It's common for people to say 90s culture lasted until 9/11 and some people act like there is no difference at all between the early 2000s and the 90s, but I disagree. I think even in 2000 pop culture had shifted away to some degree from the 90s.

The dot com bubble busted in March of 2000 so the economy was different. Grunge fashion was still kinda hanging on in 1999 but basically dead by 2000. Music was changing, you had hits by bands like Train and Lifehouse that would fit better with the musical climate of 2008 than 1998. Same with Eminem, Pink and Nelly, all very Noughties and new and huge in 2000.

The Dreamcast and PS2 were out in 2000 so gaming was considerably more advanced. Mostly 2000 was still part of the 32 bit era but the 64 bit era was emerging.

The shows on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel that aired their pilot in 2000 or later have a different vibe than the stuff that began in the 90s. Although Spongebob came out in 1999 from what I remember it wasn't that popular until 2000. Same with the Harry Potter books, I remember my brother read the first book for a book report in 1999 but it didn't really become a craze until 2000 with the anticipation of the movie.

High speed internet was starting to become more available in 2000 even though dial up was still king. Through almost the entire 90s Internet users were still the minority in the US, but by 2000 it was unusual not to go online at least occasionally if you were young. And cell phones were substantially more common than they were even a couple of years before. Some teenagers were starting to get them by 2000 but in the late 90s that would have been really rare and it would imply the kid was spoiled.

It's true that 2000 wasn't that different from the late 90s, but I do think it felt notably more modern and less old fashioned. In most ways, aside from being Clinton era and pre-9/11 it was very similar to 2002 and 2003. If you look at music, fashion, and the aesthetics of TV shows and movies 2000 fits in better with the years after than the years before.

Every year has its differences with other years. I agree 2000 felt a lot more futuristic than 1999 especially as the Internet, cellphones and DVDs were growing exponentially.

But if you ask me the late 90s in general have more in common with the early 2000s than they do with the mid-1990s, the decade turn is a lie. When I think of 1998 it seems to have a lot more in common with 2002 than it does 1994, especially as the Internet was common in both years and not so much in 1994, and the whole grunge thing was totally over in favour of teen pop/nu-metal combo associated with the early 2000s. 3D gaming was big in both 1998 and 2002 while 1994 was 2D gaming (except on PC with Doom). I think you could do a similar comparison test with 1997 vs 2001 and 1997 vs 1993.

Every year has its differences with other years. I agree 2000 felt a lot more futuristic than 1999 especially as the Internet, cellphones and DVDs were growing exponentially.


Yes! Especially since 2000 was in the 21st century (although some people argue it began in 2001 because there was no year zero, I think they're wrong though lol ;) )


But if you ask me the late 90s in general have more in common with the early 2000s than they do with the mid-1990s, the decade turn is a lie. When I think of 1998 it seems to have a lot more in common with 2002 than it does 1994, especially as the Internet was common in both years and not so much in 1994, and the whole grunge thing was totally over in favour of teen pop/nu-metal combo associated with the early 2000s. 3D gaming was big in both 1998 and 2002 while 1994 was 2D gaming (except on PC with Doom). I think you could do a similar comparison test with 1997 vs 2001 and 1997 vs 1993.


I don't know. I think 1997 and 1998 in particular were more similar to the mid 90s than people think.

Internet and cell phones were becoming more popular but it was still only about a third of adults who used them, compared to about 15% in 1995 and 60% in 2002. You're right though, in 1994 the Internet was still mysterious and unfamiliar to most people while by 1998 even if not everyone was actually online, everyone was at least talking about the Internet, most institutions used it, it was a big part of the economy, and so on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1998

The charts of 1998 aren't very different from the charts of 1995 with the exception of the presence of NSYNC and BSB. 1998 was chock full of very 90s sounding R&B and the grungy "Sex and Candy", which is much more similar to Nirvana than to Nickelback. Even Ace of Base scored a hit in '98, by 2000 they were ancient history. 1998 also had a lot of feminist alternative music, by 2002 the equivalent of that kinda stuff was Avril.

Aside from Limp Bizkit (who weren't very popular until '99) and Korn I can't think of any numetal that was popular in the late 90s, I think System of a Down and Linkin Park are really the ones responsible for the numetal craze.

