Do high school kids these days make fun of the 90s?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

When I was in high school ('95-'99), we brutally made fun of anything or anyone “80s”. Eighties music, hair, fashion, movies, tv shows, were all targets. There was a lady we all worked with at our part time job who had 80s hair, 80s makeup, drove an 80s car, listened to 80s music, and wore 80s clothes. We called her “Trapped in the 80s Girl.” To us, the 80s were a lame time when we were kids and everything from that era was stale and uncool. Most people my age - including myself to some extent - hold the opposite view now, but that was then.

It occurred to me last summer when I was stuck with a bunch of recent high school graduates for a few days that the 90s are just as distant now as the 80s were when we were ripping on them.

How quickly the tables turn. I didn’t even realize it until these kids told me they had never heard of the Wu-Tang Clan or seen Pulp Fiction.

2

I told a couple of high school kids this lame joke (which I inexplicably read in Reader’s Digest of all places) and they didn’t even get it!

Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?
Fo’ drizzle!

God, am I old and lame. They totally gave me that “look at the old white lady trying to be hip” face. I’m only 28!

3

I had a profound thought a number of years back that the only reason we automatically assume that people will make relentless fun of past decades is just because many of us grew up during a time when we got to make relentless fun of the late 1960’s, the 70’s, and the 80’s. Most people just assume that is how things work as time progresses.

My alternative explanation is simply that those decades were unusually mockable even by those that lived through them and that doesn’t automatically apply to other time periods. All decades have their stereotypical images but I don’t think that say, the 1920’s, the 1940’s, or the 1950’s are nearly as mockable as anything the baby boomers created. I don’t think the 1990’s are nearly as mockable as the earlier decades either. I am sure that teenagers today can find things they see as strange in images of the 1990’s but it was also the time when the web and the information age quickly took hold. It wasn’t all that different in any obvious sense.

4

I was a kid of the 80s and we often made brutal fun of the 80s. It was a strange time and the Big Hair and disjointed music was a big part of it.

Many of us thought the 60s and 70s were a better time to be a teen. We had Preppy dress, Punk rock extreme dress, the beginning of Head Bangers, the left over hippie look, big hair 80s girls, the Miami Vice boys, the wanna-be Urban lame suburbans, even a small mix of surfer dudes/valley girls.

We had no central culture or music to speak of. At least in Jersey we had Bruce, but damn, in the 80s that was overkill. Disco was dead, but at least it served the purpose of classifying teens in the 70s as either Disco fans or Disco haters. There were few in between.

The 60s had hippies, drugs, Vietnam to be fearful, serious social upheaval to be proud of or make you feel alive and living in important times. The 60s had the race to the moon. The 80s just did not have a lot to unify and the bright spot may have been the quality of movies aimed at the teen and young twenty audiences. I think this is the only area where the 80s were special for teens.

No one thought Reaganomics was going to change the world and while a few of us were inspired by Reagan’s military buildup, most were not. There were no great movements and no really lasting theme to the 80s.

Jim

5

I grew up in the 80s (I’m 35), and I remember making relentless fun of the 70s. As every decade since the 80’s seems to by inspired by a look/feel of a past decade, I’d say the bright neon colors, primary shapes and large hair was indeed inspired by the 50s.

The 90s seem to be inspired by the 60s, and the 00s the 70s. Continuing that trend, it looks like the 80s will be making a comeback. Already, I see signs of it. The flare jeans (a throwback to the bell-bottoms of the 70s) that have been so popular for so long, are again out and the straight leg is back. The polo shirts with the popped collars, and even some of the design trends you see in graphics in magazines and logos. I mean, just look at THIS abomination.

Musically, I expect keyboards and electronic music to rise again, and bubble-gum rock to come back.

Will Big-Hair again be popular? Let’s watch…

6

HS in 81-85 here, and we thought the 70s fashions were horrid. That’s so ingrained that now that they are coming back around, I cringe all over again. I mean these jeans?

http://www.artofthesteal.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/high-waisted-jeans.jpg

How can they possibly be back?

