Looking from the modern day, of how we think of decades in the past (i.e. in the 90's it became almost instantly an "anti 80's" and now, they're older and maybe less known, but are slightly more acceptable/cool again) this led me to wonder about what people in the 80's themself thought.

It seems like 70's culture spilled into the 80's (in updated forms, but still) more than 80's culture into the 90's. Did the average 80's teen make fun of the 60's or 70's? It does seem like anything approx 10-20 years before a certain era gets lambasted the most (too old to be current, too new to be retro), but after that, it actually becomes more liked/accepted again.

There were influences of 50's music in the 80's (Stray Cats, Billy Joel, etc) not to mention 1955 in Back to the Future, so I think by then, they were old enough to be liked. The 70's might've still been recent/unchanged enough to where 80's teens could've still looked back on their childhood stuff fondly. The 60's, however, is the "mid-point" decade I'd assume someone in the 80's would make fun of.

What's your take on it - either from those who lived it, or if you haven't, from what you heard? :)

Back in the 80's there was a definite backlash against 1970's pop culture, especially disco. If you dared go out in public wearing bellbottom jeans in 1987 it would be almost as bad as having the word "DORK" tattooed on your forehead. John Travolta was considered to be a complete joke in the 1980's, mainly (I believe) because of his appearance in "Saturday Night Fever" and thus, his association with the disco genre.
  By way of comparison, a lot of people became interested in 60's culture back then. Nickelodeon reran a lot of shows from the 60's and in part because of their airing of old Monkees episodes (I loved watching old Monkees reruns--I thought they were funny as hell) the Monkees reunited and had a wildly successful comeback tour. A lot of kids back then liked 60's music (I liked CCR), and a lot of 80's bands did 60's remakes.
  There's a definite 20-year cycle going here.

The 70's, especially disco, were made fun of in the 80's... as were the bell bottoms... I can remember being embarrassed by our '69 Buick.... which would now probably be somewhat of a classic.

In the 80's, I saw a revival of 50's style diners with the little juke boxes at the tables... also a new interest in 50's & 60's cars...  I think the movie "Grease" contributed to that...

the 80s saw a huge 60s revival. i was more into jimi hendrix and the doors than the music of the day. it was also a time that the US came to terms with the vietnam war. just look at the movies that came out then, platoon, full metal jacket and the TV show, tour of duty. we were fascinated with the 60s.

the 70s on the other hand were seen as joke by us teens at the time. other than the music, i still can't relate to the 70s even though i was a child through most of that decade.

Good points made. :)

I guess that makes sense that the 60's would be just old enough to have a semi revival. Plus, alot of the hits in the 80's were from bands that had been around since then (i.e. Starship, John Fogerty, Tina Turner).

I know Disco - even when it was big - had a huge backlash with the whole "Disco S*cks" saying. By 1980/81 it was pretty much dead for good, I think.

There was a country song called "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" and it kind of relates to this topic, if you took out the word "country" and replaced it with "80's" or "70's", whatever...

I like that song because it talks about how people would make fun of her for liking country, and then when country became popular, all those same people were trying to hard to be what she was then...

I think it's hilarious how people made fun of the 70's, then suddenly they were trying so hard to look 70's...  and now here we go again with the 80's...  :)

As some of you had already pointed out there is a trend of every 20 years. In the 70s, everything 50s was very popular. Happy Days, Grease, etc. were some of the hottest tickets around. I remember 50s sock hops were coming back, too. Then I noticed in the 80s, the 60s seem to be the thing. Schools would have 60 dances (as opposed to the 50s sock hops). Bell bottoms, tied dye, etc. were making a comeback. Then in the 90s, the 70s seem to be the thing. "That 70s show" (which I think came out in the 90s). All those old t.v. shows became new movies-Charlie's Angels, the Brady Bunch, etc. Now, in the 2000s, it seems like the 80s is the thing. That retro thing going.

What I find interesting about this trend that seem to repeat itself every 20 years or so, is that most people who "get into" these trends, have parents who "came of age" 20 years prior and most people don't want anything that assocates with their parents. For instince, kids parents in the 80s, came "of age" in the 60s and listened to the Beatles and such. Kids in the 80s didn't want to listen to the Beatles because that was "their parents' music" but yet, the fashions and such were really cool. I don't get it.




