The Big Picture: The 90's Didn't Suck

[emeraldrafael]

Being born in the early nineties, the decade to me will always be about a gradual shift to calm. the gulf war was ending, Clinton was picking the pieces of a president who had no business calling what he did anywhere even near the word decent (let alone good), tech was raising in particular home internet access, and there was a gradual shift from the hip hop wars and left over moodiness of grunge (which even had Staley and Cobain not OD'd/painted a wall with their brains would have died anyway because of the shift to calm) to relaxing calm and eventual excitement of a new millennium that was 90spop and easy going soft rock. Cartoons went from dark to light (whether for the better or not I dont know) and the whole thing was just a cruise into the 2000s and beyond.

and I dont see the problem with that. War was (and is) a bad theme since WW2 ended and Korea was fought to a standstill, with every war after that the US at last fought in not being clear cut and a feel good after, the partying of the 20s led to the depression of the 30s, and do we really need to go back to the 50s ideal of what a perfect family is with how much bob and everyone else complains about twilight and the ideas it promotes of women being subservant and reliant on a man. the 60s was nice to blow off steam but over all everyone needed to get back to work so tehy could keep the ideals the preached going and not just die as the suits took power and phased them out. the 70s were the 70s I guess (my weakest area of us history culturally), and the 80s where just a weird time where men could cross dress and prance about and not be called gay, the mess that would become reaganomics taking hold, the final throw of the gloves to communism and finally ending with a malaise that would affect the early 90s through grunge and emerging hiphop.

and honestly since the 90s it hasnt been great. the 2000s brought back the idea that evil is still out there, only know they just dont care as much and will fly a plane into a building, a third (fifth if you wnat to be technical I guess) global war though no one wants to acknowledge it as that, disaster after disaster after disaster from nature telling humans you done goofed and i've had enough, and a global economic meltdown because the guy who took over after clinton was a fucking idiot and just let it happen. so far all the 2010s has had to offer was a clawing out of recession with constant fear of a double dip, a union that was to be praised as the strongest economic power since the raise of the US in tatters and ready to completely implode on itself, and a desire to go back to the simpler times of the 90s in most all aspects with an insuffereable youth population who would rather ***** than actually make the change.

so was it the best generation, no, but its definitely not the worst, and over all it was a decent time to grow up in, since you got the reflection of the time before you and excitement and open minded to possibilities (that would be cut short by 9/11 and the market collapse).

 

[Paschendale]

What I remember most about the 90's was disaffected-ness. That was what grunge was about, that was what Reality Bites was about, that was what DARIA was about. Dissatisfaction with the establishment (cultural, political, whatever) and having no real recourse other than to say "screw that". It was just as important that hating the boy bands existed as did the boy bands themselves. It was a decade without the overwhelming external conflicts where we had a moment to reflect on ourselves and didn't like what we saw. But we didn't have a better alternative in mind. It was a decade about being pissed off and not having an idea of what to do with that anger. A lot of the result was introversion, apathy, and detachment from a world that we felt like we had no ability to change. Despite "winning" the cold war, the world didn't get better. Despite the excesses of the 80's, we weren't all wealthy and happy. The party had to end sometime. The 90's were a decade of "screw that".

Comparatively, I would describe the 00's as being centered around fear. Fear of terrorists, fear of economic collapse, fear of not economic recovery, fear of socialism, racial fear, sexual fear, sexuality fear. It was a decade of people ruled by their fears.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I sum up what I remember (culturally) about the 90s in a few words:
-Commodified, Corporate, Cynical

I was in grade school for most of the 90s (nearly all of it), but I remember being exposed to a lot of marketing schemes, office humor, and cynical backlash that predates the current "hipster cynic movement"*.

(*probably because the hipsters who had a voice also had a medium, like Kevin Smith and Scott Adams, while the rest of us...well, the Internet didn't really take off until the late 90s and early 2000s)

Where the 80s was corny, weird and genuinely avante-garde in its approach (look at all the geek and nerd culture on display!), the 90s was more irritating and often trying to imitate it.

So a lot of what I recall from culture in general was media-centric, disingenuous, and the responses cynical (at least that explains how Seinfeld remained on air as long as it did).

And there was a good deal of that in gaming too (who remembers all the ridiculous marketing campaigns and gimmicks? Be honest here. Bubsy? Sega-CD? Virtual Boy?), but we are awfully selective in remembering the great stuff because...well, it was a time of exploration and development within the field. Spurred on by exponentially growing processing power at that.

But for every truly awesome game, there was a wave of shovelware or some other crap born in a marketing meeting, and it didn't really die out either.

 

[Lyvric]

Transitional is a good term for the 90s. It was very much a decade focused on brining closer to the past and getting ready to break into the next 1000 years. I remember it strongly for it's love of multimedia as well as the mainstream, not rebellious, acceptance of ethical differences.

 

[Pat]

I always assumed the 90s were about dropping pills and dancing like a knob. What's not to love?

 

[Osaka117]

The real root of the problem is that 80's people are just salty that golden age Simpsons, Animaniacs, and Pokemon trumps Transformers and Ninja Turtles. Come on, the sooner you admit it the sooner we can drop this "identity crisis" charade and move on with our lives.

 

[Hutzpah Chicken]

I figure that the 90's was a good time for the geek(Our culture. Don't deny it.) culture. Video games were at their peak with the 16 bit war. Cartoons were becoming less advertisements and more television. Star Trek saw a major resurgence with the three best series made. In reality, each decade starts off like that last one and then begins to shift slightly to the beginning of the next one.

I really think the debate should be about the 2000's sucking.

 

[medv4380]

It's interesting to think that I lived through that decade and can't remember a single thing about it.

what drug was "big" that decade?