7

[QUOTE=gigi]
HS in 81-85 here, and we thought the 70s fashions were horrid. That’s so ingrained that now that they are coming back around, I cringe all over again. I mean these jeans?

How can they possibly be back?
[/QUOTE]

There is no way high-waisted jeans are making a comeback! Their whole purpose was to disguise the fact that the wearer had a butt, and butts are seen as a good thing now.

Personally, I think high-waisted (“mom”) jeans are the worst popular fashion item ever.

8

[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
All decades have their stereotypical images but I don’t think that say, the 1920’s, the 1940’s, or the 1950’s are nearly as mockable as anything the baby boomers created.
[/QUOTE]

I think there’s plenty about the Fifties to make fun of.

9

N8 - Class of '87
(with Buffett’s “A Pirate Looks at 40” playing in the background)

IIRC we all hated the 80’s, at least all the cool kids did back then. There were plenty of preps and posers to keep the whole thing going but I think most of it was artificial, just an over abundance of marketing that reflected the consumptive attitude of the decade. We didn’t make fun of the 70’s or 60’s because that’s where the roots of our music came from. Instead we made fun of the 40’s and 50’s and the WXTZ Extasy 970 AM where the “Golden Oldies” were played.

Of course we were young and dumb, the music played on that station - the Elvis, the Buddy Holly, some Cab Calloway, probably even the Lemon Sisters, were the true roots of rock 'n roll but we didn’t know that at the time, we just thought they were lame.

Now the oldies station plays the greatest hits of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I suspect any day now that Golden Oldies will include The Beastie Boys and Motley Crue, they already play REO and Styx.

sigh…

10

[QUOTE=Cisco]
There was a lady we all worked with at our part time job who had 80s hair, 80s makeup, drove an 80s car, listened to 80s music, and wore 80s clothes.
[/QUOTE]

I made fun of you too. Nyah!

11

[QUOTE=cmyk]
I grew up in the 80s (I’m 35), and I remember making relentless fun of the 70s…
[/QUOTE]

How DARE you!

jali - SFP class of 1975

12

Kids generally make fun of everything they haven’t heard of, but my brother (almost 16) doesn’t really make fun of the '90s and he’s into a good amount of music from that time, like Soundgarden and many Beastie Boys albums. And I think a great number of current high school kids are into The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park, all of which started/had their heyday in the '90s. I think ‘retro’ is cooler than it’s ever been and to some degree I think our culture acts like the darker aspects of '90s culture didn’t happen*, which might reduce the amount that '90s stuff gets made fun of slightly. But mostly kids are kids.

*Basically I think a lot of late-90s pop crap and the subsequent revival/nostalgia of everything about the '80s stems from Kurt Cobain’s suicide. I think people at large decided that stuff was much too serious, and realized they like fluff better.

13

[QUOTE=cmyk]
I grew up in the 80s (I’m 35), and I remember making relentless fun of the 70s. As every decade since the 80’s seems to by inspired by a look/feel of a past decade, I’d say the bright neon colors, primary shapes and large hair was indeed inspired by the 50s.

The 90s seem to be inspired by the 60s, and the 00s the 70s. Continuing that trend, it looks like the 80s will be making a comeback. Already, I see signs of it. The flare jeans (a throwback to the bell-bottoms of the 70s) that have been so popular for so long, are again out and the straight leg is back. The polo shirts with the popped collars, and even some of the design trends you see in graphics in magazines and logos. I mean, just look at THIS abomination.

Musically, I expect keyboards and electronic music to rise again, and bubble-gum rock to come back.

Will Big-Hair again be popular? Let’s watch…
[/QUOTE]

I’ve always felt that they way we think of each decade is influenced mainly by events in the mid to late section of each decade, not the beginning. For instance, I was born in 1981. If you look at pictures from when I was a baby, everything looks, to me, like it’s from the 70s. People’s dress, the hair, the houses, it all looks “70s”.

Anyway, based on the number of kids with Luke Skywalker style haircuts at my martial arts school, I’d say that your theory on the 80s returning is accurate. Star Wars came out in 1977 so that fits pretty well with an 80s revival in the 2010s.