Cat

I remember in 90`s back 70`s  clothes,Abba,John Travolta,Elton John,Disco,..-That come out and we have actualy return of 80`s

Parents of my generation coming of age  in 70`s,so we must be against the 70`s.And unconsciously be in 80`s.

It does seem like anything approx 10-20 years before a certain era gets lambasted the most (too old to be current, too new to be retro), but after that, it actually becomes more liked/accepted again.


I think this is a VERY ACCURATE statement.  The recent previous era can at times be way too old to be current, but just too new to be retro cool.  The 80s were that way in the 90s. 


You're around 23 right?  You should be able to remember some 80s stuff, you don't remember what the 70s were viewed as?  The 70s were seen as a JOKE.  I don't care how much you think there was an anti-80s sentiment in the early 90s or anytime in the 90s.....nothing, and I mean NOTHING can compare to the 70s backlash during the 1980s.  The 80s had it great in the 90s compared to the way the 70s were treated in the 80s.  At least the 80s had a very nostalgic, complimentary movie in 1998 called The Wedding Singer.  No one would have ever made a movie like that about the 70s in 1987 or 1988.

You couldn't give 70s clothes away to even homeless shelters.  Nearly everything about the decade was seen as mind bogglingly stupid during the 80s.  No one wanted any part of the 1970s.  The funky disco music, the mood rings, the leisure suits, the checkered Greg Brady pants and shirts, the bell bottoms, the platform shoes, the long a$$ sideburns and wild hippie hair, it all looked so ugly in the 80s.

Early 80s teens would get very angry if you confused the early 1980s with the 70s, I remember that quite well.  The 70s backlash, was the ULTIMATE backlash.  Nothing comes close to the 70s backlash in the 80s.  So I think it was a big surprise to everyone back in 1992 when 70s fashions like platform shoes slowly started to come back in style again, because just a mere 3 years earlier in 1989 no one would have been caught dead in them.     

^ Great post, Chris.

Here I was, thinkin' I knew everything about the 80's - glad I still have a little to learn, hehe. Oh, and yeah, I'm 23 as we speak (though only biologically!), but I paid attention to things pretty early, so I still consider the 80's more my generation than the 90's/today. I do like 1990-2005+ but I see it as more of a cool place to hang out instead of my real "home" time.

I more am bound to recall songs, movies, video games and general fashions as opposed to exact attitudes on stuff like that (wish I'd been old enough at the time, though!).

Seriously, you do bring up alot of good points. I know there was a Disco S*cks movement in 1980/81, and it led to a pretty quick death. It makes sense that bell bottoms were made fun of (I remember an episode of Roseanne mentioning that, LOL) from what I do remember, and what I've later seen/observed.

But, in many ways, I do think the music was less different from the late 70's to the early 80's. Foreigner, Eddie Money, Steve Miller and countless others had really big 80's hits (particularly early in the decade) but technically were 70's artists. I suppose I assumed that if those artists had fallen out of flavor as "70s relics", they wouldn't have seen successes in the next decade (that's what happened to many 80's rockers in the 90's).

Heck, Rod Stewart was even a 60's artist, and he had tons of pop/rock hits in the 80's (before he went AC), so I'm sure your average teen in 1980-85 still thought he was cool.

I have a question - what about the slightly older teens in the 80's? What would a 16 year-old in 1983 (b. 1967) think of the 70's? On one hand, as you said, the 70's were pretty uncool by then, but on the other, he/she would still be just old enough to have some childhood memories from that decade (8 in 1975 is old enough to begin remembering some songs, fashions, slang, etc).

From my own observation of the 90's, it seems like the "anti 80's" years were 1992-96. Just '96 to '97 was a huge difference in the feel of everything. In '97, the 80's (early 80's at least) were starting to become old enough to be slightly retro/old-school cool. Plus, the beginning of girl pop and boy bands. Love 'em or hate 'em, I do give them credit for one thing - bringing back "sing-along" pop songs, and those were definitely an 80's thing to me. :)

What would you consider the 70's backlash years to be? In 1982, could you wear something from 1978 and not get laughed at? ;D

I think there is a 20 year pattern for a decade to come back and be popular.

In the 70's, the 50's were huge. You had "American Graffiti", "Grease", "Happy Days" Sha Na Na and "Laverne and Shirley".

