Lately I've been noticing many similarities between this part of the decade and the early 90's, and I have come across many articles referencing the early 90's in regards to the real estate market, credit crunch, and the upcoming recession. I also notice some similarities politically, socially, and even with pop-culture and trends. I've also heard the early 00's compared the early 90's with the recession and war in Iraq, but that was different. The early 00's recession was minor and mainly affected the tech industry with the dot-com collapse, and 9/11 set us back a little bit, but it was a quick recovery. Also the war in Iraq started in 2003 and is still going on today, unlike Operation: Desert Storm of 1991 which only lasted a few months.

Here are some similarities and differences between now and the early 90's:

- Decline of the real estate market, housing prices dropping every year with no end in sight, rising foreclosure rate. I'm a homeowner who purchased in 2004 before the peak of the boom so I'm a victim myself.

- 2008 presidential elections: If Hillary gets elected, it will feel like when Bill was elected in 1992. Main reason Bill Clinton defeated Bush Sr. was because of a recession, which is a possible factor in the '08 elections. The war in Iraq is another major issue. There is a major shift of popular views from conservative to liberal in the last few years as there was in the early 90's during Bush Sr.'s time. A major difference is Bush 43 served two terms succeeding a Democrat (Clinton), while Bush 41 only served one term succeeding another Republican (Reagan). Also since Bush 43 served two terms the Republican seat is open, since Dick Cheney is not running as a Vice President usually does.

- The U.S. crime rate is not as high as it was then, but it is going back up in some cities. There is also no crack epidemic this time.

- Racial tensions are dividing this country again. This time, it's between whites and hispanics over the immigration issue. Back then, it was more between whites and blacks with issues such as the Rodney King riots.

- Although retro 80's styles are still around, I have noticed a shift toward early 90's styles like with urban hip-hop clothing. Tight minidresses are also coming back with the females. The current music has a lot of hip-hop influenced dance music like there was in the early 90's. Personally, I think the early 90's overall had better pop-culture. There was more originality and creativity back then, and TV was worth watching with shows like Fresh Prince, In Living Color, and Married With Children.

In general, I think the late 00's are to Generation Y as the early 90's were to Generation X, since the generation span is about 16 years. It's a trip to think about it this way but a 12 or 13 year old in 2007 could have a similar experience as I did when I was that age in 1991.

Similarties between the late early 90's and late 00's

-Both had sputtering economy's

-A new president will be elected

-war in iraq

-dance influenced Hip Hop was popular for a shortwhile in both timeframes(90-91 and 2006-early 2008.)

-Glam Rap(2008) and its evil big brother Hair Metal dying(1991).

-Sean Bell-Rodney King

-High Gas Prices in the US(although worse in the late 00's.)

-Both are coming off excessive/materialistic culture(the decade of the 1980's and 2003-2005/2006.)

  The nineties were definately the time to buy a house.  EVERYBODY was telling me I should...

  The popular culture in the early nineties was in transition from what it was to what it became.  Those who were consuming it for years (and the target market = teens) were reaching adulthood.  Many of those late-teens/young adults went underground in these years because the best we could get was Another Bad Creation, Color Me Badd, C+C Music Factory.  It was especially difficult to bear because some of the old stand-bys were trying so hard to be relevant.  It was kinda sad, really...

  That's when you started hearing the word "alternative" 'till your ears bled...

I'd say we currently have a lot more in common with the late 70s.

Terrorists, oil crisis, recession, automaker woes....  Even a lot of the late 70s punk and new wave stuff heavily influences a lot of the popular music scene right now.

There are definitely some similarities without doubt. Like in the early 90s especially with the upcoming election we seem to be entering a new "era", much like we were in the early 90s coming up to the 1992 election of Bill Clinton. If Obama is elected President, the 2010s pretty much start in 2009, at least informally, and the "feel" of pop culture will begin to change in a major way.

Some similarities between the early 90s and the late 00s
-Coming off a materialistic era 2003-2005/06
-A mortgage meltdown and housing crisis
-A Bush in the White House
-In the early 90s it was the Gulf War, now its the Second Iraq war thats been going on since 2003.
-Rising oil and gas prices.
-Sean Bell-Rodney King (whoever said this used a great example)
-A looming recession
-A dying breed of glam hip hop that now seems increasingly irrelevant to the times. In the early 90s it was Hair Metal. Both genres have huge similarities.
-Rising crime rate
-A new youth generation coming of age that is worse off than their parents, Generation Z . ( Gen Y is really the group of people that entered college in the late 90s , graduated around 2004, and are currently mid 20s to early 30 somethings in the workforce. The grew up in prosperous times, which is why their so narcassistic. As a result I think these bust times that we are currently experiencing will change the demarcations of birth dates for Generation Y from 1980-1995 to roughly 1978-1990)

I'd say we currently have a lot more in common with the late 70s.

