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View Poll Results: 1997: more like 1980 or 2014?
1980 9 24.32%
2014 28 75.68%
Voters: 37. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 11-16-2014, 10:48 AM
 
Location: San Antonio, TX
24 posts, read 32,907 times
Reputation: 39

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadow Walker View Post
That looks 100% late 90s. The early-mid 90s were nothing like the photo and the fashion was mostly grungy or "gangsta" like. The very early 90s were about neon.

Here's some fashion from the early-mid 90s, though not really a good example.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cW0NZdMsn3...0/fashion8.jpg
In think you mean the first half. The second half of the '90s saw much better fashion than the first half. 1995 onwards was actually quite attractive actually. I'd recommend looking at a Delia's fall 1996 catalog (or summer or holiday) which they have on Buzzfeed (which got the pictures from an uploaded on flickr) and you'd see girls' fashion was actually very classy and beautiful. My mom says women did dress like that back then. I'd recommend watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 1 for 1996 fashion trends, as the first season was filmed in 1996.

Men also looked better. The baggy look was cool, although the pants were straight legged and more tailored as opposed to the harem-like style of the early '90s. However, rock stars still wore tight pants (maybe not skintight, but definitely not close to baggy). I believe 1996 was the year the '70s look came back for men. Just a little more accurate information for you.

 
Old 11-16-2014, 12:05 PM
 
Location: San Antonio, TX
24 posts, read 32,907 times
Reputation: 39
I'd say 1980 for pop cultural reasons. The music of 1997 is much more like 1980, as '70s nostalgia was huge that year and 1980 was passed off as the '70s (1980 is really '70s). Several songs in 1997 sampled tunes from 1980 such as "Not Tonight" by Lil' Kim which sampled "Ladies' Night" by Kool & the Gang, as well as "Cold Rock A Party" which sampled "Upside Down". '70s sampling goes back as early as 1995 with "Too Hot" by Coolio which sampled the Kool song of the same name. Hip-Hop and R&B in 1997 was hugely inspired by Disco and Funk which were still very popular in 1980. In '97 those genres had a 4-by-the-floor beat, which is a disco thing. Dance music at the time was also inspired by disco. Many, if not all, of the musical trends from 1997 had begun in the previous year. Here in 2014, we try to be more "unorthodox" with our musical style and no one samples music from 1997. As a matter of fact, it's more like the early '90s if anything.

TV-wise, 1997 had sitcoms and dramas as the most popular genres. The same as 1980. Here in 2014, sitcoms are still fairly popular, but reality TV rules the roost (I hate it). Dramas, especially teen dramas, have almost all but disappeared. It's sad, I love those genres.

Fashion-wise I still stand on my opinion. In 1980, the look was button-down shirts, silk blouses (women), polyester shirts (men), high-waisted pants and jeans (that were tight in the thigh and straight in the calves), quilted jackets, leather coats, turtleneck sweaters and shirts, mule shoes (women), round-toe leather dress shoes (men), and foam sole sneakers. The Farrah Fawcett hairstyle was in for girls and guys had either the shag or a buzzcut. My parents were in high school then and I saw their yearbooks, as well as pictures on google. 1997 say many of the same trends. As a matter of fact, 1996/97 is when they came back. Womens' hair was straighter than in 1980 and men's hair was shorter also, and men's pants were somewhat looser and high-waisted (although they weren't low-rise). The disco look was still hot in 1980. In 1997 it was back. 2014 is different. The trendiest look is more tousled and yet more athletic. It's not as put-together as '97 or '80.

Here's 1980:
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/slides...sies-58074.php

Here's 1997 (got it off the Buffy Wiki):


Pop culture goes in 20 year cycles, but I'd actually say 1980 was retro in 1997. However, 1997 is now just as old as 1980 was then and 1997 just looks dated, not retro. I guess we'll have to wait another year or two for pop culture to change and look more like 1997.

Last edited by BlizzardFlurry; 11-16-2014 at 12:27 PM..
 
Old 06-26-2016, 08:39 AM
 
26,143 posts, read 19,740,717 times
Reputation: 17241
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowball7
I think 97 was more like 80 than 14.
No doubt in my mind on that.
Well it was going downhill and fast... NOT AS BAD AS 14 but not nearly as good as 1980 either!!
 