In the 80s, the 60's were huge. I'll go into this one more since this is an 80s forum.  ;) Peace symbols and mini skirts came back. You had 60s influenced bands hitting the charts like the B52's and uh..hum.. the Bangles.  :) Nick at Nite would continuesly run episodes of shows like "Laugh In" and "Gilligans Island". The Monkees had a HUGE reunion, having at one time 9 albums on billboard's top 100 at one time. Comebacks by 60s artists like Tina Turner, the Jacksons, and the Moody Blues. And there were those remakes of songs like "I think we're alone now", "locomotion", and "hazy shade of winter". I know as a teen in the 80s, all of my friends thought that the 60s were cool. I remember staying home to watch MTV at 12:30 every afternoon to watch their classic 60s video's timeslot. MTV also rerun all of the Beatles cartoons, Yellow Submarine, and had several 24 hour Monkee marathons. And back then, MTV was cool.

As someone pointed out above, the tye-dye style came back huge. The Grateful Dead had the highest grossing tour in the mid 80s and that had a lot to do with it.

In the 90s, the bellbottoms and long straight hair came back and don't forget "that 70s show".  8)

So that's why now I'm hoping and waiting to see a big 80s comeback. There's a lot of reunions going on, bands getting back together. And you hear 80s sampling going on all the time now in "current" music.

One thing from the 70s that was still very much around in the early-mid 80s was punk, especially in some parts of the UK. I rember an interview that Boy George did with Joan Rivers, circa '84, in which he commented that the punk look , which had created such outrage in the late '70s was almost considered "normal" in certain parts of London. I grew up in Tasmania, Australia and up until around 1986, Punk was a big thing: odd fluro socks, spiked and coloured hair in it's various forms, including mohawks, you name it!
Dee :-*

...Whattabout the move from the 90s to 00s. I think there were no major differences. Except "the clubbing" & boy-bands started to fade out and now they're considered quite 90s. Still no affect on crap...oh, I mean rap-music.

I think this is a VERY ACCURATE statement.  The recent previous era can at times be way too old to be current, but just too new to be retro cool.  The 80s were that way in the 90s. 


You're around 23 right?  You should be able to remember some 80s stuff, you don't remember what the 70s were viewed as?  The 70s were seen as a JOKE.  I don't care how much you think there was an anti-80s sentiment in the early 90s or anytime in the 90s.....nothing, and I mean NOTHING can compare to the 70s backlash during the 1980s.  The 80s had it great in the 90s compared to the way the 70s were treated in the 80s.  At least the 80s had a very nostalgic, complimentary movie in 1998 called The Wedding Singer.  No one would have ever made a movie like that about the 70s in 1987 or 1988.

You couldn't give 70s clothes away to even homeless shelters.  Nearly everything about the decade was seen as mind bogglingly stupid during the 80s.  No one wanted any part of the 1970s.  The funky disco music, the mood rings, the leisure suits, the checkered Greg Brady pants and shirts, the bell bottoms, the platform shoes, the long a$$ sideburns and wild hippie hair, it all looked so ugly in the 80s.

Early 80s teens would get very angry if you confused the early 1980s with the 70s, I remember that quite well.  The 70s backlash, was the ULTIMATE backlash.  Nothing comes close to the 70s backlash in the 80s.  So I think it was a big surprise to everyone back in 1992 when 70s fashions like platform shoes slowly started to come back in style again, because just a mere 3 years earlier in 1989 no one would have been caught dead in them.     
Although it wasn't nearly as bad as the anti-70's backlash of the 80's, there was a definite anti-80's backlash in the 90's. Whereas the main target in the 80's was 70's disco, in the 90's, I believe it was 80's hair metal bands. And I believe that "Beavis and Butthead" had a lot to do with this. (And since I had no love lost for that genre, I'd absolutely love it when B&B would be watching TV, and some lame band like Poison or Warrant or Winger woud come on, and B&B would mercilessly poke fun at them and illustrate just how ridiculous the 80's hair bands really were.)

As far as the 70's coming back in the 90's? I think they really sanitized that decade a lot. Sure a lot of the fashions came back, like bell-bottoms and low rider jeans (which I admit, are sexy), but where was the polyester? Where were, as C.M.THX pointed out, the checkered Greg Brady pants and shirts? For all those who got into that whole 70's retro craze, I ask of you: Go digging through your parents' old photo album and look at some photos taken of them in the 70's. Take a good look at them. Don't buy the Hollywood version of the hip 1970's. Just look at pictures of ordinary, average Americans form the 70's. Everybody was a bunch of goofy-looking bastards.

