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When I think of the 90's I think of MTV. The Real World!! It was soooo good in the beginning, and now I can't even look at it. Does it still come on? Once Pop music came out....sad times. Carson Daly, TRL. The 90's and its entertainment had a theme which I think is "tell it like it is." Things were not sugar coated, they were not covered in makeup, nothing was over done I guess is what I mean.
I know the common perception is that the 80s were so obviously ridiculous and dated just a few years later in a way the 90s/early 2000s weren't... but to them I present Exhibit A from the year 2000:
^ Pop culture/hairdos/styles haven't changed since then? This song hit #2 on the Billboard 100 in 2000, lol. By 2003 this would have looked dated as hell.
You know what's funny too, is Home Alone (1990) seemed like an old movie to me even watching it in 1997. I think that's proof that there was a huge difference between the late 80's/early 90's and the late 90's. In some ways 1997 has more in common with 2012 than it does with 1991!
When you're a kid though, things always seem dated quicker. When I was a ten-year-old in 1989, films from 1979 and 1980 already seemed positively ancient.
The early 90s were a transition period from the 1980s, but 1997 isn't that close to 2012. Much of what was going on culturally by 1997 was just things that gained popularity earlier in the 90s.
Yes! Also I hate all the stupid plastic signage you see for businesses. I know it's a silly complaint but I just find the aesthetic of the early 21st century (and even late 90s to a degree) to look ugly and sterile, almost like how an iPad looks.
You know what's funny too, is Home Alone (1990) seemed like an old movie to me even watching it in 1997. I think that's proof that there was a huge difference between the late 80's/early 90's and the late 90's. In some ways 1997 has more in common with 2012 than it does with 1991!
The 2000s do have a bit of a sterile look to them, a look that I rarely ever saw in the 90s, that I remember anyway.
And as for Home Alone, I can understand the feeling. I thought both Home Alones were made in the 80s. I first watched it in 1994. I didn't know that Home Alone 2 had been made in 1992, 2 years before I first saw it. It seemed so long ago.
One thing I feel about Home Alone 2 is that it was like a transition into the 1990s.
Its funny I think I overly wish i was back at this time period. I have actually posted topics on how much I miss being in the 90s...and it is because i grew up then. I find myself overly longing for this period in my life...and i dont think it is normal.
There's always an overlap between decades. I remember reading/hearing about Mad Men's first season that some of the clothes/furniture were actual 1950s or reproductions of 1950s because most people accumulate furniture/clothing over a period of time and in some ways, the early 60s overlapped with the late 50s.
I started the 90s in my mid 20s and finished out the decade in my mid 30s It was a good time in my life and I have some nostalgia for it. I think it had a lot going on with technology. As people have mentioned the internet. And digital music, movies. While cell phones existed in the 80s, they really didn't become affordable for most people until the 90s. I got my first one in 1998 or 1999 and I was one of the last of my friends to get one. And as has been mentioned, the end of the Cold War, with the Berlin Wall coming down. Previous to that, travel between the US and Russia and the other countries which were part of the Soviet bloc was very limited. In the 90s, you had Americans going there and vice versa. I remember reading Generation X by Douglas Coupland for the first time and the Howe & Strauss book, 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Fail or Ignore? Both were published in the 90s. I remember very little of the 60s. The 70s reminds me mostly of family strife, the 80s were fun once I left home. I really enjoyed the 90s. The 2000s and 2010s were ok for me personally, but I think they'll forever be overshadowed by 9/11 in the case of the 2000s and terrorism, war and the economy for both.
As for the Cold War, I don't miss it, but I prefer it to the current situation with terrorism, etc. One of my teachers predicted the whole scenario back in the early 80s. He predicted the fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of terrorism from small, splintered groups and that it would be tied into the Mideast. He predicted they would eventually get nuclear weapons and that would probably be when nuclear weapons were used again, not by the USSR/USA. All of that has come to pass except for the nuclear part and the jury's still out on that one.
In some ways I preferred it when nuclear destruction was only something we had to worry about from 2 armed superpowers who had a vested interest in the status quo vs. nuking each other. I remember in high school reassuring myself that if Nancy Reagan was spending all of that money on redecorating The White House and buying new plates, she & the former president probably wouldn't want to live in a bunker, so nuclear war probably wasn't imminent. I do remember an elementary school teacher telling us there was no point in shelter drills because we'd all just be vaporized. For a long time I was really afraid of that.
Last edited by exscapegoat; 09-23-2012 at 12:05 AM..
There's always an overlap between decades. I remember reading/hearing about Mad Men's first season that some of the clothes/furniture were actual 1950s or reproductions of 1950s because most people accumulate furniture/clothing over a period of time and in some ways, the early 60s overlapped with the late 50s.
I started the 90s in my mid 20s and finished out the decade in my mid 30s It was a good time in my life and I have some nostalgia for it. I think it had a lot going on with technology. As people have mentioned the internet. And digital music, movies. While cell phones existed in the 80s, they really didn't become affordable for most people until the 90s. I got my first one in 1998 or 1999 and I was one of the last of my friends to get one. And as has been mentioned, the end of the Cold War, with the Berlin Wall coming down. Previous to that, travel between the US and Russia and the other countries which were part of the Soviet bloc was very limited. In the 90s, you had Americans going there and vice versa. I remember reading Generation X by Douglas Coupland for the first time and the Howe & Strauss book, 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Fail or Ignore? Both were published in the 90s. I remember very little of the 60s. The 70s reminds me mostly of family strife, the 80s were fun once I left home. I really enjoyed the 90s. The 2000s and 2010s were ok for me personally, but I think they'll forever be overshadowed by 9/11 in the case of the 2000s and terrorism, war and the economy for both.
As for the Cold War, I don't miss it, but I prefer it to the current situation with terrorism, etc. One of my teachers predicted the whole scenario back in the early 80s. He predicted the fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of terrorism from small, splintered groups and that it would be tied into the Mideast. He predicted they would eventually get nuclear weapons and that would probably be when nuclear weapons were used again, not by the USSR/USA. All of that has come to pass except for the nuclear part and the jury's still out on that one.
In some ways I preferred it when nuclear destruction was only something we had to worry about from 2 armed superpowers who had a vested interest in the status quo vs. nuking each other. I remember in high school reassuring myself that if Nancy Reagan was spending all of that money on redecorating The White House and buying new plates, she & the former president probably wouldn't want to live in a bunker, so nuclear war probably wasn't imminent. I do remember an elementary school teacher telling us there was no point in shelter drills because we'd all just be vaporized. For a long time I was really afraid of that.
Rather the power of almighty destruction in the hands of those preserving the status quo with everything to lose rather than in the hands of those with nothing.
This is one of those arenas that Hollywood generally got wrong, i.e. 'Dr. Strangelove', 'Planet Of The Apes'predicting that the Earth would be destroyed by the inclinations of an unhinged maniac but the sedating aspects of self-preservation for the status quo was greatly underestimated.
Unlike Islamic fundamentalism and hijacked jets which were long a mainstay of Hollywood action movies long before the horrific tragedy of 9/11 occured. That one they eerily seemed to predict with more precision, a bit like the freak show television industry as visionised in 'Network' in the 1970's.
Funnily enough the term "9/11 changed everything" is often used but often the link is rather tenuous. I often hear 'the Wire' being associated as a post 9/11 drama but apart from a few clips about the FBI talking about having to focus financing of terroism I'm not really sure why. The 1st season was written before 9/11 and to me the drama more reflected a city in post-industrial fallout rather than anything else. I thought 'Rescue Me' was much more of a post-9/11 when it came to coming to terms with the aftermath of that cataclysmic event.
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