About gaming I agree, 1998 gaming was 3D like 2002 gaming, but I kinda feel like the jump from 32 to 64 bit was at least as big as from 16 to 32. 32 bit games are 3D but the graphics are still vastly inferior to 64 bit graphics. Some games from the original Xbox look pretty good even by 2019 standards. I would say Crash Bandicoot or Mario Kart is technologically closer in terms of graphics and physics to your typical SNES game than it is to Halo, despite being 3D like Halo. Actually I'd argue many if not most 32 bit games would be better described as "2 1/2 D" because they don't immerse you the way 64 bit games do.

The Dot com bubble bursted in 2000 but, it didn't make a dramatic difference in the economy, I would say the economy stayed pretty similar to the 90s until 2006/07.

When it comes to internet and cell phones, they were already very popular in 1999, I wouldn't say the Internet and cell phones were a necessity until 2002 really. DVD's were a tech that slowly rose really, 1997-1998, no one really cared, 1999 it was starting to get a lot of attention and, by late 2000/2001, the DVD boom was on.

For gaming, 2000 was mostly a 5th gen year, I never understood why people called a 6th gen one. The Playstation 2 wasn't even around for most of the year (despite the hype) and the Sega Dreamcast was kind of a failure (I never heard much of it at all, at the time). The most popular games of 2000 were still released for the Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64 such as, Final Fantasy IX, Pokémon Stadium, Banjo-Tooie, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Spider-Man, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Driver 2, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Crash Bash, Perfect Dark, Paper Mario and more.

There are differences between the two years though such as, Millennium bug being behind us, the the Dot-Com crash, Eminem's popularity (starting in April of the year), and new television shows such as, Malcom in the Middle, Survivor and so on. Overall, there are not really enough differences to seperate the years into different eras. However, I would agree that the later months of 2000 (October to December) were starting to feel quite different, with the new television season, release of the Playstation 2, Hip Hop becoming more popular with Nelly, Ludacis, Ja Rule and more I missed out, Pokémania was pretty much entirely worn down, there was the 2000 election, the DVD boom, the Nokia 3310 and a lot more.

2000 was connected to 1999, but it was slightly different. Who Wants to be a Millionaire was the most talked about game show in both years, but it wasn’t a new TV show in 2000 like it was in 1999. Millennials were just about over Pokemon in 2000. Pokémon cards were mainly being collected by Generation Zers at that point. Christina Aguilera and Mandy Moore in 2000 was making men of Generation Y forget Britney Spears. Most importantly, the movies of 2000 were not as iconic as the ones released in 1999. From my perspective, 1999 was the better year. 2000 was a step down from 1999.

It's common for people to say 90s culture lasted until 9/11 and some people act like there is no difference at all between the early 2000s and the 90s, but I disagree. I think even in 2000 pop culture had shifted away to some degree from the 90s.

The dot com bubble busted in March of 2000 so the economy was different. Grunge fashion was still kinda hanging on in 1999 but basically dead by 2000. Music was changing, you had hits by bands like Train and Lifehouse that would fit better with the musical climate of 2008 than 1998. Same with Eminem, Pink and Nelly, all very Noughties and new and huge in 2000.

The Dreamcast and PS2 were out in 2000 so gaming was considerably more advanced. Mostly 2000 was still part of the 32 bit era but the 64 bit era was emerging.

The shows on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel that aired their pilot in 2000 or later have a different vibe than the stuff that began in the 90s. Although Spongebob came out in 1999 from what I remember it wasn't that popular until 2000. Same with the Harry Potter books, I remember my brother read the first book for a book report in 1999 but it didn't really become a craze until 2000 with the anticipation of the movie.

High speed internet was starting to become more available in 2000 even though dial up was still king. Through almost the entire 90s Internet users were still the minority in the US, but by 2000 it was unusual not to go online at least occasionally if you were young. And cell phones were substantially more common than they were even a couple of years before. Some teenagers were starting to get them by 2000 but in the late 90s that would have been really rare and it would imply the kid was spoiled.

It's true that 2000 wasn't that different from the late 90s, but I do think it felt notably more modern and less old fashioned. In most ways, aside from being Clinton era and pre-9/11 it was very similar to 2002 and 2003. If you look at music, fashion, and the aesthetics of TV shows and movies 2000 fits in better with the years after than the years before.

2000 wasn't that different from 1999 just like 1989/1990, 1979/1980, 2009,2010.ect

2000 wasn't that different from 1999 just like 1989/1990, 1979/1980, 2009,2010.ect


Point well made. We were still hanging on to the new things we liked from 1999 in the year 2000.

Yes. And another issue I hear people say is that 2000 was just like 1999, not that 1999 was just like 2000s. As if 1999 was still part of the '90s decade culturally.