Talk radio
Rush Limbaugh
CNN
Larry King
H. Ross Perot
Boris Yeltsin
Helmut Kohl
Tony Blair
I disagree with the premise, though I usually see it as something like “the '90s called” or “'90s kids will love this.” You can google for '90s fashion or songs that are “so '90s it hurts.” To support the age hypothesis, I graduated HS in 2004 and I couldn’t tell you what kids are into nowadays or what differentiates the 2010s from the late 2000s fashion/music wise. Skinny jeans are still a thing, I guess? Goths and emos have been extinct for awhile, then scene kids came in I think, and that’s about all I know.
This reminds me, somewhere I have a binder full of old pogs. I’m gonna be rich!
The death of Princess Diana
Titanic
Oklahoma City bombing
AOL (a.k.a. America Off-Line)
The birth of the internet as we know it today
The “Bert is Evil” website
Bjork
Quentin Tarantino
Wayne’s World
Lewinski-gate
the “Jennifer” 'do
Designer club drugs
Raves
Donna Karan
The life and death of Kurt Cobain
MTV Unplugged
Welcome to the Dollhouse
Good Hair Days / Bad Hair Days
Mullets
EXXXX-TREEM everything.
AOL
Flip Phones
Playstation
CD Towers
Blackberry
Huge Projection TV Sets
Detachable Face Car Radios
Yeah, as noted above with all the examples, I think we’re dealing with a false premise here. There’s plenty of cultural stereotypes to choose from in regards to the 90s.
Cyberspace!
But a list of things that were popular in the 1990s doesn’t establish that they’re distinct.
What sets apart Frasier as being a peek into a unique cultural time in the way Brady Bunch is quite obviously 70s in feel?
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Even more so, a list of news events aren’t really “90s” even if they helped form the culture. No one would react today to someone truck-bombing a federal building with “That’s SO 90s!”
I’m unclear as to what you’re looking for, then. To me, there is definitely music that is “90s” to me, fashion that is “90s,” style of humor that is “90s,” etc. And many of the examples in this thread reflect that. Watch an episode of “Saved by the Bell” for the stereotypical early 90s look, for instance.
What, home-grown White Supremacist terrorists? :eek: How very '90s!
Are you kidding?!? :dubious: ***Frasier ***practically **screams **'90s!
Excuse me. What is this travesty of justice where, in this entire thread on the 90s, not one person has mentioned the defining, comedic wonder who epitomizes the 90s…Pauly Shore??
Baseball hats on backwards and rollerblades.
There’s a 20-25 year rule IME. Ten years ago is too close and so is merely unfashionable, thirty years ago and older is old. 20-25 years ago is about right for being retro-cool.
I’d say because he’s mostly forgotten. We may not have been wearing bell bottoms in the early 90s, but everyone knew they were 70s - even middle school students who weren’t born in the yet in the '70s. If I ask a 12-year-old now, will they have heard of Pauly Shore? For me the question isn’t “what was distinctive about the '90s” but “what about the '90s remains in the associated with the '90s in the public consciousness?” What would be featured if someone was making a movie/show set in the 90s today? Whatever’s featured doesn’t necessarily have to be accurate down the year. You’ll see miniskirts set before they were popular and rock and roll ubiquitous before when watching movies or shows set in the past because of being set in a certain decade. Actually annoyed me recently when reading some mystery books set in the early 1920s, but had the fashions and such from later1920s. Because that’s what we think of as the 1920s. What would be used in a movie to instantly identify something as “90s” - an entire decade - even if it was really only reality for part of the '90s? AOL with “you’ve got mail” is really the first thing to come to mind for me.
All through the '90s I had a square job where I wore a coat and tie every day. My first kid was born in 1990, the second in 1995. I had given up marijuana and cocaine and psychedelics. It was the decade when I finally quit on contemporary pop music of any kind and just listened to jazz and classical.
I have NO MEMORY of the '90s, as far as popular culture goes.
Singles (1992) Official Trailer - Bridget Fonda, Matt Dillon Movie HD - YouTube The trailer for Singles, which you could argue is very 90s if anything is very 90s. Looking at the fashion, themes, etc… what would be out of place if the movie came out today? Matt Dillon’s hair, which was silly at the time and to me is “80s hair metal days” look anyway… anything else?
1992 FOX "Beverly Hills 90210" commercials - YouTube 90210 ads. I guess frosted and spiked tips is a pretty 90s look. Ehh…
I was a teenager in the actual '90s, and “so '90s” is absolutely a thing. Well, the phrasing I use is “super '90s” or maybe “totally '90s”, but I have often described things in this way and others seem to understand what I’m talking about.
Funnily enough, I came into this thread to post a link to the video for one of the songs from the Singles soundtrack as an example of something so (early) '90s it hurts. The song itself (Paul Westerberg’s “Dyslexic Heart”) still sounds pretty fresh to me*, but there are some hilariously dated early '90s clothes, makeup, and hairstyles on display.
As for the actual trailer for Singles, the very first person shown is a man (Jim True) who looks like a caricature of an early '90s 20-something. Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick wouldn’t look too out of place today, but that’s probably because they were the more straight-laced/less trendy characters. Bridget Fonda’s haircut looks dated and so do her hats, although the hats could work as a retro '90s thing today. Matt Dillon looks exactly like the wannabe grunge rocker his character is supposed to be, a style that’s come back in to some extent but is a retro look. Incidentally, his wig was intentionally designed to look like Eddie Vedder’s hair**, and would not have been considered an '80s style at the time. (A “hair metal” look would involve a lot of backcombing and hairspray, while grunge singers tended to have long but natural, unstyled hair.) Sheila Kelly looks super early '90s in a way that hasn’t come back in as a retro look.
I have massive nostalgia for the grunge era myself, and I can’t claim to be particularly with-it when it comes to fashion. But if you honestly think that styles haven’t changed at all in the past 20+ years, the title of a super (mid) '90s Alicia Silverstone movie may describe you.
*Although that may be because this exact song is now the sort of thing that gets played on the sound system in supermarkets and shopping malls
**The manager for then newly-formed band Pearl Jam was friends with director Cameron Crowe, and Vedder and two other members of Pearl Jam appear in minor roles as Dillon’s bandmates. Some of the clothes worn by Dillon’s character belonged to Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament.
Anyone who lived through the 90s knows exactly what is “totally 90s”.
Baby doll dresses and Birkenstocks. Flannel and corduroy. Cross Colors, African medallions, bicycle shorts, and patent leather oxfords. Doc Martens.
As a student in the actual '90s, I once accepted an academic award while wearing a babydoll dress, corduroy jacket (like the one Eddie Vedder wore in the video for “Jeremy”!), and black hiking boots (Doc Martens were too expensive). I don’t think I had a choker necklace, but that really would have completed the look.
Thinking of which, I also wanted to link to this Reductress piece, Rock These '90s Trends That Your Parents Were Too Poor to Buy You! It’s funny because it’s true, although I did eventually get real Docs.