Just how magnificent were the 1990s?

Nancy

Nancy

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The last decade to truly have their own identity.

Culturally, they really were the TITS. And technology was beginning to change in a way that meant life would never be the same again.
 
We could still believe we'd have flying cars, moving pavements and robots that lived with us.
 
Instead we ended up getting AI and people in a permanent state of addiction to their phones.
 
The 90s were such delightful fun though. BRING EM BACK :disco:

I often say to @Tetris-Rock during a TOTP repeat/Pick of the Pops that we really need more sincere cheesy EARNESTNESS back in popular culture, rather than irony-poisoning as the default. Ed Sheeran is dominating an empty market for it! BRING BACK SAVAGE GARDEN!
 
The 90s really was the last great decade in that it very clearly had definition.

The internet has just made every fashion movement and subculture instantly accessible, and so nothing feels monumental any more.
 
big ron said:
The 90s really was the last great decade in that it very clearly had definition.

The internet has just made every fashion movement and subculture instantly accessible, and so nothing feels monumental any more.
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See, RON GETS ME.

Love you Big Ron!
 
To massively overthink the question, how often do cultural paradigm shifts actually occur neatly within a decade. The Beatles didn't start until 1962. Does that mean 60 and 61 aren't sixties?

Tiktok was 2016. Surely that's the demarcation from the "decade" before?
 
It’s finally got to the point when I’m seeing teenagers walking around in clothes, made in a throwback style when I have the originals still in my wardrobe (that I really need to throw out because they don’t fit)
 
ZenGiraffe said:
To massively overthink the question, how often do cultural paradigm shifts actually occur neatly within a decade. The Beatles didn't start until 1962. Does that mean 60 and 61 aren't sixties?

Tiktok was 2016. Surely that's the demarcation from the "decade" before?
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I’d never even heard of TikTok until 2020 :o
 
The decade identity thing is totally retroactive. I would say that 1990 and 1991 clearly had more in common with the late 80s culturally than they do with Britpop or the Spice Girls.
 
Ellie said:
It’s finally got to the point when I’m seeing teenagers walking around in clothes, made in a throwback style when I have the originals still in my wardrobe (that I really need to throw out because they don’t fit)
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I love it when they look like All Saints :disco:
 
dmlaw said:
The decade identity thing is totally retroactive. I would say that 1990 and 1991 clearly had more in common with the late 80s culturally than they do with Britpop or the Spice Girls.
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Yeah, having watched the Top of the Pops re-runs, the early 90s were horrible 80s hangover central.
 
dmlaw said:
The decade identity thing is totally retroactive. I would say that 1990 and 1991 clearly had more in common with the late 80s culturally than they do with Britpop or the Spice Girls.
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I don't agree. I can see a very definite pivot point from 1989 into 1990 especially in music and cinema.
 
For example, 1990 is when dance music began to become big and start its chart domination.
 
Nancy said:
For example, 1990 is when dance music began to become big and start its chart domination.
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I bet the distinction isn’t as sharp as you think. For example, I would consider Back To Life and Ride On Time as the first big 90s dance hits, but they were both number one in 1989. And if they were UK number ones at that time, the actual sound will have been in the clubs for at least a couple of years.
 
Nothing's ever clean. Back To Life by Soul 2 Soul and You'll Never Stop Me Loving You by Sonia were #1s within a few weeks of each other, and they couldn't sound further apart in terms of where the culture was supposedly at at that moment.
 
But anyway, let's not get too bogged down with that and instead celebrate the magnificence of the 90s!
 
Nancy said:
But did they?

It still feels the same as 2007 or 2008 were. But 1990 feels like a complete new beginning from the 80s.
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I know one thing is for sure the 2000s began when Britney said they did!

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Things I love from the 90s:

Going Live / Live and Kicking
peak EastEnders
D:Ream
Europop
Everything Thing I Do (I Do It For You)
Being the last decade where you could still go and knock on a friend's door and ask if they wanted to come out to play
All the bright colours
Boy bands and girl bands
Zig and Zag
Big Breakfast
Still thinking we were going to have a future with things like flying cars
 
Nostalgia is a hard drug.

Musically I have a huge amount of love for the decade, as should everyone love their teenage music. The economy became comfortable and world seemed at peace.

But culturally a lot of it was fucking terrible. Jim Davidson was a Saturday night star for the whole decade for example. And don't get me started on waistcoats and berets.

For me, things really went down hill with the invention of the smart phone. Talk about a society killer.
 
I enjoyed the 90s more than the 80s - Madchester, shoegaze, Britpop, post-rock, ambient, IDM (horrible name for amazing music)...good haul.
 
AGinAg (39) said:
For me, things really went down hill with the invention of the smart phone. Talk about a society killer.
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This nails it. "Eras" are now so much shorter because of technology - "Brat Summer" was declared over by Pitchfork last week less than 2 months after the album was released. Trends last a few weeks before becoming old and tired. If we call Britpop from Suede arriving to Oasis playing Knebworth, it was 4 years. Have we had any musical trend or movement lasting a good 4 years since then? Emo, maybe? Even then, it seemed to rise up, peak and drop down to an underground within 2 years. Information flows in such a way now that a 'slow' rise is 3 months rather than 3 years.
 
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