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Hypercolor shirts were sort of the spirit of the early 90s--sort of that weird transition from about 1989 to 1992 where you had a lot of bright colored stuff that was popularized in the 80s still around--and taken to even more extremes.
I just remember in 6th-7th grade there was this brief period around 1991, when Hypercolor shirts were a huge craze. Every kid wanted a hypercolor t-shirt. Of course you'd get one and then wash it at the wrong temperature and it'd be permanently changed to one color. Also it'd be funny when kids would wear them to gym class or go run around and get sweaty in them and you'd have these tie-dyed looking sweat stains. I'm sure a lot of those shirts by 1992 were thrown away or sitting on the bargain rack at the local Goodwill.
I remember tie-dyed shirts started getting popular around 1989 as well for kids--I had a tie-dyed Edmonton Oilers t-shirt around 1990 that I was particularly proud of as a kid living in Canada at that time.
I was in 2nd grade in 1992, and I got a Hypercolor shirt and a pair of Reebok Pumps for my birthday. Most stylin' kid in class. Granted, that was basically all I got for my birthday because we were flat broke... but, man, was I proud.
That transitional period between the late 80's and early 90's had a really distinct style and sound. I remember stuff like this:
I was in 2nd grade in 1992, and I got a Hypercolor shirt and a pair of Reebok Pumps for my birthday. Most stylin' kid in class. Granted, that was basically all I got for my birthday because we were flat broke... but, man, was I proud.
That transitional period between the late 80's and early 90's had a really distinct style and sound. I remember stuff like this:
I remember listening to that sort of stuff and thinking that it was the wave of the future. How wrong I was...
Oh yeah...totally remember those songs being popular. Since my musical knowledge at age 11 was limited to what was on MTV I had no idea about any kind of electronic dance music of that period at the time--but I remember hearing "house music" being used to describe "Pump up the Jam"--so I think for a couple years after that I assumed all house music sounded just like Technotronic. Plus the MC, Ya Kid K had a song on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie soundtrack in 1990--which along with the film itself was a huge cultural touchstone for elementary school kids that year.
I also remember thinking DeeLite was "club music"--or I think that's what one of my older cousins in college at the time called it. In a way there was no largescale mainstream crossover of rave culture or techno or house music into the US pop charts at that time, but there were little elements with dance beats in a lot of songs that became popular during that period.
I don't remember hearing any of the Madchester bands during that period either on MTV(I might not have noticed them)--it wasn't until years later that I went back and listened to that music after reading about that period in music that I knew anything about the Stone Roses or Happy Mondays. Though bands influenced by the whole "baggy" scene like Jesus Jones had a big hit in the US with "Right Here, Right Now"(which itself was part of the whole brief period of post-Cold War celebration songs including the Scorpions’' "Winds of Change"). And EMF was pretty big with "Unbelievable" which was sort of the tail end of that whole British scene--I remember that being a popular song around 7th grade--along with the Soup Dragons and a couple other bands. But, I didn't realize as well until years later how many songs of that period and later sort of borrowed the disco-funk breakbeat with jangly guitar formula of the Madchester bands--and pop songs all started having breakbeats throughout much of the 90s.
But another thing was that, since there was such a shift towards harder, raw rock music(and slower G-funk or jazzier hip hop on the rap/R&B side of music) in 1992--the whole rave culture and much of electronic music was really forced underground in most of the US during the 90s. Grunge music itself and a lot of the commercial imitators really was some of the most undancable rock music ever--just really a lot of big plodding rhythms--although there were a few funkier alternative bands around. DJs at my junior high dances used to just put on Nirvana (or even AC/DC or the Clash) and kids who were too shy to dance would just get up and mosh. But in terms of electronic dance music it seemed like it was either basically commercial dance music that everyone sort of mocked(What is Love? Get Ready For This? lol) or strictly more underground stuff in the US for the mid 90s. I knew a few kids who went to raves up the coast from Santa Cruz and in the Bay Area in those days, but they were sort of considered the crazy, more adventurous kids who were experimenting with a lot of foreign substances. I remember a couple of German exchange students at our high school and everyone was suprised at the fact that they listened to all this European techno music. It really wasn't until the later part of the 90s, that it became cool in my high school to listen to electronic music and even then much of what we got into was sort of the trip hop era--and then into the big beat of the late 90s. Really, I remember by the time I went college around 1999, a lot of us started getting heavily into DJing and electronic music and underground hip-hop(and the rest were pseudo-hippies into jam bands and funky jazz).
Failure ... thanks for reminding me of a great band I had forgotten about.
Yeah, Failure is definitely one of my all-time favorite bands and was a massive inspiration. Ken Andrews, the lead singer, is a producer now; as such, my band is considering approaching him to produce our album... they had a pretty unique sound:
A '90s revival is definitely starting to bubble up along the coasts. Here in NYC there are a couple of bands who wear old soccer jerseys and do a retro-revival of the Stone Roses / Happy Mondays sound.
