This board has a rather lukewarm opinion on the 90s, and many here think it's exactly the same as today except for date.  Here's my more or less chronological defense of the last decade of the 20th century and 3rd millenium:

Early 90s dance was a waste of air, but it least it didn't pollute society the way 2000s mainstream rap or Emo does.  Besides, some of it had good beats, and at least the New Kids didn't go gangsta like NSYNC.

Sure, there was a lot of crappy Grunge, but some was good and a few bands made a revolution in music unequaled since the Beatles came on the scene.  And of course there was the awesomely bad music before it that was Hair Metal.  Is it negative music?  Some maybe, but I see it more as honest.  The 80s, while great for music, focused only on the fun aspects of life (which I do like to an extent). 

As for gangsta rap, most of the music truly is gangsta shhh, but at least some of it was justified to an extent, and the most popular artists were really pretty jokey and I'd bet don't really killl people.  I'm not a fan, but it's more for the lame bass beats and graphic violence than anything else.  Dre, Cube, and Snoop rule though, and they were without a doubt the most popular emcees of the genre in the early 90s.

In the middle of the 90s came R&B.  While I'm not into it, it really wasn't that bad.  It's essentially just urban pop.  Also in the mid 90s more violence came on our tube.  While I find it repulsive and disgusting, crime rates were falling in real life.
Also, the mid 90s, and I'd think the early 90s too, still had an "old school" vibe unlike today, which is all about technology and stuff. 

The late 90s sucked when it came to pop culture but it was such a stable, great time in every other way.  Clinton was good, the economy was booming and there wasn't the war threat then that there is now. People had money and crime was low.  Also numetal came out and replaced worn out Grunge, and the greatest movie of all time, The Matrix, hailed from then.

By 2001 thing became the way they are today.

Not meaning to boost myself, but here is why the 90s aren't the exact same as today:

Internet and terrorism are the obvious so I'll state the less obvious:

In the 90s, DVDs weren't all the rage save in the last 2 years or so of the decade.  Hand-drawn cartoons still outsold CG and VCRS were the medium of choice.  CDs were around then but you weren't considered "cheap" for owning some cassettes. 

Kid's television programming was a lot different then.  Not necessarily better, but certainly different.  Nickelodeon was more focused on shows and not so much on Nicktoons and Disney Channel was the Disney Channel and not Nick 2.  Saturday Morning Cartoons and TGIF were alive and kickin' up till about 1997 when the terrible Disney's One Saturday Morning came out, which did bring about the great show "Recess" at least.  Cartoon Network was more about old school cartoons than Japanimation.

Movies were fewer between then. Today there's a new movie every week, in the 90s they seemed a bit less frequent.  Like mentioned there were fewer CG movies and Mafia movie were also big, not to mention cheesy horror movies.  "The Sixth Sense" which is 1999 started the new trend in Horror and 1999 is when the 2000s movie era began.

Also, the 90s was the decade of big corporations.  Walmart and Starbuck's both rose to the top then and Bill Gates was God to the more businessy types. Today these companies are simply taken for granted.

Not meaning to boost myself, but here is why the 90s aren't the exact same as today:

Internet and terrorism are the obvious so I'll state the less obvious:

In the 90s, DVDs weren't all the rage save in the last 2 years or so of the decade.  Hand-drawn cartoons still outsold CG and VCRS were the medium of choice.  CDs were around then but you weren't considered "cheap" for owning some cassettes. 

Kid's television programming was a lot different then.  Not necessarily better, but certainly different.  Nickelodeon was more focused on shows and not so much on Nicktoons and Disney Channel was the Disney Channel and not Nick 2.  Saturday Morning Cartoons and TGIF were alive and kickin' up till about 1997 when the terrible Disney's One Saturday Morning came out, which did bring about the great show "Recess" at least.  Cartoon Network was more about old school cartoons than Japanimation.

Movies were fewer between then. Today there's a new movie every week, in the 90s they seemed a bit less frequent.  Like mentioned there were fewer CG movies and Mafia movie were also big, not to mention cheesy horror movies.  "The Sixth Sense" which is 1999 started the new trend in Horror and 1999 is when the 2000s movie era began.

