re head-bobbing to The Clash, sporting a pair of Jellies or watching “Sixteen Candles,” you’re immersing yourself in the pop culture of the 1980s whether you realize it or not.

In recent years, America seems to have become infatuated with the sounds and style of the bygone decade. Eighties compilation CDs, films and theme parties centered around the era have become common.

Parties in the residence halls and in the greek system sometimes are dubbed with an ’80s theme.

Last fall, Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, 2007 Greeley St., threw an ’80s party. Lindsay Peterson, junior in biology and social chair for Alpha Omicron Pi, said house members chose the theme because of their familiarity with it: They grew up in that decade.

“A lot of the girls like ’80s music,” Peterson said. “It’s good music to dance to.”

Peterson said sorority members encouraged people attending the party to dress up in ’80s attire.

“On our invitation, we had a picture of Madonna — how she dressed in the early ’80s,” Peterson said.

“She was wearing the cut-off sweater off the shoulder. It was kind of more of a punk thing, but people came in all styles,” she said.

Lynn Lloyd, co-owner of Ridiculous Rags, 2414 Lincoln Way, regularly helps people locate their favorite hard-to-find ’80s clothing.

Whether the styles — think pegged pants, leg warmers, neon colors and lots of bracelets — will be popular for long has yet to be determined.

“I don’t know if the ’80s styles are coming back,” Lloyd said. “We do get people looking for costumes what we call ‘screaming ’80s.’ Acid wash jeans and parachute pants full of lots of zippers, lots of fluorescent sweaters; it was pretty bad,” she said.

Lloyd said people venture into the store looking for everything from the polyester suits of the early ’80s to the elastic-waisted jeans of the late ’80s.

People regularly come in need of clothes for a theme party, Lloyd said. She currently is trying to locate vintage formal wear for a faux prom next week.

“[Formal wear] is not as easy to find as you might think,” Lloyd said. “We’re beginning to look for more bad formal wear.”

Although she’s critical of the clothes from the period, Lloyd did not always feel that way.

“I remember thinking ‘Wow, we are so sharp,'” Lloyd said.

Eighties’ music seem to be one of the most obvious pop culture survivors.

Sue Prince, assistant manager at Musicland in the North Grand Mall, 2801 Grand Ave., said the store sells ’80s music in several different formats.

“[Eighties’] compilations are definitely popular … especially soundtracks,” Prince said. “VH1 also has a few ’80s sets that do really well.”

Prince said one of the biggest selling ’80s compilations is the soundtrack to the 1998 movie “The Wedding Singer.”

Albums by heavy metal artists have been in demand lately, Prince said.

“We play hair bands in here sometimes,” Prince said. “People laugh and say ‘hair band,’ and then they go and buy the CD.”

Eighties music also is present in many of today’s cover songs.

Travis White, former Iowa State student, hasn’t been impressed by most of the covers.

“They’re doing terrible re-mixes of a lot of ’80s songs,” White said. “I just heard on the radio they took Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ and put a terrible dance beat to it.”

Despite bad dance-mixes, White enjoys much of the music the decade had to offer.

“Now people share my appreciation for Steve Perry’s musical abilities,” White said. “Particularly the song ‘Oh, Sherry.'”

Prince, like many others who grew up in the decade, views the culture as her own.

“For people like me who graduated in the ’80s, it’s the music you always refer to as ‘your’ music,” Prince said. “These are the people now running record companies and writing scripts. So you’re going to see a lot of ’80s stuff. Everything goes in cycles.”