Older Dopes (45-65): What do you recall about 1993-1997

In My Humble Opinion
41

The reason I ask is because I’m interested in history, mainly social history. The time in which one is coming up, but can barely remember is interesting. I can remember moments from say 1995 and 1996 very well and easily, but being only 5 say, I had no context for the events surrounding them.

It almost seems like a distant, alien time to me - still an analog age of VCRs, housephones with long cords, cassettes and video games having cartridges. I sometimes will watch news reports from this time period and everything seems so much more rectangular, hair is so much bigger (even though it wasn’t the 80s anymore), everything just seems much less…streamlined than today, in terms of look, feel, design. Women had these layered haircuts on the news and such I don’t see anymore. There weren’t beards everywhere as there is today.

I remember using a cell phone for the first time in the summer of 1996, and it was one my grandparents had loaned my dad as we left for a trip from NY to Virginia. The service cut out just as we passed over the Verrazano Bridge. My parents were both born in 1954 and my dad in this period seemed to be really into things - collecting a set of porcelain dolls, buying art pieces, etc. He was a massive fan of the Cranberries in 1995/1996. He began joining a bunch of enviromental and animal societies - Audobon, NYZT and quite a few others. He got a subscription to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and he got me a subscription to something like a kid’s version of National Geographic. We got our first PC in 1995 and parents seemed really into it. It seemed for me as a kid like a gateway into another world.

Everyone on a May 1995 home movie is commenting on my mother wearing “the teenage look” as my dad put it - she’s wearing one of those classic mid 90s floral dresses. My sisters and their boyfriends are variously joking she looked 13 again, etc. I remember one of the first days of first grade the teacher had a question for us about the upcoming election between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole - the question being who was running against Bill Clinton. I remember my dad coaching me beforehand, as if he had an idea what we were gonna be asked, but I don’t remember what he said. I remember raising my hand and saying “Bill Clinton!” and the teacher (a literally demented woman upwards of 80) said “Wrong!” and I said, “That’s what my dad told me…” “Well then your father’s wrong too!”

Renting movies every week or so from the local video store was a delight and fun.

As far as the 70s influence, I mean like, there’s pictures of my sister who was born in 1980 in 1995 and 1996 and she’s wearing very 70s kinda clothes - floral shirts, things like that. I remember a 20-something friend of my other sister selling my dad and I this bracelet made out of beads and there just seemed this vibe in the air that in hindsight seemed very much 70s.
He had a secondary corded phone which as a kid I thought looked futuristic.

It’s just I wish I knew what people thought of this era - and a little bit after - as it evolved. Like, I remember my parents watched Howard Stern’s brief TV show and I was mortified - I somehow KNEW, at like 7, that it was trashy and didn’t like that my parents were into it. I’d love to be able to go back to 1998 and hear my parents thoughts on Clinton proceedings or even our now current President. Or to go back to say, 1994 and hear my parents, sisters’ and their husbands’ perspectives on the times and what they felt 20 years from then would be like.

It’d be interesting to go back to say, 1995 and see various’ peoples reactions if I told them that in 22 years, Donald Trump would be President of the US and if I described the current political/social scene. Especially since I’m from NYC.

42

I’d just crawled into my 40s; moved to a hilltop territorial-style house that survived Loma Prieta; acquired new dogs and cat; built monstrous multi-PC and synthesizer systems; watched some MTV; endured two “100-year floods” in three months; moderated conspiracy fora; got more seriously into mandolin; and still tent-camped. The house overflowed with books, records, analog electronics, and neighbors BBQing abalone as needed.

What do I remember of that period a quarter-century ago? As little as possible.

43

I remember around this period my dad always bitching that the TV was the “idiot box.” He didn’t want me watching much TV as such. He seemed a lot more passionate about things back then…But I guess age takes that away? He named the Bronco he bought in 1995 after the song “Touch of Grey” and used to sing “Rock N’ Roll Hootchie Koo” as me and him drove (A lot of my childhood was just my dad and me since my mother worked full time and he part time). I never wore a seat belt - not until I was around 10 or so. When he’d made wide turns he’d hum the Batman theme.

Yet his father who was in his 60s used to love watching TV and playing video games with us kids back at the same time- he had his own Nintendo console and we used to take turns playing Duck Hunt with him. And didn’t speak nearly as much.

44

Was there a strong 70s revival vibe? If so, when?
I remember there was a resurgence of Swing and Ska after Punk ebbed. Anything having to do with Disco I avoided like the plague.

How did the general feeling in the US differ from today?
The whackos were more fringe and not in actual positions of power. The old school racists were starting to die out, but the new racism was in its infancy.

Was the “Multimedia Revolution” actually a huge thing, especially amongst Boomers?
Not really. It was more of an underground devotion that required some work on our part. We were having to upgrade computers and modems pretty frequently, and to get multiple phone lines to do both voice and data. Nowadays it’s too easy and automated.