Also, the 90s was the decade of big corporations.  Walmart and Starbuck's both rose to the top then and Bill Gates was God to the more businessy types. Today these companies are simply taken for granted.




Yeah I know all about the technology, I remember when a cheap VCR cost about $200 or so in 1994. I used to have one of those 110 cameras, and I remember when I got my first 35mm in 1994 it was a big deal lol. I think kid programming was way better in the '90s up till about 1998 or so. There were some big movies in the '90s (Shindler's List, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Titanic to name a couple), but not as much as today with all the Lord of the Rings movies and Harry Potter. I had my doubts about DVD when it was new in the late '90s because the players weren't as reliable then, and I was so used to tapes, but by 2001 or so DVD was a clear successor the VHS and the death of tapes was imminent. The '90s is the technological decade, the rise of technology in the '90s afffected me in many ways, it's why I'm so in to all kinds of technology. Tapes were much more prominant in the '90s, their main use was in cars, because car cd players weren't nearly as common especially in the early- mid '90s, and for recording off the radio. Now tapes are nearly extinct.

i like the 90s. i was drunk through most of the decade but from what i remembered it was pretty cool.

I miss the old TGIF  :\'(

I miss the old TGIF  :\'(




I'm too young to really remember it but I LOVE Full House and Boy Meets World :)

You guys do realize that kids will say the exact same thing about 2005 in 2015 or 2020 don't you?

"yeah man the mid '00s weren't about technology like it is today in 2016, like we got all kinds of cool stuff around today, not like back in 2000 or 2005.  It must have really sucked back in 1996 too".



1,000,000,000,000  bucks says they will say the same d*mn thing.

You don't want to take that bet.

You guys do realize that kids will say the exact same thing about 2005 in 2015 or 2020 don't you?

"yeah man the mid '00s weren't about technology like it is today in 2016, like we got all kinds of cool stuff around today, not like back in 2000 or 2005.  It must have really sucked back in 1996 too".



1,000,000,000,000  bucks says they will say the same d*mn thing.

You don't want to take that bet.


I sure do believe you :)  I don't like the 2000s for the most part.  I do like the 90s, well up to 1996 or so.  After all, nostalgia's relative, right?

You guys do realize that kids will say the exact same thing about 2005 in 2015 or 2020 don't you?

"yeah man the mid '00s weren't about technology like it is today in 2016, like we got all kinds of cool stuff around today, not like back in 2000 or 2005.  It must have really sucked back in 1996 too".



1,000,000,000,000  bucks says they will say the same d*mn thing.

You don't want to take that bet.


I remember when I first played Saturn in 1995, that was my first next gen system, and I had the game Cyber Speedway and that steering wheel thing, I was blown away so were all my cousins. We all thought it was like reality, of course now we play game from that generation of systems and they look like crap. My 200 MHz Pentium IBM was top of the line in early 1997, now it's a paper weight, lol. Yea, technology is all relative.

I remember when I first played Saturn in 1995, that was my first next gen system, and I had the game Cyber Speedway and that steering wheel thing, I was blown away so were all my cousins. We all thought it was like reality, of course now we play game from that generation of systems and they look like crap. My 200 MHz Pentium IBM was top of the line in early 1997, now it's a paper weight, lol. Yea, technology is all relative.



;D  I bet my 1993 computer looks ancient  :D

Everyone thinks they are the coolest kids that ever was, and in some ways I suppose everyone is for that brief time you are under the age of say 20 or 21.  But then another group of kids comes around very quickly and replaces you...you become old school and the stuff you thought was cool looks all of a sudden stupid as hell.


The only comforting thing is, you know everyone has to go through this.  ;)


:)

I'm too young to really remember it but I LOVE Full House and Boy Meets World :)



My babysitter use to watch it all the time so i'd watch it w/ her. lol.

My babysitter use to watch it all the time so i'd watch it w/ her. lol.


When was this, around 1993?