14

[QUOTE=Whiteknight]
I’ve always felt that they way we think of each decade is influenced mainly by events in the mid to late section of each decade, not the beginning.
[/QUOTE]

It’s not just that. Decades in the cultural sense never coincide with calendar decades. I think the lag is usually about two years; in 1961 or 1962 I think '50s culture was still going pretty strong.

I still say we’ve been in the middle of a huge OD on 80s nostalgia for years. I see people wearing legwarmers and Transformers t-shirts, for crying out loud.

15

[QUOTE=Cisco]
There is no way high-waisted jeans are making a comeback! Their whole purpose was to disguise the fact that the wearer had a butt, and butts are seen as a good thing now.

Personally, I think high-waisted (“mom”) jeans are the worst popular fashion item ever.
[/QUOTE]

Sorry, but they’re back at least in a limited run. If Mischa Barton is any indication:

http://www.purseblog.com/celebrities/name-that-bag-mischa-barton/

Or Fergie or Ginger Spice:

:eek: They do show off the butt, just not uncovered.

16

[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
All decades have their stereotypical images but I don’t think that say, the 1920’s, the 1940’s, or the 1950’s are nearly as mockable as anything the baby boomers created.
[/QUOTE]

Are you kidding? 1920s: Flappers and bootleg gin and 23 skidoo? Maybe not mocked as in disparagingly, but certainly poked fun at–raccoon coats and rolled stockings, crazy fashions and short hair on girls! :eek:

1940s: Hmmm… not so much here (and we seem to have skipped the 30s, but what is to mock there? Oakies, WPA projects and Hitler’s rise? no thanks)

1950s: much to mock and we still do! And thank god for it.

1960s: mod, man. Go-go boots, micro minis, “rock and roll and other children’s music”. Heck, the TV ads alone are good for sustained laughter.

1970s: Far out, man. Psychadelics, love beads, fringed vests, Earth shoes–do I need to go on?

1980s: Big hair, Big shoulders, big clothes, Preppies, Miami Vice fashion, Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan–lots to mock here!

1990s: seems to be an amorphous blob to me. I suppose we can mock Y2K, and rightly so.

Perhaps we only mock decades that feature peace and prosperity? That makes the 70s an outlier of sorts, no?

17

Two things hurt any “mock the nineties” sentiment. One is that the internet has so accelerated the media cycle that culture fads run their course in a matter of weeks. Things are taking months, not years, to be mocked. Plus much of the nineties’ defining moments, from “Seinfeld” to slacker culture, was highly ironic. One of the reasons we laugh at the 80s is so much of the things we mock were considered very cool at the time. When stuff is saying from the start, “we’re in on the joke”, it’s hard to make fun of it.

18

Oh there’s plenty to mock about the 90s. Flannel (oh so much flannel), Doc Maartens and long hair, cookie-cutter sound-alike grunge bands, heroin chic, dot coms, square-toed shoes for men, little black dresses, and speaking of black, black clothes everywhere, from black t-shirts to black suits.

19

There’s a lot of stuff you can make fun of in the 90s, but not so much the music. My 17 year old sister in law graduated high school recently and by an overwhelming majority the music of choice at the Open House was her 90’s mix.

Had stuff like 311, Sublime, Weezer, RHCP, Offspring – basically my generation.

Moment of the day:
Weezer’s ‘‘Say It Ain’t So’’ came on.

‘‘Awesome song,’’ we all agree.
Then my husband, who is 25, ventures, ‘‘Pinkerton?’’
I look at him like he just sprouted a second head. ‘‘You fail the 90s,’’ I say.
‘‘Totally fail’’ agrees the 16-year-old.

IME kids today love the 90s–it was dark and angsty after all–and mercilessly mock the 80s, as every decade has done and every decade shall henceforth do.

–Olives, who both embraces and ridicules the 80s

20

Hey, the 90’s were okay in some sense. We can all agree that Weezer was awesome, but you’re forgetting that a lot of the style is becoming atrocious

Are you forgetting how ridiculous the fashion on Friends was? Chandler’s loose and baggy clothes and his ridiculous hairdo? Then Joey’s look. It was all horrible. Really the dudes look far worse than the women did.