Was it really as optimistic a time as it seems in hindsight?
Ebbs and flows. Technology gave us new stuff to play with, even before 3D modeling.

Would you say the US was healthier in some ways politically?
Slightly. The Clintons were also polarizing, but not as bad as Trump. The Democrats were in charge and eventually voters got sick of them.

When did Grunge/Post Grunge/etc fall off?
There’s still elements of Grunge in today’s music, I think. Just as there’s still elements of Disco, Folk, Latin, and just about any other music genre.

Did people in their early/mid 20s in the 90s like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, etc?
I remember those artists were frequently played on the radio, then their presence eventually faded. They’ve been resurfacing in classic rock stations.

What music did people above 40 in say 1995 listen to?
The same music that classic rock stations still play today.

Do you recall the Macarena fondly or with horror?
Not nearly as much horror as Disco.

Were the Cranberries a huge band in 1994-1995?
I don’t recall them selling out arenas and stadiums. They had that one hit with Zombie, but they weren’t exactly Pearl Jam.

45

Not really. The Black Crowes tried to bring bell bottoms back. Didn’t take.

No. Most times seem pessimistic when you’re in it, and optimistic later.

Grunge died very quickly; it was quite a transient thing. I’d say by 1997 or 1998. The 90s had three major musical things going on, if you were in the USA; grunge, hip hop, and female singer-songwriters doing mostly soft rock. Only hip hop lasted.

Define “huge.” I mean, they were a famous band; “huge” suggests a level of dominance they didn’t have. Nirvana was huge. Hootie and the Blowfish were huge. The Cranberries had maybe two big charting hits.

What is big then is not necessarily what lasts. In 1994, Ace of Base had three of the top ten songs in the USA, according to Billboard. Those songs were EVERYWHERE. They were an international sensation, just bigger than big. They had one more hit in 1996, and within a few years were forgotten, and are now little more than a trivia question. The Grammy winner for Best New Artist for 1994 was a band called All-4-One, who had several huge hits and are today even more forgotten than Ace of Base. Maybe the single most memorable song of the year was by Lisa Loeb, the one with the glasses, whose career foundered in five or six years and she mostly switched to making children’s music, which in fairness she’s been very successful at but you won’t be hearing “The Disappointing Pancake” at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony next year. You aren’t hearing much from Boys II Men, Tony Braxton, Big Mountain, or Enigma anymore, either, but they were all damn big in 1994. 1994 was not a fluke either; every year is like that.

(I’m not trying to confuse quality with longetivity; Lisa Loeb’s big hit is legitimately great. Tracy Chapman only had two hits but she was FANTASTIC. Worse acts have lasted longer.)

Don’t go by what people REMEMBER. People don’t remember things right at all. Look at the contemporaneous evidence.

46

I was in my thirties so I remember it pretty well.

I don’t think so. I feel seventies nostalgia hits its peak a decade later.

I think there was a strong sense of optimism. The Cold War was over and the world seemed to be moving in the direction of peace and democracy. And we had what appeared to be a growing economy.

I’m not familiar with that term so I certainly don’t see it as a huge thing. If you’re talking about the development of personal computers and online communication that hit the mainstream in the nineties. It was a time when a lot of people were buying their first computer. If you’re talking about stuff like home video, that started back in the eighties.

In my opinion, yes. People generally felt the world had been getting better and would continue to do so.

Yes.

I’m probably not the best judge of what was cool during that period. I was at least ten years too old to be in the middle of pop culture.

Around 1990, there was a recognized genre of alternative rock. It was seen as something distinct from mainstream rock and you had performers in alternative rock stations who never appeared on mainstream rock stations. Nirvana was the big cross over; they became famous enough that mainstream rock stations played their music and when the door was opened, other performers followed and alternative rock became the mainstream. What had been mainstream rock became a new form of classic rock.

The country genre was strong in the nineties and a lot of people who were looking for an alternative to rock listened to country.

I saw it as a fad.

They were mid-level. Somebody you had heard of but not a top tier act.

47

I’ll never understand your generations’ utter hatred of Disco. I love rock music - The Stones are probably my favorite group of all time and Jumpin’ Jack Flash is probably my favorite song of all time - but if I was alive in 1975 or 1976 you can bet your sweet ass I’d be at Studio 54 as much as I could be. My father was born in 1954 as I mentioned. Got himself cracked in the head with a beer bottle for wearing a big “DISCO SUCKS” pin circa 1978.

48

Good grief. 1993 was like 15 minutes ago. :rolleyes:

49

Probably can’t help you much, because during that period, I was teaching at a small Christian college in northeast Tennessee, about as far from the cultural zeitgeist as one could get. But I’ll add what I can.