^^^lmao!

true, i was looking at my parents wedding photos..whoa. nasty clothes. i teased my dad about his leisure suit afterwards.

the 90s retro love of the 70s was definitly sanitized. the rock music from the 70s was the best we will ever hear, a lot of bands in the 90s faithfully copied the style but i never seen any music vids of any of those artists wearing the checkered pants or the leisure suits.

I have a question - what about the slightly older teens in the 80's? What would a 16 year-old in 1983 (b. 1967) think of the 70's? On one hand, as you said, the 70's were pretty uncool by then, but on the other, he/she would still be just old enough to have some childhood memories from that decade (8 in 1975 is old enough to begin remembering some songs, fashions, slang, etc).

What would you consider the 70's backlash years to be? In 1982, could you wear something from 1978 and not get laughed at? ;D

Hi!  I was born in 1967, and was reading this thread with interest.  Personally, I didn't really care much about music until about 1981, unless you count the Monkees (I was a Davy Jones groupie).  Also, being a kid, I was spared the most awful fashions, for example, I wasn't allowed to wear platform shoes.  I do remember the polyester pants with the sewn pleat (I made the mistake of showing up at high school wearing those in 1981--I nearly got laughed out of school) and psychedelic shirts with pointed collars.  We tied our bell bottoms up with rubber bands so they wouldn't get tangled up with the chains of our bikes.  I think we all at one point or other dreamed of running away to live with the Brady Bunch or the Partridge Family (the movie "My Girl" nails growing up in the 70's).  The biggest problem with growing up in the 1970's was that we thought it was normal--we had no basis for comparison.  By the early 1980's, it was the consensus among my friends that yes, disco sucked, but Andy Gibb was still cute.  We also secretly still liked the Bee Gees, but we would never admit it in public.  For me, the 1970's was mostly about television.  I loved Emergency!, The Rockford Files and Chico and The Man.  By the time I hit high school, I remember going through my parent's records and unearthing Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album, and decided that maybe my parents weren't total geeks if they liked such cool music.  Also, although MTV existed in the early 80's, our cable company didn't carry it, so I had to stay up late on Saturday nights and catch videos on Channel 11.  I remember the very first video I saw was Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf."  With groups like Van Halen, Cyndi Lauper, The Bangles, Bon Jovi, Styx and Pat Benatar, disco never had a chance.  I think part of the "backlash" against any decade has as much to do with teenagers demanding their own style and starting to break away from the parents and buy their own clothes as any other trend.  My oldest child will be entering high school in four years.  I hope the 80's are back by then.  :)

^ Welcome to the board, and, might I add, thanks alot for the insight. :)

Wow, you didn't care about music till you were around 14? That would be equivalent to me not caring about it until 1996 - seems inconceivable, I already felt like a veteran by then, hehe! :D

In any event, I agree with you. I think the 80's (well, starting in about 1982/83) certainly had their own "new" fashions. I always thought, Fast Times at Ridgemont High seemed pretty accurate for what I know about 1982, but there still seemed to be a very faint 70's influence. Not sure why, it just seems that way to me.

Maybe just like 1992 was the last 90's year with any 80's influence, '82 was the last gasp of the 70's. If we look at Top 40 music, '82 was the last year with 70's type hits. Say "Up Where We Belong" seems like it could've come out 5 years earlier. Even more rock songs like "Rosanna" from Toto or "Heat of the Moment" I could say the same thing about.

I would clearly say that by 1983, it was a totally 80's culture. New wave, hanging out at the mall, video games, and jean jackets were in, it seemed.

If you look back a few pages, I had some conversations with DevoRule about the culture of certain decades, and he says (which I agree with) that 1999 is the only 90's year that is alot like today is - and that the main 80's were up till about 1986. The "late 80s" culture was around 1987-91 before the 90's completely took over in 1992/93.

Well, going on that, I think I could also say that 1979 was the only 70's year that was kinda like how the 80's would be. I think 1971-78 were the main 70's, and 1979-82 were like the "fringe" years, like a cross of 70's and 80's styles, if that makes sense. I think Disco was starting to fall out of flavor by then, new wave was starting to come in (although it wouldn't get popular for another couple years). The movies/TV of 1979 seem almost identical to the early 80's too.

