I would say the 90's were a time of refinement. Taking aspects of previous decades and saying "we could do it better" Whether successful or not is debatable but the effort certainly was there.
The Big Picture: The 90's Didn't Suck
- Thread starter MovieBob
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Well, that's the USA view of the '90s era. Chinese remember them as a start of a great reform. Ex USSR remember them as the big search for lost identity (tip, nobody found it), French remeber it as a big loss of identity as imigrants started beeing prominent groups in cities. And Balkans. Well, after 50 years of peace, this region was bomb 10 years past it's annual rage age. Yea, Balkan and wars are kind of thing, beeing on and off through entire histroy. 50 years without war or major rebelion is something like a local record.
So, while USA had it's moment of glory before it's empere was challenged again, rest of the world was working hard on its own problems or was knee deep in dead.
So, while USA had it's moment of glory before it's empere was challenged again, rest of the world was working hard on its own problems or was knee deep in dead.
You almost answered your own question there, Bob. The 90's introspection wasn't just limited to its own era but to the entirety of the 20th century, thanks to the advent of the information era. It was as if people were attempting to do the same navel-gazing as had always been done only to find nothing of significance, so they took a step back in order to see something out of it. The entire (then-passing) century become the focus.
Its a different type of characteristic, yes, but it doesn't mean that its any less valid or significant than any of its preceding decades.
Its a different type of characteristic, yes, but it doesn't mean that its any less valid or significant than any of its preceding decades.
SWAT Cats... OMG... *squeeeeeeeeeee*
Ahem... so, apparently, the 90's sucked because there was no conflict, well... isn't that pretty much what everyone tries to accomplish?, the new millenium was around the corner and people looked back and looked at the future, I mean, yeah, it was equally awesome and equally awful, but so does pretty much any era.
And yes, the 90's had it's own paranoia, remember that silly "2000 virus" that had the potential of turning itself into it's very own Cyberdyne?.
Ahem... so, apparently, the 90's sucked because there was no conflict, well... isn't that pretty much what everyone tries to accomplish?, the new millenium was around the corner and people looked back and looked at the future, I mean, yeah, it was equally awesome and equally awful, but so does pretty much any era.
And yes, the 90's had it's own paranoia, remember that silly "2000 virus" that had the potential of turning itself into it's very own Cyberdyne?.
*shrugs*
only part of the 90s I really remember is the games and TV, yeah there was the Clinton thing, and OJ if I remember right, thing is, didn't care then and still don't.
also, in terms of over all progress (and lasting quality of games) the 90s where the best
only part of the 90s I really remember is the games and TV, yeah there was the Clinton thing, and OJ if I remember right, thing is, didn't care then and still don't.
also, in terms of over all progress (and lasting quality of games) the 90s where the best
Interesting take Bob. I was born in 1980. The 90's were my formative years. I feel like, (looking back), the 90's were a buffer decade. Our cultural identity in America morphed from disparate but individually defined movements and atmospheres to a more "bleh" generation of people living without life-threatening challenges. I think that's why X-TREME sports took off in the 90s too. Neon colors, guitar riffs or hip hop on every kind of ad, it was like "Madison Avenue" was beating us about the neck and shoulders to get us to give any kind of shit about anything. Especially the products they were trying to sell. (I'm speaking to a large percentage of the population, but not necessarily all of us, of course.)And oh god how we took to the MMOs when they came out. Huge portions of our population desperate for a danger fix and intellectually stimulating leadership challenges diving into virtual worlds and creating worlds unto themselves within. We're the "make your own reality" generation, I think. We're more self-aware than most generations before us. That's not necessarily a good thing. I think many of us are paralyzed by how self-aware we are. Also, we were one of the first generations to have college set as a certainty, rather than as an option too. We got done with high school and they began slashing the living shit out of auto shop and trade schools. They were doing it before the 90s, but it really took off then. It was like "take huge debt, because you have to go to college." Now there's oceans of college graduates and few jobs to go around and shit tons of personal debt. The 90's were fun, because I was a kid. SWAT Kats. Holy crap. I loved that show. Good piece here Bob.
I kinda liked growing up in a decade where things were calm and relatively stable. As a little kid I missed out on all the "crap" and only saw the good. So to me the 90's were this lovely thing that got stepped on by the 00's.
You are more prone to dislike the decade you were a teenager/young adult in.
The 90's were a time where everyone looked back and forward and not so much in the now, like you said. But that isn't bad. When there isn't a crisis or imminent threat that's just a thing that happens. We just haven't seen a period like that in so long we forgot what it looked like. Like a teen or young adult, we had the time and freedom to look around and figure out who we were in relative safety. ( Though like a teen/YA we were somewhat insufferable because of it.)
So the 90's are really this special, maybe once in a lifetime thing, that you were fortunate enough to live in.
You are more prone to dislike the decade you were a teenager/young adult in.