Wouldn’t have been aware of a 70s revival if there was one.

Never heard the phrase “Multimedia Revolution” either then or later. When Netscape and IE first came along, that was a big deal: AFAICT, that’s when the Web really became the Web, rather than just text in the form of emails, BBSes, and the like. I’d say that was a big deal among Boomers; we were young enough at the time to learn new stuff, and to want to go play on the Web when we could.

Music stuff:

The Cranberries were pretty big, got a lot of airplay during that period. Couldn’t tell you about grunge or Korn or Limp Bizkit. OTOH, I loved the Macarena. Still do, actually.

What people over 40 listened to: by the early 1990s, the transition from Album Rock to Classic Rock was pretty much complete. The switch to the Classic Rock label basically meant that from then on they were going to just play stuff that had already gotten airplay on Album Rock stations during the Album Rock period - no more new music. And that’s what most people over 40 listened to, and still do. (Not me - something in my soul needs regular infusions of new music. I’d much rather listen to Cage the Elephant than Led Zeppelin.)

The 1990s got more optimistic as they went along. In 1993-94, we were still in what was known as the “jobless recovery” despite what the BLS stats say. But by the time you got to 1997, the Internet boom was really taking off, unemployment was falling, and wages were rising. By then, it was a very optimistic time. And politically, the sickness that started with Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich wasn’t very far advanced yet. (Fox News only started up in 1996, I think.) So it wasn’t nearly as sick a time politically as it is now.

In a way, I think the fall of Soviet Communism made it easier for things to go the way they’ve gone here. Even the right-wing captains of industry knew that in order to keep the peasants from revolting, things had to be clearly better here than they were in the USSR. Nowadays, without a competing system, capitalism can be as dystopian for the workers as it can get, and when people are piecing a living together out of three jobs whose hours keep changing on them every week, they can’t say, “how can it be any worse in the Soviet Union?” because there is no Soviet Union anymore. There’s nothing that capitalism has to be better than, so it can be as bad as the CEOs can get away with making it.

50

There was a massive wave of 1970s nostalgia on British TV around '95/96. That was when these reminiscence shows with Peter Kay and Stuart Maconie were on, they inspired all sorts of imitators like Match of the 70s, there were repeats of The Sweeney etc. There was a Bob Mills TV programme which I felt should just be named “The 70s” because that was all he talked about.

None of this translated into clothing fashion, but for a while the font used in The Sweeney credits was used in contemporary adverts and album covers.

At the same time, advertisers were going on and on about “multimedia” on computers, but it just meant playing CD ROMs.

51

I was in high school, so too young for the group you are asking about. But I recall flare-legged jeans coming in the latter part of the '90s and a friend and I swearing we’d never wear bell bottoms. Soon enough everyone wore flare-legged jeans. It’s something we thought of as like the '70s, but really wasn’t. Chunky shoes (high heels) were very in, but that was probably more 1998/1999. The flare stayed for a long while (as did the low-rise look, but I think that came later?).

52

1993 was when I bought my Sportster. Still have it. Harleys were the hottest thing going and most people couldn’t walk into a Harley dealership and ride home on a bike. I ordered mine in October and it didn’t come in until April '93. Wait times for the big twins were way longer. Used Harleys were selling for top dollar because you didn’t have to wait.
Another thing I remember about that time was that guys my age were cutting their hair. I was born in 1957 and most guys my age were still rocking the 80s rock star look until about that time. Younger guys had been doing shorter hair for a while but early 90s was when I noticed my contemporaries suddenly going to highly barbered military style cuts and to the now cliche shaved head/goatee combo. I followed suit and still keep it shaved or super short. Keep in mind I live in the conservative mid-west and fashion trends take longer (or did back then) to hit here.
Music wise, (for me) SRV had brought blues and blues rock back to the forefront and that was largely what I was listening to. That was also when I went through a phase of what was known then as “ambient” music. Most of my music collection was on cassette tape at that time but I was starting to shift to CDs.

53

I was starting a second career during the mid '90s and the culture of the time, such as it was, made little impression on me.

I didn’t get back into rock n’ roll until later.

54

I was never cool–it was all just radio to me. I suspect a synthetic marketing war dreamed up by Megavinyl to make both genres relevant and, thus, stimulate buzz and sales all around. Or maybe it was stoners vs. cokeheads? I’m just glad Punk came along as the neglected red-headed stepchild. :smiley:

55

What do you remember of the mid 90s in general - the period say starting January 1993 to the end of 1997?

I turned 20 in 1993. I remember quite a lot, in a nostalgic way.
Was there a strong 70s revival vibe? If so, when?

Yep, mostly in fashion. I think this was in part due to the grunge movement.
Was the “Multimedia Revolution” actually a huge thing, especially amongst Boomers?

