America in 1990 vs America in 2010 (compared, quality, economy, beautiful)

[taydev]

Originally Posted by MantaRay

Interesting observation. To piggyback on that, everybody is more impersonal. I mean people actually PREFER to text message their friends rather than talk to them. And these are supposed to be their FRIENDS.

And everybody acts as if they HAVE to answer messages IMMEDIATELY, the crackberry HAS to be used every 4 minutes or it will explode or something. Or if they don't answer a text message within 1 minute their head will explode or something.

Nothing wrong with depending on technology like you might depend on your car to get you to work. But NOT dependency like you might depend on the crack pipe and you just about get the jitters and shakes if you don't take your hit soon.

LMAO! my gosh, this is soooo me lol

[Rachael84]

Originally Posted by DailyJournalist

The best thing of the early 90's and late 80's was Freestyle music!

Freestyle music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What's strange is that most people outside NYC metro have no idea what freestyle music is.

[taydev]

I think the 90's was less stressful, event though i was only like 8 or something. I could always tell, people just seemed more happy with their lives and themselves. Now it takes material things to make people happy it seems. 2010, I like the advancement of technology, energy, and educational and career opportunities but many people now are so high strung and unhappy. at the same time I think more people seem to have ambition and a dstrong determination to succeed (career/financial wise) in todays society

[DailyJournalist]

Originally Posted by Rachael84

What's strange is that most people outside NYC metro have no idea what freestyle music is.

I agree, although it seems to have gotten some play in Chicago and Miami in the 80's and 90's.


YouTube - Latin Freestyle Mix

[grindin]

Originally Posted by Rachael84

What's strange is that most people outside NYC metro have no idea what freestyle music is.

I know what it is, because a lot of radio stations in San Diego played the music. Freestyle music was very popular in the Hispanic community there. I didn't know the genre had a name until years later though.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by grindin

I know what it is, because a lot of radio stations in San Diego played the music. Freestyle music was very popular in the Hispanic community there. I didn't know the genre had a name until years later though.

This is the key point here. Freestyle was extremely popular in any decent sized city back in the mid to late 80s because it was the music that was primarily played in dance clubs. It just got classified in to a larger "Dance" genre.

[machiavelli1]

Overall, America was a better place in 1990 than today.

Music was MUCH better then, our country was not divided politically as it is now, TV was actually entertaining, the economy was better, less drug use etc.

[Rachael84]

Originally Posted by machiavelli1

Overall, America was a better place in 1990 than today.

Music was MUCH better then, our country was not divided politically as it is now, TV was actually entertaining, the economy was better, less drug use etc.

Wow, I think this is the 2nd thing I've EVER agreed with you about

[Deezus]

I was only 10 years old in 1990, but I was precocious enough to have some idea of what was going on back then---though much of what I know about the politics and economy of the 80s and 90s I've learned later on.

---Hip-hop and rap music was at it's early peak in 1990; The music and the style was still exciting and new for a kid growing up in the era. You actually had some diversity in the form with the political rap of Public Enemy, the bohemian rap of Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, the early gangster rap of NWA, the pop rap of MC Hammer, etc...But it was still feared and controversial. Alternative rock was still a year away from it's ascendancy to the popular forefront, although some bands were slowly starting to break through, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction, etc. However, crappy pop hair-metal was still the dominant rock music of the time. CDs were still an expensive novelty--most people just had tapes.

---The culture was starting to get darker and more cynical. The popular action films of the day were continuing to get more violent--I remember getting my mom to rent Total Recall and Robocop 2 that year. TV shows like Seinfeld, the Simpsons, and Married with Children were a more sarcastic look at American society than the family sitcoms (Cosby Show, Family Ties) of the 1980s.

---The inner-cities were at their worst in terms of crime. Just speaking from personal experience; San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland all felt far more dangerous and rundown than they were in the last decade.(Even my hometown of Santa Cruz, CA felt a lot skuzzier back in the day) Crack cocaine and the war on drugs was the number one public issue. Gentrification of the cities hadn't taken hold yet on a large scale--which has been good in terms of safety and amenities, but bad for affordability.

---There was a feeling of celebration as the Cold War came to an end. This was reflected even in popular songs of the period---anyone remember "Winds of Change" by the Scorpions? For anyone born after the early 80s, it might be hard to imagine the fear and paranoia that lingered all the way up until the mid-80s and Gorbachav and glasnost---you had films like Red Dawn and the threat of nuclear war. There seemed to be both a sense of relief and uncertainty in what would lie ahead after the fall of the Eastern Bloc. America was the dominant superpower in the world. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was a reminder that the world was still a very dangerous place. I can remember all kinds of fears that the war would develop into a large conflict---that we'd be sending back thousands of soldiers in body bags like Vietnam. When it ended in several weeks in 1991 with barely a few hundred US casualties, it felt like US military power was untouchable.

---The US political system wasn't as divided as it would become later in the decade. This was pre-Newt Gingrich and the 1994 Republican victory. You still had a handful of older World War II and Silent generation politicians who were of a more moderate stripe on both the Republican and Democrat sides. The Baby Boomers--the most politcally polarized generation in the recent history, were just beginning to be elected in larger numbers to the House and Senate.

---The economy was in a recession and I remember a lot of fear about my parents keeping their jobs. My cousins who graduated college during that era couldn't find many job opportunities in California. The boom years of the 90s were yet to start. Japan's asset bubble was about to crash, but I can remember people still talking about how Japan would probably end up owning most of the US.

I think it's typical for people to look back at the years of their child hood through a rose-colored tint--most people are nostalgic for their younger years to some degree....the reality is often much different. The world always has been a dark place. I remember 1990 as kind of a weird transition period between the 1980s and the incoming Generation X cynicism of the early-mid 90s, prior to the boom years of the late 90s.

Was 1990 a more optimistic time than 2010? Yes, but that says very little. The 1990s it felt like our national angst was inner-driven, there weren't any large scale societal issues to latch on to for the most part.(War on drugs??Yeah right..) In the 2000s it's felt like the chickens have come home to roost...all the fears that seemed sort of abstract in the 1990s, economic collapse, terrorism, war, we've had to deal with head on.

[Libertine]

Granted I may have only been 5 years old, but any year that produces classic hits like Wilson Phillips' "Hold On", Whitney Houston's "I'm Your Baby Tonight", Nelson's "Love and Affection", and "Ice Ice Baby", is easily the clear winner! No contest.