The 90's were a time where everyone looked back and forward and not so much in the now, like you said. But that isn't bad. When there isn't a crisis or imminent threat that's just a thing that happens. We just haven't seen a period like that in so long we forgot what it looked like. Like a teen or young adult, we had the time and freedom to look around and figure out who we were in relative safety. ( Though like a teen/YA we were somewhat insufferable because of it.)
So the 90's are really this special, maybe once in a lifetime thing, that you were fortunate enough to live in.
What macho action heroes were those? I think you're confusing the 90's with the 80's.Entitled said:
And quite honestly, I'd rather have that kind of pandering than the teenage, fanservice, quirky-for-the-sake-of-quirky pandering anime consists of today.
The 90s were awesome because it had the explosion of personal tech and the information age. Anyone involved in that (You mentioned you were a forum runner when batman and robin launched...) knows that *that* was where the biggest changes were.
The real thing is that there isn't a bad guy, so to speak, so it's somewhat forgettable to people who look for that, but the reality is that by and large people were working to fix general problems, because, really, we'd conquered all the big stuff. At the moment, I feel the big theme is conquering religion on a global scale, but once that's over (and who knows how long that'll take, but the fight goes well, I suppose), that general progress is what we'll get back to. I was born in '89, and I work in cybernetics, so I feel I still embody that (I've had my own computer since I was four, and a netizen since I was six, the internet shaped me into who I am today). Things like automation, wearables, and the amount of control that a person has over their own space thanks to technology... the only problem in that, I suppose, is that people were afraid of it instead of embracing it.
The real thing is that there isn't a bad guy, so to speak, so it's somewhat forgettable to people who look for that, but the reality is that by and large people were working to fix general problems, because, really, we'd conquered all the big stuff. At the moment, I feel the big theme is conquering religion on a global scale, but once that's over (and who knows how long that'll take, but the fight goes well, I suppose), that general progress is what we'll get back to. I was born in '89, and I work in cybernetics, so I feel I still embody that (I've had my own computer since I was four, and a netizen since I was six, the internet shaped me into who I am today). Things like automation, wearables, and the amount of control that a person has over their own space thanks to technology... the only problem in that, I suppose, is that people were afraid of it instead of embracing it.
Just because the 1990's was not a presentism decade it does not mean that the 1990's was not aware of itself. In fact the 1990's was not the end of a century, but of a milenia. 1990's reverence of it's past is a rare thing. Look at this way: the positivism that dominated the late nineteenth century and yearly twentieth century died and historical theories of postmodernism gained more and more adepts, the 1990's could not be so self indulgent as the previous decades.
Another way to look at what makes the 1990's special to this communit to is that the home console became a big thing during the 1990's and pc gaming walked big steps during this period. The special effect industry grew also thanks to CGI. Now one thing really sucked in the 1990's: hero comics in general.
Another way to look at what makes the 1990's special to this communit to is that the home console became a big thing during the 1990's and pc gaming walked big steps during this period. The special effect industry grew also thanks to CGI. Now one thing really sucked in the 1990's: hero comics in general.
I am probably older than a lot of people on this site (being in my middle 40's), but for me, the 90's were about smugness and apathy at the start. "We Won the Cold War! We're #1!: And then towards the middle of the Decade, we started to become the target of Domestic and Foreign terrorism, what with the Bombing of the Alfred P. Murraugh Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the first bombing of the World Trade Center by a Fuel Oil Bomb and the resulting suspicion of and backlash against militias, and later, foreigners because of the World Trade Center Bombing. It sort of defined for me that the next threat to the US would not come from any nation, but by small groups or individuals.
But even though these things happened, the idea that no one could really affect the US in the same way that other countries were also experiencing terrorism made us complacent and probably led to even greater shock in 9/11.
I wasn't big into music in the 90's, at least, not like I was in the 80's, And yeah, I did watch "after school" and "Saturday Morning" cartoons still, when I could (I was working at the time, so the whole "not having much time" was a thing for me, then. I did get my first computer in 1991, and played a metric ton of really good games: Civilization, Civ 2, Command and Conquer, Taskmaker (the first game I ever owned for the computer), The Exile Series (the originals, that is), Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast, the SSI Gold Box Games (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds and Secret of the Silver Blades, and then, Pools of Radiance). Dark Queen of Krynn, Crystal Quest, Burning Monkey Solitaire, Sim City 2... well, you get the idea.
But even though these things happened, the idea that no one could really affect the US in the same way that other countries were also experiencing terrorism made us complacent and probably led to even greater shock in 9/11.
I wasn't big into music in the 90's, at least, not like I was in the 80's, And yeah, I did watch "after school" and "Saturday Morning" cartoons still, when I could (I was working at the time, so the whole "not having much time" was a thing for me, then. I did get my first computer in 1991, and played a metric ton of really good games: Civilization, Civ 2, Command and Conquer, Taskmaker (the first game I ever owned for the computer), The Exile Series (the originals, that is), Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast, the SSI Gold Box Games (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds and Secret of the Silver Blades, and then, Pools of Radiance). Dark Queen of Krynn, Crystal Quest, Burning Monkey Solitaire, Sim City 2... well, you get the idea.
