Does anybody know what was left of 80s culture/ideals in 1990-91?  I was born in January 1990.  It seems to me a lot of the hair was still around, and the biggest 80s band were still cool.  But after 1991 its all seems gone. Any thoughts?

Bands still around in the ear'y '90's (few today!!!): INXS, Depeche Mode, Guns N' Roses,  Poison, Motley Crue, Janet Jackson, Madonna, U2, REM, The Cure, Salt N' Pepa, Micheal Jackson, Skid Row,  Paula Abdul, LL Cool J, Warrant,  New Kids On The Block, and a couple others...




TV shows still around in the early '90's (most until 1992/1993): The Cosby Show, Growing Pains, Married...with Children, Quantum Leap, Mc Gyver, Who's The Boss, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ducktales, Garfield & Friends, Arsenio Hall Show, Full House, Perfect Strangers, LA Law, and a few more I can think of...

Interesting ... Thanks! :)

Yes, I think 1992 changed things a lot more than 1990. Even grunge became a fashion in 1992.

There was indeed a late 80s presence hanging around until 1992, 1993.  Like a watered down version of the late 80s was still around in 1990-'92.  The 80s slang was outdated, because it was becoming very uncool to bring up the 80s during that time, but some of the late 80s fashions and hairstyles were definately still around.  I guess you had to be old enough to remember it to know what I am talking about.

What about the Ninja Turtles slang?  (bodacious, tubular, awesome)  Did kids think that stuff was unhip even back in 1991?  i.e. in Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989 I know) the 12-year old guy says "Tubular".  Was those words sorta said a lot, but half-sarcastically like "shizzle" is today?  I know in 1990 "Homey" was made popular by In Living Color, even though it was around throughout the 1980s in black communities.

^I'm not sure we should count Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because that was a show aimed at children and not really representative of the times.  Keep in mind that TMNT started in 1987, so if they used the slang from '87 and the show became immensely popular, they were not going to ditch what worked for them.

I guess what I am saying is that I didn't know anyone who said "totally radical!" or "tubular" in the early 1990s.  But there were plenty of late 80s fashions and hairstlyes around.  Picture it this way, a lot of the late 80s were still popular, but a lot of the late 80s were also quickly going out of style.  Both of it was true, and both of it was going on.  And not everything was happening at the same time.  That's probably the best way I can explain it.  The same thing happened in the early 80s with regards to the 1970s.

Yeah I understand what you're saying.  Like today, shows on Disney, etc., have teen cliques and stuff you never would find today.  A lot of stuff on TV, etc, is about 3-4 yrs outdated.  I mean, yeah, it's not like 10-year-olds care about slang.  I've heard stuff like "radical", "bodacious", etc.  was uncool even in the late 80s too, i.e. they're more 1980-86 stuff.  The 90s are gone, but they (for the most part) didn't have a cheesy air like the 80s so people don't shun them today.  :D But when I was 6-7 in the mid-late 90s I thought the coolest thing to wear was Nike shoes, a backwards hat, and a pair of shades. ;D  Today people would think you were a dork if you wore that.  Also, nobody seriously say "homey g" or "beans" or "dead pres" or whatever today.  Now it's "Retarded", "Awesome" (never goes away in my opinion), "Gay", etc.

Anybody else have any thoughts on the matter?  ???

I'll add this final bit---there are always years where decades blend togther.  For instance the late 60s to the mid 70s.  The late 70s and early 80s.  And the late 80s and early 90s. 

And now the late 90s and early-mid 00s are blended togther.  If you weren't really around, or you were alive but too young, then it is hard for you to tell the difference between the years.  But if you are old enough to have been there, then you know what the difference was and what was popular when.  One time a kid asked me why Cyndi Lauper (whose peak was around 1983, 1984) wasn't popular in 1989.  He figured that since it was the 80s, she must have been popular and everything was going on at the same time.  I had to explain to him that she fell out of fashion by the late 80s, and his question was like asking why Pearl Jam wasn't that popular in 1999. 

In 10 years some kid born in 2000 will ask you what the hell the difference is there between 2002 and 1997.  You would be able to tell him and you would know the smaller things that he or she wouldn't be aware of. 

Yeah I agree.  Today is a lot like the late 90s.  But yeah, there are LOADS of minute differences. I mean, listen to a 1999 hit like "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" and then listen to "Down" by Blink 182.  Although they're the same genre, they sound very different.  Now we're in a garage-rock and pop-punk period, whereas in 1999-2002 we were in a nu-metal, hard, and (yes) Christian rock era remniecient (sp?) of the 70s.  Now is more like the 80s when it comes to rock muzak.  But late 1991 to early 1997 is, in my opinion, a distinct period, the real 90s if you will.  Just like the early-mid 60s are their own period and the late 60s are more the offshoot of the 70s that is labeled "Sixties culture".  But the 70s, 80s, and 90s were all VERY different and had sharp changes.

i definitly think the 80s music spilled over into 1990/91. I occasionally am hit with the reality that a song i like, that i always thought was an 80's tune, was released in the early 90's. I also think when the gulf war broke out in 1990, that kind of slammed the door on the carefree 80's for me.

quote: i definitly think the 80s music spilled over into 1990/91. I occasionally am hit with the reality that a song i like, that i always thought was an 80's tune, was released in the early 90's. I also think when the gulf war broke out in 1990, that kind of slammed the door on the carefree 80's for me.


