A discussion on another post earlier today made me think about why we haven't seen much '90's nostalgia in this current decade. It seems that nostalgic for specific eras goes in 20-year intervals. I.e., in the '80's we were seeing a lot of nostalgia for the '60's; in the '90's we saw a lot of '70's nostalgia; and, of course, in the 200X's we saw a lot of '80's nostalgia. However, in this current decade, the '90's are barely mentioned.
I guess a lot of this has to do with the fact that, unlike the '80's, there weren't a lot of easily identifiable fashion trends in the '90's (other than grunge, which I'm not counting - since that was almost "anti" fashion). So, you can't really point to the '90's as necessarily "trend setting".
However, though I'm "Nostalgic for the '80's", I do have fond memories of the '90's as well:
1) The growing popularity/accessibility of the "World Wide Web" for the general public. I remember how I first "discovered" the Internet. A friend told me about it in late Summer/Fall 1995, and she actually helped me navigate through it early on. Since I was in college at the time - I had a free account (due to being a student) and enjoyed getting on there & looking things up. There was a computer lab on campus that was open 24 hours, and it was nice to go on there and see all of the monitors with Internet availability. It was brand new @ the time, and seemed almost like sci-fi. I also remember getting my first home Internet account in 1998, and how slow dial-up was at the time.
Of course, we take extremely high-speed Internet for granted today - but it had to start somewhere.
2) A huge leap in home video technology were DVD's. The first DVD's & players were made available in the U.S. in 1997 (1996 in Japan). Of course, these first disks were typically crappy - many were VHS rips and/or they had a non-anamorphic picture. But, they were typically better than VHS tapes, and as we got into the 200X's the technology/availability/prices improved.
3) Music. Yes, I am a '90's music fan & really enjoy most of the music from that decade. Though I've never been a big "grunge" fan, there were a lot of other great bands that were around during this time - including: "The Smashing Pumpkins"; "Hole"; "Everclear"; "Stone Temple Pilots"; and "Cracker", among others
4) TV shows: Big fan of "The X-files", which ran from 1993-2002. I find it one of the best TV series out there, and in many cases it transcends the sci-fi/horror genre.
Also a huge fan of "Homicide: Life on the Street" (1993-1999; 2000 TV movie) which I actually didn't see until the 200X's. That's definitely one of the best crime dramas out there.
And, we can't forget the superb "Midnight Caller" - the final season ran entirely in the '90's (1990-'91).
5) Movies: To me, the '90's was revolutionary re: movies because it was pretty much the first time we saw films with quick editing cuts & incredible special effects. Also, some '90's films had non-linear storytelling - which hadn't been as popular in films from previous decades. The '90's also saw the growing popularity of the independent film movement.
Some of my favorite '90's films include: Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction"; "The Usual Suspects"; Martin Scorsese's masterpieces "Goodfellas" and "Casino"; "The Professional"; the first "Jurassic Park"; "Trainspotting" (still the best movie soundtrack ever); "Go"; and, one of my all-time favorite films, the sci-fi masterpiece "The Matrix" (1999) - among others.
On a personal level, the '90's may even be my favorite decade. I graduated college in the mid-'90's, and moved across the country for a great job. It was definitely a transformative decade for me.
[ 22. March 2017, 09:51: Message edited by: Nostalgic for the '80's ]
Posted by thenodfather (Member # 8732) on :
Some, but mainly technology wise. I didn't like the mainstream music, films or television shows as much. There was some watchable stuff, but overall I didn't like it as much.
