What defined "golden age" cyberpunk that set it apart from ordinary science fiction? My modern mind associates the term with movies and video games that boil down to knock offs of Blade Runner and Deus Ex.
And suddenly this fast, spiky thing appears, that's all nihilism and dystopia and edge and noir and anti-heroes and technology abuse, and instead of looking ahead a billion years it's looking ahead about 15 minutes, and instead of sounding like an orchestra it sounds like the wind over tensioned steel cables, and it wears sunglasses at night and it thinks technology is power and its just so gosh-darned cool...
Yeah, that's pretty much what it was like. Ok, it's all cliches now, but so's a modern punk band.