Well, I suppose it's not entirely accurate to say that I didn't care about music at all until I was 14, but that's when it took off for me.  In the 70's I liked The Jackson 5, The Monkees, Captain & Tennille, The Bee Gees, etc., but except for the Monkees, which I adored and watched/listened to every chance I got, music was more like the soundtrack to my life, something that went on in the background but wasn't that important.  Maybe I just didn't like anything well enough.  But the 80's were just about fun and the music reflected that.  I'm not saying I was typical, but in 1981 it was like a light switch was turned on.  I remember hanging out at the mall and buying 45's (*sigh*--45's, those were the days!) of my favorite music with my allowance and getting the local radio stations' top 100 lists, some of which I still have somewhere.  I wore out the soundtrack to Footloose.  When the 90's came along, most of my friends dropped out of pop music altogether, living in some kind of 80's time warp, but I rode the wave.  I love Green Day and Blink 182, etc.  The only thing I felt was, okay, the music is way cool, but it's so angry!  How did we go from the fun-loving 80's to the angry 90's?  So, what's your opinion of the 2000's?  Has it changed much from the 90's yet?  I guess I'm something of a pop scene dropout too—can't listen to angry lyrics with kids in the car.  One last thing about the 70's—do you realize there were no home computers, rollerblades, cd's, walkman players, mp3 players or cell phones?  It's amazing how fast things move from novelties to necessities.

^ I couldn't agree more - there really is no era that flat-out says "fun" the way the 80's did (well 1979-92 to be picky, LOL).

Yeah, I always liked the Footloose soundtrack too (esp. "Let's Hear it for the Boy" and "Almost Paradise").

While alot of 90's/2000's music is angry, I always detected a difference between grunge and alternative/punk bands. I also happen to like Green Day and some of the newer pop/punk bands (often times only by a couple songs -- many do sound alike - but still!) 'cause I see that as "angry yet fun" whereas Grunge, gangsta rap, Limp Bizkit and the like is usually more just flat-out angry.

I would say that 1996 was the end of the "main" 90's (the grunge era, Beavis & Butthead, etc). 1997 was like the beginning of the way it is now - due largely to the Internet, I think. 97 and 98 were transitional, but 1999 to now is mostly the same. Fashion hasn't changed that much, nor have musical trends (that's good 'cause I've got a ton of clothes I bought in '99 for my senior year in HS and I wouldn't wanna throw 'em out!).

I've gotta say, I always had truly mixed feelings on the 90's. Even in the grunge era, I was slightly partial to the 80's 'cause (a) I liked everything from then, and (b) it was my childhood years. (Hey, I guess when you're 13, looking back to when you were 5 is comforting!) However, now I think I have a sentimental attachment -- even if not as much -- to anything before 1997. Not to the 90's as much, but still.

I just realized, even if I liked 1985, I never thought, Hey, 1995 s*cks or anything. It wasn't till 1997 I started to fully get that I wasn't as "into" things I used to be. Maybe 'cause it was my Freshman year of high school?

BTW, I still like things today and since 1997, I just don't attach a sentimental memory to them.

PS: Thanks for listening to me ramble! ;D

Hi, I'm a 21 year old (born in 1984), and I just thought this discussion was pretty interesting.  I have been noticing a trend myself, when it comes to young people - particularly when a generation hits their 20s.  It seems like that's when they start reflecting on the past and becoming interested in retro fashion.  I'm not sure how much this is true... But, I have noticed that this seems to be a 20 year thing.  Like for instance, now that we are in the early 2000s  - 20 years after the 80s, I've noticed some fashions, and fads are becoming the rage.  Nintendo shirts, miniture arcade games like Pacman, and  Donkey Kong, now available on a modern game console...
Some pop artists - returning to synth music, and certain 80s artists ( Kylie Minogue, Michael Jackson, and Madonna) resurfacing in the news. And, if those artists aren't coming back then imitation artists like Justin Timberlake (MJ), or Britney Spears (Madonna), are trying their shoes.  Obviously this can't be the first time anybody has done things retro.  I think in the 90s, there were some 70s styles being brough back.  During the 70s, I think folks were looking at the 50s, (with shows like Happy Days, and movies like Grease) - but I'm just speculating there, I wasn't alive then.  I also think that in the 80s too there was a bit of retrospection, with some of the swing rock and roll acts like Brian Setzer.  The late 80s I think mirrored the late 60s, with influence from the black panther movement clearly driving the music of Public Enemy and NWA.

