Is it just me, or looking back at films,TV shows, photographs, even home movies from the early '90s (I mean specifically 1990-1992) it seems VERY dated. The technology, for example radios, televisions, etc, seem so bulky, boxy and old fashioned; The fashions are rather tastless and almost vulgar--There's a certain cheesiness to the clothes styles and the hairstyles, even men's short hairstyles seemed a bit too big and tacky. Then you have the wild, huge teased hair which women wore in this period, and the shoulder pads which came in around 1990 and whatnot. It just seems incredibly dated and cheesy in retrospect and almost sort of ''low rent.'' Whereas you look at something from the mid '90s, let's say 1996--Only a few years later--and the stuff from that period doesn't even seem half as dated, cheesy or over the top.

It just seems like the early '90s were a very clunky, over the top, low rent era--Similar I'd say to the late '70s.

I agree. Anything from prior to around 1996 seems dated to me. The early '90s were still rather similar to the '80s, so that's probably why it seems extra dated to you.

Sometimes, I find anything from the '90s to be a little dated. That's probably because I've only lived eight years of my life in the '90s.

When you watch movies from the early-mid '90s, notice all the boxy cars from the '70s and '80s. 

The number one reason why the early '90s are dated: before the commercialization of the Internet/e-mail. It was the last era when "word of mouth" was important, with TV still the most advanced medium and cellphones a status symbol. Cassettes were still popular as they were still slightly cheaper than CDs and most people didn't have a CD player yet in their cars. No split-screen credits yet on TV shows. Almost all video games were 2D and only had up to 256 colors with cheesy music. Very few curvy humanist san-serif fonts (typefaces) such as Comic Sans, FF Din, Trebuchet, which ever one is used on the Twitter logo, and more with many more serif fonts in use at the time compared to today. The last time that typewriters were reasonably seen as computers were finally getting cheap enough for almost everyone to afford. Read printed media and you'll see that landline phones and snail mail were still king in terms of communications, with fax just for work and e-mail only to a VERY select few. Instead of craig'slist or eBay, you looked at the classified section. CD-ROM encyclopedias/drives at the time were considered cutting edge (hard to believe today with Wikipedia). Floppy disks with 1.5 MB of memory were at their peak usage. Sears catalogs up to 1993 are already on ancestry.com (THAT makes me feel old!). The only time you would see game information during sports games on TV was before/after commercial break, the clock appearing at the final minute of a period, and if you're lucky, maybe in between a pitch in baseball or between plays in football. In many countries/states/regions, you'll see that majority of telephone numbers were only seven digits long, compared to the 9, 10, or 11 to most locations today. It almost makes you want to cry for those who really lived this era if you had a good time and aren't really thrilled with today's changes. There is a saying that things change twice as fast in so many years as they did in the same timeframe that preceeded it. The early '90s are definitivly a bygone era compated to today and definately are a much simpler time compared to today's generation where a smartphone feels like the world is sucking your soul like a magnet.

It is very dated...I mean, i cam't even remember most of it since i was only a toddler lol and I just turned 21...

I was thinking that lately, watching old movies and tv shows from then. I was like "It might as well be the 70's, it's so dated." Pretty amazing how old it is now.

I really like the styles of the early '90s. It was so chic and sophisticated.  :)

It is 20 years ago now so I wouldn't say that it's that surprising. I was a small child in the early '90s, I liked ninja turtles, toy cars, baseball cards, and was even a coin collector by 1993. I remember my first bike had a very early '90s look and was like white, black and neon green. I have a shockingly good memory in some ways really though, like I remember quite a few things from 1991 even though I was only 4 years old. I also remember the '92 election because I remember my parents took me with them when they voted. I remember the exact day I started 1st grade as well and exactly how all my books looked.

It makes me wonder what the limit is. Like what year is the noticeably dated year, and what year is the first not as dated year?

It makes me wonder what the limit is. Like what year is the noticeably dated year, and what year is the first not as dated year?


Even 1999 is dated to a degree nowadays (check out the "Reasons Why 1999 is Old School" thread), but 1990 is obviously the most dated year (even in 1993 it already felt dated from my memory with grunge/gangsta rap instead of new jack). Plain and simple.  That's why '90s nostalgia is just starting to emerge due to this, realizing the definitive progression that decade. That's what nostalgia is all about. At first you may get that "why can't we have this now?" to that "what happened?" to eventually the "sadness" stage when you realize its a bygone era for good. The '90s (especially the second half of the decade) are still recent enough to be influential to the present, but are increasingly becoming, slowly but surely, a "vintage" era. Check out my post how there is seven stages of nostalgia.

Even 1999 is dated to a degree nowadays (check out the "Reasons Why 1999 is Old School" thread),

1999 is definitely dated. In fact most 1999 stuff was dated by 2005. Boy Bands? Furby? Nu-Metal? that mens parted-down-the-middle hairstyle? Ford Excursion? (released in 1999 for the 2000 model year at the height of the huge SUV craze...Imagine that coming out today with all the "go green" stuff going on) Also CGI hadn't killed off hand-drawn animation yet, with Tarzan doing really well. Speaking of animation watch circa 1999 Spongebob episodes and notice how incredibly old school and dated they look.

1990 and 1991 were pretty similar to the 80s, so they were pretty much dated by 1993 when grunge and gangsta rap culture were in full force.