Terrorists, oil crisis, recession, automaker woes....  Even a lot of the late 70s punk and new wave stuff heavily influences a lot of the popular music scene right now.
Yeah One thing the late 00's have in common or similar is that the late 70's is automakers were downsizing cars in the late 70's and now auto consumers are downsizing from Big to Medium size SUV's into compact cars or Hybrids.

As far as Automaker woes yeah GM could be in touble pretty soon. I think Ford will survive though. Don;t know about Chrysler. Even the Japanese automakers like Toyota and Nissan are feeling their quarterly profits slip. Automakers losing money on their leases because they overestaimated how much ceratain cars or trucks would be worth after lease is another tale of 2008 automaker woes even Honda was in this boat of losing money on their leases of late. Honda took a 273 million dollar charge because of money lost on leases this year. BMW also took a 372 million dollar on money lost on leases, and Ford took a 2.1 billion dollar charge for the same thing. "Chrylsler Finanicial" pulled out of the leasing business.

There was better stuff on TV in the early 90's than in the late 00's.

Hell, you could keep an analog set and there would STILL be something on TV at the time. Now, it's nothing but reality shows. 8-P

In terms of pop culture, I think the late 00's has more in common with the late 80's than anything else. In 1989, hairmetal was still huge, but by that point its cheesiness was becoming increasingly obvious with bands like Warrant and Slaughter emerging. Now, glam rap is still fairly big - case and point Lil' Wayne's Tha Carter III went double platinum over the course of five weeks, outselling everything else in the top ten - but is definitely on its way out, since Lil' Wayne is pretty much the ONLY glam rapper still on top. Pop-emo is very similar to hairmetal in terms of image (long hair, tight jeans, make-up) and in terms of the how and when it got on top (hairmetal began to dominate around '87 after Bon Jovi got huge and Whitesnake released 'Here I Go Again', whereas pop-emo got really big in '07 with Fall Out Boy and the success of 'Hey There Delilah'), though the subject matter of the songs and the lifestyle is entirely different. Sitcoms are irrelevant this year, much like they were in 1988, but then again '89 saw the debut of Seinfeld and then sitcoms became all the rage again. 80's bands like Motley Crue and Poison are touring and haven't been more successful in decades, much like in the late 80's a lot of 60's bands like the Greatful Dead and the Beach Boys were suddenly releasing hits again. Another pop fad has hit us with the likes of Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers, similar to late 80's dance pop like Paula Abdul and New Kids on the Block, but then again also similar to late 90's Britney/N'Sync teen pop and late 70's disco.
The early 90's was a time of great change and a new idea of what people perceived as cool. Grunge and gangsta rap kicked out the old guard and MTV changed overnight as Generation X came to the forefront. It was the first time that an alternative song could reach No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Under the Bridge), the first time a country album could outsell a pop album, and the first time a band could actually say that MTV sucked. When it comes down to it, the early 90's have a LOT in common with the late 60's. The late 00's are nothing like that...yet. I do suppose it is possible, however unlikely, that 2009 could be the year that everything changes, or perhaps something could happen even at the end of this year (my bet is on either 2011 or 2012 though). Things have gotten so stale and bad now, we are in dire need of a culture shift.

But yeah, everything else, from recession to the war, to the rising gas prices, to even the dislike of the GOP is very early-90's, but since I believe that AMERICA is heading toward stagflation, the late 00's may have more in common with the early 70's politically and economically.

^Interesting point about the early 90s and the late 60s. Those both were periods of time in which generations came of age, the Boomers in the late 60s and Gen X in the early 90s. That said the early 90s, however similar, were a total rejection of the 60s since Gen x hated Baby Boomers so much. They were though, similar in spirit, in the sense of pushing the limits of what people defined as cool as well as our social values. Since the early 90s theres been much more attention to the flexibility that the youth wish for in lifestyle and personal choice, not to mention increased psychological regard for young adults because of how angry and angst ridden Generation X were. You have to admit, they did bring to the forefront a lot of the issues the youth generation were experiencing, from a crappy economy, to teen angst/insecurity/hopelessness, to AIDS, environmental devastation and gang culture.

With the election this year I think we MAY see the shift happen sooner than normal. If this were just a normal election and Bush was a popular president and Cheney ran as the incumbent and won, then the shift in culture would happen around 2011/12, similar to what happened in 1992 with grunge and Clinton. By 1992 most of the country was dissatisfied with the GOP due to the recession and grunge music typified the change toward liberal values. But in this election cycle given what radically different policies Obama has from Bush/McCain, if he won, I think the "feel" of pop culture would change more quickly towards liberal embrace. Probably around 2010, probably paving the way for glam rap to get swept away. *crosses fingers*

As a last note, does anybody think The Carter III is the glam rap equivilant for Appetite for Destruction? ;D Both albums came out 20 years apart in very cheesy times for their respective genres, rock and rap, and sold a ton of copies.