  But like I said, I'm just specualting.  I don't really know if retro-attitude really goes in 20 year intervals or not. Even with me being born in the mid 8os, I still apreciate the music coming from the early and mid 90s, (not so much the music just before and a few years after the millenium though).  But I do have to say that these last couple years, I've really started to appreciate 80s music - and like it a lot!  ;D

Oh also, I have a comment about the whole 'fashion spilling into the next decade' idea.  I think what it is - is that when a decade begins, the young people are wearing/listening the pretty much the same things they were wearing/listening when the previous decaded ended.  And for the first 4 years of the new decade the style is still similar to the old decade.  Just think about Michael Jacksons music in the early 80s, it still had a 70s disco influence.  The late 70s had a little bit of synth that was seeping into the disco, and the rock was begining to sound more like what you would hear in the 80s.  Late 50s and early 60s had similar fashion.  I asume so did the late 60s and early 70s.  Even the 90s, had some 80s like sound in the first few years of that decade, and people were still wearing tight pants. but by '94 the sound was changing into somethiing else. I think with the 20th century (atleast since the 50s), decades can easlily be split up into a first half and second half  - when talking about pop culture.  I think with the 90s though, it was perhaps a decade divided into 3 parts instead of two.  '91 to '95 the music is kinda simialar sounding... Not all of course.  '96 I think changed the sound quite a bit, and later '99 destroyed music as we know it. ;) but hopefully it didn't completely destroy music.  The music of the last 4 years has been pretty similar, but as we left late 2004 and ented early 2005 - I have noticed a bit of a difference in some of the music.  A return to synth, and an embracing of electro maybe?
Infact I almost think of it as a continuation, and maybe impovement on the 80s sound.  But what do I know  ???

I was born in 71 so I was a teenager in the 80's but I was old enough to remember the late 70's and liked disco, still do.  But to have said that then was social sucide.  I remember the ty died shirts and peace sybles making a comeback.  I do remember "Lean on Me" was a remake and some 50's were cool.  I love the 80's but back then I liked listening to the oldies because of my parents and I was seen as strange for that.  The late 70's were actually pretty cool because the music by then was starting to change and disco was becomeing less liked.  I can relate to early 80's and mid-80's the most because that's when I came of age.  I graduated in 90 and remember feeling sad that the 80's were gone.  I was in my twenties in the90's and destested the grunge type bands and now I destest alot of the hip-hop music. 

...Whattabout the move from the 90s to 00s. I think there were no major differences. Except "the clubbing" & boy-bands started to fade out and now they're considered quite 90s. Still no affect on crap...oh, I mean rap-music.


1997-1999 to 2000-2004 is not a big difference, although there is an atmosphere change.  But you CANNOT compare 1990-1996 to the Zero Decade.  While the time isn't backlashed, it is NOT cool today and is very little like today in terms of pop culture.  1997 is more like 2005 than it is like 1992.

A lot of 80s spilled into the early 90s, especially 1990. 1992 pretty much had no 80s left, but 1990 and the first half of 1991 didn't offer enough culture to truly move away from the late 1980s.  No, it wasn't like 1985, but from what I've seen you could compare it to 1989 or even 1987.  Even "Fresh Prince" could arguably be called an 80s holdover.

91 to '95 the music is kinda simialar sounding... Not all of course.  '96 I think changed the sound quite a bit, and later '99 destroyed music as we know it.   but hopefully it didn't completely destroy music.  The music of the last 4 years has been pretty similar, but as we left late 2004 and ented early 2005 - I have noticed a bit of a difference in some of the music.  A return to synth, and an embracing of electro maybe?
Infact I almost think of it as a continuation, and maybe impovement on the 80s sound.  But what do I know 

Yes, 1999 destroyed pop music.  I see the 90s as three parts: 1990-91, sorta held off from the 80s, 1992-1996 the "core 90s", grunge, old school-gangsta rap, Ace of Base, etc.  1997-1999 boy bands, New School Rap, pretty much the prequell to the 2000s, although imo 2000s started around 2001.