So would you say the 80s ended in about the fall of 1990 and the nineties began then?  I've always thought of the cultural 80s as spanning from August of 1981 to March of 1991.  But yeah the Gulf War is a very 90s event.  But the Cold War didn't finish out completely until 1991.  But yeah, in early 1990 McDonald's opened in Moscow, then mid-year Germany reunites.  The 80s probably really ended in about August or Sept. of 1990.  Musically, the 80s ended in Sept 91 with Grunge.  

What songs from '90/'91 do you think of as 80s?  "Enjoy The Silence" - DM, Phil Collins?  

Here's my take on spans of different aspects of the 1980s:

History: Jan 81 (Reagan inauguration) - Aug 90 (Gulf War)
Music: Aug 81 (birth of MTV) - Sept 91 (Nirvana)
TV: Sept 82 (Cheers premiere)  - Sept 92 (Cosby Show/Rodney King beating)
Movies:  80 (Caddyshack/Airplane) - early 90
Tech (very long): 1978 (Video Games) - 1996 (Internet explosion/Play Station)
Date: Jan 80 - Dec 89
Political Correctness: early 81 (Reagan) - early 91 (Acceptance of cursing in music)

Please correct me if anything's off.

BUMP

I'd say 1990 was pretty much the same as the 80's. Well, maybe not the early 80's, but 1987 to 1992 was fairly similar musically, but culturally, I think 87-89 and 90-92 were different. Slang like "Tubular" was pretty much out of style by 1989, from what I recall myself and what I've observed/heard since then.

1992 was the last 90's year with any trace of 80's culture. Take the song, "How Do You Talk to an Angel" as a prime example - it seems to straddle the line between an 80's power ballad and a 90's pop ballad sound (maybe that's one reason it doesn't get really any airplay anymore - radio stations have a hard time classifying it).

It was a mix of 80's and 90's styles, but obviously closer to the 90's.

I do think 1991 was the biggest change though - mainly with rap ushering in the 90's sound, as well as grunge toward the end of the year. By 1993, I'd say 99% of any remaining 80's culture was long gone.

PS: I would say the 80's culture was from about 1982 to 1991. 1980 and 81 were still pretty 70's-like. 1982 was the transitional year (the music was split between synth pop, album rock and ballads). By 1983, I'd say the 80's were in full swing.

BUMP

I'd say 1990 was pretty much the same as the 80's. Well, maybe not the early 80's, but 1987 to 1992 was fairly similar musically, but culturally, I think 87-89 and 90-92 were different. Slang like "Tubular" was pretty much out of style by 1989, from what I recall myself and what I've observed/heard since then.

1992 was the last 90's year with any trace of 80's culture. Take the song, "How Do You Talk to an Angel" as a prime example - it seems to straddle the line between an 80's power ballad and a 90's pop ballad sound (maybe that's one reason it doesn't get really any airplay anymore - radio stations have a hard time classifying it).

It was a mix of 80's and 90's styles, but obviously closer to the 90's.

I do think 1991 was the biggest change though - mainly with rap ushering in the 90's sound, as well as grunge toward the end of the year. By 1993, I'd say 99% of any remaining 80's culture was long gone.

PS: I would say the 80's culture was from about 1982 to 1991. 1980 and 81 were still pretty 70's-like. 1982 was the transitional year (the music was split between synth pop, album rock and ballads). By 1983, I'd say the 80's were in full swing.


Yeah, 1990, I'd say was about 70% 80s, 30% 90s. 

1991 is like 40% 80s, 60% 90s and
1992 75% 90s and 25% 80s.

About mid-1989 it seems people went from the big-haired late 80s period to the "eighty-nine-ish" period, which spanned from about June 1989 to August 1991.  This period was late 80s musically and stylistically, and from what I know was in mindset the "this is the 90s period".  I guess you could say this meant the 90s came early but I think of it the other way: if you think it's cool that the dates in the 90s you probably still think of it as being 1988 or 1989.  You could put the mid-89 to mid-91 period either way, but I see it more as the closeoff phase of the eighties.  In this period, too, you couldn't get away with as much language and violence on TV as you can now.

As for slang, I'd say it became a bit strange to say by mid-89 and became simply unacceptable by mid-90. I've heard a few stray things from 1990 say words like "wicked" and "totally _", but they're far apart and few.

If I had to draw a line between 80s and 90s it would probably be either January 1991 or September 1991.  Historically I'd say October 1990 was the end of the eighties.

Also some of the shows that came out in the early 90's reflected the 80's a bit like Step by Step and I think Family Matters came out about that time.  I remember watching them and holding my daughter.  She was born in 92.  Phil Collins had a song out in 90 or 91 called No Son of Mine and it sounded 80's.

Also some of the shows that came out in the early 90's reflected the 80's a bit like Step by Step and I think Family Matters came out about that time.  I remember watching them and holding my daughter.  She was born in 92.  Phil Collins had a song out in 90 or 91 called No Son of Mine and it sounded 80's.


Imo the 90s began in fall of '91, just like the 80s in fall '81 and 00s in fall '01.