For me, it was pretty big. I was cutting my teeth in “desktop publishing” at the time, and voraciously consuming games like Myst that you mentioned. You could walk into a Best Buy, and the computer section had aisles of CD-ROMs for games, but also things like Encarta or recipe, tax or financial software. Macromedia Director was big in developing multi-media content in the industry.

I don’t recall many Boomers jumping on board, it seemed mainly the Gen Xers like myself.
Was it really as optimistic a time as it seems in hindsight?

I couldn’t say, I was young and naive at the time, so I was certainly optimistic about my future.
Would you say the US was healthier in some ways politically?

I think generally it was. I believe the internet really changed the way information is spread, and allowed ignorance, hate and fear to really proliferate far faster and more effectively than any news outlet you could catch on TV at the time. There was still spin, but not nearly as weaponized as the Trump Administration has made it.

When did Grunge/Post Grunge/etc fall off?

Someone mentioned when Kobain offed himself. I’d say that’s close. Rock hasn’t seemed to recover since, as pop and rap just really seemed to dominate around the time of Brittany Spears and Christina Aguilera became huge and hasn’t let up.

Did people in their early/mid 20s in the 90s like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, etc?
What music did people above 40 in say 1995 listen to?

Plenty did, sure. But I’d say the bigger bands were Nirvana, STP, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the like. Rock-Rap seemed to be bigger around the late 90s, like Rage Against the Machine.

My Dad, who was about 45 then, was into Neil Diamond, The Beach Boys, and some MoTown too. Still is.
Do you recall the Macarena fondly or with horror?

Horror.
Were the Cranberries a huge band in 1994-1995?

They were popular for a hot second, but didn’t really seem to endure like the bands mentioned above.
Just try to give me a snapshot of what the mid 90s seemed like for someone who was between their mid 20s and early/mid 40s in 1993-1997. Am curious to hear different perspectives on the whole era.

The big revolutions were the PC and the Internet, of course. It opened up the world.

CG was becoming huge in movies, and 1993 introduced the world to Jurassic Park. Blew our minds. No one had ever seen anything like what Spielberg and ILM pulled off with that one.

If you wanted to watch movies at home, On Demand was in its infancy over cable, but really, you had to get your ass over to Blockbuster, roam the aisles for 2-3 flicks you could veg out to at home.

If you missed you favorite shows on TV, and didn’t record them on your VCR, you were screwed. You’d have to wait for a re-run, or hope one of your family or friends taped the episode of ER or Friends you’d missed.

Caller ID boxes were a big deal. You could see who’s calling! So, of course, screening calls became a thing. Beepers were everywhere.

If you wanted or needed something, you had to go to a store for it. I used to spend a ton of time at bookstores. I miss them.

I remember countless nights arguing with myself to get into the car and head out into the cold to return the movie rentals, or just be lazy and accept the late fee… telling myself I’ll drop it off on my way to work in the morning. Only to forget, and argue with myself all over again…

56

I wasn’t speaking for my whole generation when I said I hated disco. I had several friends who were into it. They dressed in polyester, platform shoes, and wore the coke spoon chains. Then their tastes got better. :slight_smile: “Miss You” by the Stones is probably what you’re thinking of. Even though they did it disco style, the Stones aren’t considered a disco band. They used a lot of styles, including Delta Blues, Soul, R&B, etc.

57

You kids don’t know how easy you had it. Back when I was young, you had to be sitting in front of your television when the network decided to broadcast the show you wanted to watch. Or you didn’t see it.

And we had two channels.

58

I was alive in both 1975 AND 1976 and let me tell you I’m grateful I wasn’t responsible for dressing myself; I am not to blame for how I looked as a child.

In the mid-90’s, I had just graduated university and was making money hand over fist designing wireless ethernet bridges. Technologically, things were like today only less so. Slower, not as ubiquitous, but there. File-sharing was just starting up and the issues concerning piracy were arising.

I didn’t listen to Korn and Limp Bizkit, that’s for damn sure. I’d given up and what was cool and hip when I knew what time it was by who was playing on the radio. My musical tastes have never been of the times in any case. I was living with a trained musician and trying to learn an instrument myself so I was listening to reggae and Talking Heads and lots of ECM jazz and Al Di Meola and Frank Zappa and on and on. I dig Soundgarden a lot but cringe whenever I hear Nirvana. Likewise the Macarena.

I was seriously into Babylon 5. I still think it’s a great tale but as a TV presentation it hasn’t aged well at all.

As for the US’s political situation, it was truly a nightmare of peace and presperity, and the Republicans were far less slimy than they are today. They might have impeached Clinton over essentially nothing but they wouldn’t have put children in concentration camps.

59

This is when the internet became available to me.

60

I may be younger than you (just barely, probably), but I do remember the days of 3 channels, and fighting over who got to watch what when. I think my sisters have their scars.

Ahh, the 80s. Good times.