The Traditional Mary Jane, and Ecstasy. The 90's saw the end of the 80's crack epidemic.

Bob was right about Hip Hop music getting big in the 90's, but he was clearly not into music because he failed to mention Alternative. It was also underground in the 70's and 80's but became popular in the 90's.

The 90's was also the rise of Anime in the US, and it was the close of Gaming as a subculture and the start of it being main stream.

The Rise of the Anti Hero mostly in comics from my perspective.

You have to be particularly crazy to enjoy the 90's. Gamer, Into Hip Hop and Alternative, Anime Freak, Willing to at least Associate with people who do drugs even if you don't. If you only liked one part of the 90's or participated in one part you couldn't really enjoy it. There was just so many little things going on it was hard to focus. Social Media has taken the edge off of that social chaos from the 90's and given it at least an ADHD like focus.

Then there is the bad that people don't want to talk about, and to avoid instigating a fight/flame I will not mention the "events".

Bobs argument is the Generational Argument. Gen X was the last named generation and they thrived though the 80's. My generation that was Born in the 80's and rose in the 90's remained unnamed. Marketers kept trying, but nothing stuck. Then the millinium happened along with 9/11 and the generation born in the 90's and rose in the Ots. They got labeled Millinials. Once they were named the 90's generation could never really become named, and since that's what they wanted, myself included, that's fine.

It hardly sucked.

 

[stueymon]

So what about 2000-2010? I'd have to say that this was the period when dark and gritty became the cultural go to, as a result of America and Americans being shocked out of their world view.

 

[Rad Bracket]

I think Bob misses an important point by dismissing the presence of black music.
Black music and culture was incredibly present in the 90's popular landscape. While Bob mentioned that it grew up in the 70's and 80's it wasn't until the 90's that post civil rights America had progressed to the point were black culture could exists in the mainstream (white) culture.

There was the popularity of Rap, Hip Hop and the increased popularity of Soul.
There were not only move Black characters but more black shows; Fresh Prince (and the rise of Will Smith in general), Family Matters, Living Single.

At the same time other minority groups became more present in similar ways.

 

[Dangerious P. Cats]

You know those random things people get angsty about you using? Just to add to the list I'm shocked at your use of Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man...

O.K to be a bit more serious I would disagree that The End of History and the Last Man really defines much of what the nineties were about. Outside of the fact that there was already a lot of work debunking Fukuyama's theory b the mid nineties, and also the fact that Fukuyama himself has more recently said he was wrong about the end of history, Fukuyama's work doesn't really feel like the nineties, more like a hand over from the eighties and Reagan Era militaristic optimism. The trends that define a decade rarely start with the decade itself. The post-war culture that defined the fifties really started in the late forties, and the optimistic radicalism that defined the sixties began in the late fifties to some extent. The nineties were kind of knee capped by the fact that on one end the spirit of the eighties lasted into the early nineties, really until after the gulf war and the election of Clinton. At the other end the feelings that defined the early 21st century kind of began with the Battle of Seattle and the anti-globalisation movement in 1999. The nineties were really defined by a feeling of disgruntled helplessness. You see this not only in grunge music but also the types of rap and metal that were popular during the period. A lot of it is about being angry, often with no particular target (though there were plenty of artists signing about something specific), and certainly a great deal of the fan base got into said music because it was angry about something, even if they didn't know what. This is also typified in the nineties anti-hero you saw a bit too much of, a character defined by almost meaningless rage. If you could say anything about the nineties it was about pessimistic detachment. Unlike the sixties where people felt empowered to change things the nineties were about an inability to focus disaffection, and instead just feeling helpless by it.

 

[crimson sickle2]

The 90's was the decade everyone sat and caught up on their backlog of stuff from prior decades.

 

[YodaUnleashed]

90's - Rise of the internet and the information age.
The Noughties - Rise of the internet and the information age, and things got better and worse at the same time.

 

[Azurian]

Here is what I remember from the 90s

1. Kids still played outside
2. Beepers were a popular thing
3. Mario and Sonic were still enemies
4. Saturday morning cartoons rocked
5. Anime wasn't mainstream yet
6. Dial-up YOU KICKED ME OFF THE MODEM MOM!!
7. President Clinton and his famous desk job har har har
8. D.A.R.E
9. Desert Storm never knew what it was about didn't have any family members in it and what kid really sits still to watch the news
10. Arcades didn't cost an arm and a leg unless it was a really popular one
11. Skating rinks do they still exist anymore?

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

I had a great time in the nineties. Maybe they were shit for some people but I was too busy having fun. Maybe not the very early 90's, but that was a function of being 13, not the decade. The 90's were the decade of man made drugs, raves and being glad the 80's finally had fucked off.

 

[Something Amyss]

They didn't suck?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NinetiesAntiHero

That depends all on where you look.

Indeed, the nineties anti-hero itself was a reflection of a new cultural outlook. The same one that embraced grunge and a lot of other silly things. This is, in itself, a sort of cultural identity: the cynicism of the 90s may have started out of the 80s, but its prominence was really in the 90s (similar to the rap reference Bob makes.

And cynicism for the sake of cynicism kinda...Well, sucks.

 

[Generic_Dave]

I really thought the whole "90's suck" meme was a comic book thing, down to Rob Liefeld-esque excessive violence, sexuality, gore and pockets. And that it rather inadvertently came to be applied to the entire decade.

Most people I know, who are not in the comics/geek scene tend to believe that apart from children's cartoons and a the ironic appreciation of cheesy pop muzak, that it was the 80's that sucked.

 

[xPixelatedx]

If anything your point about the 90's not being batshit insane enough to have it's own identity is exactly why I liked it. A lot of those things that happen in history that 'move and shake' the world are BAD THINGS, and it was very enjoyable to go for such a long period of time with just some simple relaxation.