Old 07-06-2016, 12:11 PM
 
25 posts, read 42,096 times
Reputation: 84
It was closer to 2014. While they were still primitive at the time, you already had the Internet and cell phones in 1997, and those were the essential foundations of later technology. In 1980, very few people owned personal computers, video games were only becoming really popular for the first time, and all calls had to be made using landline phones. 1980 was still part of the Cold War; 1997 was pre-9/11, but world politics were still much more similar to what they are now than when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Fashion in 1997 was, for the most part, fairly understated; there still were some identifiably 90s trends like curtained hair and the Rachel, but unlike 1980, which was still stuck in the shaggy, grassy, blow dried era of the 70s, you had relative freedom to dress as you wished in '97. Although rock was still popular in 1997 (albeit in a bit of a commercial recession), two of the biggest rock albums that year (OK Computer and The Colour and the Shape) were both by bands who were still extremely popular in 2014 and both of which had not drastically deviated front that style since. Popular music in 1997 was otherwise a mixture of cheesy, sample-heavy retro tracks and some very early examples of what could be considered "2000s" music (i.e., "You Make Me Wanna," "Up Jumps Da Boogie"). In general, not that much music sounded like it could have come out today, but it was certainly nowhere near 1980, either. Hip hop was hardly even known in 1980 aside from stuff like "Rapper's Delight." Electronic dance music was also starting to mature in 1997, even though it wasn't the same as 2014 EDM.

Last edited by Infinity183; 07-06-2016 at 12:23 PM..
 
Old 07-06-2016, 01:04 PM
 
13,631 posts, read 20,700,561 times
Reputation: 7630
Quote:
Hip hop was hardly even known in 1980 aside from stuff like "Rapper's Delight."
Probably because "Rappers Delight" was the first mainstream hip hop song- which we called rap at the time (hence the name). Something can't be known until it emerges.

The next couple of years brought Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, etc and the rest is history.
 
Old 07-06-2016, 01:08 PM
 
Location: Texas
44,256 posts, read 64,159,565 times
Reputation: 73916
The internet totally sucked in 1997. I remember.
I was in college. Besides chitchatting with friends, it was all but useless.
Most people did not have cell phones. I know, bc I was the only one I knew who had one.
No DVRs.
No social media.
In foreign countries (even Russia and Germany), tech was way behind for the average user.
Women had not adopted the giant bobble head perched atop coat-rack skinny body look yet, either.
You still went to stores to shop.

I've been rewatching Frasier the last week or two.
The late 1990s have really not much in common with today at all.
 
Old 07-06-2016, 01:37 PM
 
862 posts, read 1,190,064 times
Reputation: 1067
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlizzardFlurry View Post

Pop culture goes in 20 year cycles, but I'd actually say 1980 was retro in 1997. However, 1997 is now just as old as 1980 was then and 1997 just looks dated, not retro. I guess we'll have to wait another year or two for pop culture to change and look more like 1997.

Pretty much true actually especially with radio. In 1997 many cities had radio stations that played nothing but music from the 1970s though some were more/less strictly rock & disco and no soft hits ( you wouldn't hear Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life" or Lobo's "I Love You to Want Me" there ) while others did play everything 70s including Debbie Boone and Lobo. By the late 90s some stations even did the "Jamin Oldies" thing which was a format of disco & R&B from the 70s and early 80s with a tune from the 60s sprinkled in. Dittos with country music too. Some places in 1997 had "classic country" stations that played a ton of such music especially those so-called "truck driving tunes" ( think Smokey & The Bandit and the TV show "Movin On" ) from the 70s.

None of this was a new thing. Music from the 50s became big in the 70s thanks to TV shows like Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley and radio stations like NYC's 101 WCBS-FM. Heck even Alvin & The Chipmunks made a big return in the late 70s !! Music from the 60s had their turn in making a comeback during the 80s when a lot of radio stations went oldies and movies such as The Big Chill were popular. During my travels between 2000 and 2007 I can remember a few radio stations doing "all 80s..all the time" however unfortunately that format didn't last as a full time one though a few stations did continue to do it as a weekend thing. Now here it is 2016 and what can one find on the radio in many places ????...throwback hip hop..music from the late 90s. It remains to be seen how long that will be around.

Last edited by tantan1968; 07-06-2016 at 01:52 PM..
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