I wonder if there'll be a revival of the more abrasive, aggressive '90s genres, like industrial and the harder end of grunge, on the part of teenagers looking to rebel against the overly polite and sentimental sound of the modern day "indie" scene. The past ten years have been a pretty good decade for metal, but not for non-metal heavy rock genres.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of most of the current indie stuff, which you summed up well in calling overly polite and sentimental. I can't stand Coldplay because it's just an inoffensive, beige-carpet shell of "rock," and much of the indie stuff out now sounds like slightly-scruffier, lower-budget Coldplay in that sense. A lot of the indie bands that are popular now have about as much substance - in some cases, even less substance - than mass-market pop music. Lady Gaga is drastically more thought provoking than Foster the People, for instance. It freaks me out. It really does.
Even though, ultimately, I'm not a big fan of their total output, Sunny Day Real Estate had introspective, self-aware and sensitive lyrics but did it with a sound that wasn't completely drained of testosterone or any feeling other than "I need hugs."
Why aren't the 90's popular as a nostalgia decade? In theory, the decade is long enough ago that it should evoke nostalgia. Y2K was almost 13 years ago and 1990 started nearly a quarter of a century ago. The early 90's is as close to the hippie era as it is to the early 10's in time and hippies were definitely thought of as being of the distant nostalgic past by the time The Wonder Years aired (1988-1993). Even 1995 is halfway back to 1978 which was definitely, I distinctly remember, very much classic nostalgia in the mid 90's.
It seems like the only people who are interested in 90's nostalgia are people who were very young children in that decade, or teenagers who can barely remember the 90's at all. I almost never hear anyone born before 1985 say anything good about the 90's seriously. It's almost all focused on kiddie stuff from the 90's too, like the Disney Renaissance and Nickelodeon, which admittedly were both awesome and nostalgia-worthy.
I hardly ever hear of say, modern day 35 year olds who are nostalgic for the grunge music of their teens, or lament that classic films such as Jurassic Park and Men In Black are no longer made. 80's nostalgia is still king and I can't imagine people ever taking 90's nostalgia seriously. The thing is 80's nostalgia is getting old and 1985 is almost 30 years ago and even 40 year olds today were very young in the early 80's. So are we just going to be nostalgic about nothing by the time 2030 rolls around and the 80's is literally the age of old timers?
Why? Is 2012 just too damn similar to 1995 or something? Was the 90's unoriginal/forgettable pop culturally?
I was in 2nd grade in 1992, and I got a Hypercolor shirt and a pair of Reebok Pumps for my birthday. Most stylin' kid in class. Granted, that was basically all I got for my birthday because we were flat broke... but, man, was I proud.
That transitional period between the late 80's and early 90's had a really distinct style and sound. I remember stuff like this:
I remember listening to that sort of stuff and thinking that it was the wave of the future. How wrong I was...
Some of this does feel like the early 90s. I'm thinking there is some kind of influences with new jack swing.
It is interesting that you mentioned shoes. You're a year older than me. I was in the 2nd grade in 1993. I don't remember Reebok Pumps. However, I do remember LA Lights, the shoes that light up every time you walk. I remember one kid in my class getting them. I had to get them as well. I eventually got them while in the 2nd grade.
Some of this does feel like the early 90s. I'm thinking there is some kind of influences with new jack swing.
Definitely. You had a few places where the genres crossed over: the lyrics were generally about love or feeling good. Both were offshoots of 80's hip hop and R&B, which in turn were descendents of funk and soul. A lot of funk and soul samples were used to create hooks over early synth/drum machine beats (often with Roland TR-808's).
A couple other songs that have a distinctly "early 90's" sound to me:
It is interesting that you mentioned shoes. You're a year older than me. I was in the 2nd grade in 1993. I don't remember Reebok Pumps. However, I do remember LA Lights, the shoes that light up every time you walk. I remember one kid in my class getting them. I had to get them as well. I eventually got them while in the 2nd grade.
Yeah, I remember those, too My best friend got those, and so between the two of us, we were like, "YES!! WE HAVE THE FRESHEST SHOES IN SCHOOL! WE'RE RAD!!" I later got a pair of LA Gears that pumped up, too... truly one of the most pointless gimmicks in shoes, but when you were a kid in the early 90's, it was a huge deal. When I look back at sneaker culture in the early 90's now, it cracks me up. It also created an entire generation of Americans who don't blink at the thought of dropping $110 for a pair of sneakers... a triumph for apparel companies!
My Reeboks were like these, just with red instead of green:
I recall this commercial for them, which came out after I'd gotten mine. Pretty intense for a shoe commercial, man. Notice how the Pumps give the little guy the ability to do a backflip slam-dunk.
I think there's a huge difference between 1994 and 1997. Huge leap in modernity. Like half the difference between the 80's and now seemed to happen in just those 3 years almost.
I think there's a huge difference between 1994 and 1997. Huge leap in modernity. Like half the difference between the 80's and now seemed to happen in just those 3 years almost.
Yeah. In 1994, "cyberspace" was a buzzword for something that existed, but was generally still thought of as the province of the wealthy and learned. The average person knew that it meant something like your computer connected to this online world, but... after that... uh...
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... thanks for reminding me of a great band I had forgotten about.
