Of the four decades for which I’ve been old enough to experience, the 90s are definitely my most beloved. It was a great decade to live out my formative years. That beautifully optimistic time sandwiched between the end of the Cold War and the start of the War on Terror. Our president played the sax, jeans were baggier than they’d ever been in the history of man, and a show about nothing was the most popular sitcom on TV. Life seemed a bit simpler. There were no 24-hour cable news channels filling up the airwaves with whatever drivel remotely passes for news these days. No worries about how connected you were or how many bars you were getting. But enough sounding like a crotchety old man. Without further ado, here’s my tribute to some of my favorite things about the 90s...
1. The Discman
Man, I had this exact make and model, and I used to take it everywhere with me (along with at least 5-10 CDs). There’s something very nostalgic about those objects from our past that have since been replaced by more convenient, but less quirky, alternatives. IPods, I’m looking at you. Back in the day you had a little more incentive to actually listen to a record the whole way through, since changing CDs required a minor acrobatic display of the fingers. And life was a bit more fun as a result.
2. The Thriller Genre
I love the suspense/thriller film genre, and the 90s had some of the best (or worst depending on how you look at it) ever made. My favorite thing about 90s thrillers is that they always had a very important message for audiences. Here is a list of some of my favorites 90s thrillers, along with their respective messages.
- Fear Your daughter’s boyfriend is a psycho. And I don’t mean figuratively. He is an actual psychopath, and he will kill you.
- Single White Female Never look for a roommate in the classifieds. You might die, literally.
- The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Beware your nanny. She might sleep with your husband and then try to kill everyone.
- Cape Fear Don’t become a defense attorney. Any of your clients who get convicted will find you, and kill you.
- The Game Don’t ever trust anyone who recommends to you a “game” that will change your life. Playing any such game will most likely kill you.
- Basic Instinct Women are evil.
- Disclosure Professional women are even more evil.
3. Golden Eye 007
Wow. Remember when video games weren’t 3D? Well, this was one of the first really, really good 3-D games to appear on a home console. I wasn’t big into video games in the 90s, but this one I just couldn’t put down.
4. Film Cameras
Things were generally more tactile in the 90s. A photograph was a real thing, and if you lost it chances were it was gone forever. As great as digital cameras are, they have definitely removed some of the drama from photography. Especially all of that anticipation and excitement you used to feel while waiting for your pictures to get developed.
5. Rockstars
Some people have said that Kurt Cobain was the last real rockstar, and I might be inclined to agree. Today, the mainstream music scene is populated with mostly hip-hop, dance, and R&B, and the underground rock scene is so completely saturated with genres and sub-genres that finding a good band requires a research degree. As a result, there aren’t many big rock bands around that everyone knows about. Radiohead and Coldplay may be two exceptions. In any case, here are some of the rockstars of the 90s who were unaware they were a dying breed.
The Super Rockstars
Other Rockstars from the 90s
6. Videos on MTV
Not much to be said here. It is called Music Television after all. Here’s one of my favorite music videos of all time.
7. The Real World New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco
Well, okay, so maybe I'm being a little hypocritical here - I mean this show was the beginning of the end for actual music on MTV - but I did watch the first 3 seasons of the Real World and it was a genuinely enlightening and challenging experience. When the show began, cast members were real, live adults with actual lives and jobs outside of the show. And the show managed to capture some very intimate conflicts related to race, sexual orientation, AIDS, and other important issues. I caught a glimpse of the show recently, which is in it’s like twentieth season, and was dismayed to learn that it had basically devolved into a Spring Break-type show.
8. No Internet
It's hard to even imagine it these days, but there was a time long ago when you had to travel to the cd store to find out about new music and you were required to open one of those gigantic yellow books to find a phone number. There was something nice about having more time to process less information. I think that all of our brains may be suffering in this age of unlimited information.
9. No Cell Phones
I actually used to have a minimum of 10 phone numbers memorized in my head at any one time. And when I was out of the house, I was actually out of the house. No way to get in touch with me. It actually sounds kind of nice these days.
10. Generation X
The generation that proliferated grunge, gangsta rap, and the internet first started getting attention in the 90s. While often pegged as lazy and unmotivated, I would argue that, in the face of society's material excess and irresponsible treatment of the environment, Generation X was quite deliberately seeking out alternative values and lifestyles. And in observing how deftly my peers are incorporating environmentalism, compassion, and a sense of community into their work, their parenting, and their relationships, I'd say we've done a pretty good job at doing just that.
Good Stuff, Mike! You seem to have created a nice sense of the 90s using a few of its most defining 'pre-digital' items. I share your nostalgia, man.
ReplyDeleteWell, they weren't 'pre-digital' but you know what I mean - iTunes etc is the devil's work
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading Craig. Happy you can relate.
ReplyDelete