Well, after over a year on the shelf, my much beloved, critically acclaimed "Remembering" series is back with a vengeance. Now that we are over a month-and-a-half into 2017, I thought it would be cool to take a look back in time at all of the key pop cultural artifacts from 1997 that will unbelievably be turning 20 years old this year. It was certainly a fun tour down memory lane for me, looking back fondly on one of my favorite childhood years, and I hope the rest of you will find it interesting as well.

The World Events

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1997 was a year filled with major memorable world events. On January 20th, Bill Clinton was sworn in to start his second term as President, while just a few weeks later, scientists in Scotland unveil Dolly the cloned sheep, an event that sparks a massive worldwide debate about the ethicacy of cloning.  Also in February, the North Hollywood Shootout would injure over a dozen cops and usher in the age of police in big cities carrying military-grade weaponry. Hale-Bopp Comet (and the subsequent Heaven's Gate cult suicide) was the big topic of conversation in the Spring of '97. I still remember our whole family gathering in an open field a few miles from our house with my uncle's high powered telescope so we could see the comet pass by that March.

The Summer of '97 was largely dominated by the Andrew Cunanan manhunt, after he assassinated Gianni Versace on July 15th. Cunanan would kill himself after a standoff with police just one week later. The story that overshadowed all others in 1997 was, of course, the death of Princess Diana on August 31st. In a moment that was essentially the JFK assassination or 9/11 of the '90s, Diana's death received unprecedented media coverage all over the world and her funeral was watched by an estimated 2 billion people.

The Music

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Musically, 1997 marked the transition into the Y2K era. What was left of the original Grunge movement officially ended that year after Soundgarden broke up while Britpop (what was expected to replace Grunge as Rock's premiere genre in the late '90s) began a rapid decline following the negative press of Oasis' album "Be Here Now", leaving Rock in a state of flux. Nu Metal would ultimately pick up the slack, as Limp Bizkit made it's debut in 1997.

Hip-Hop took another huge blow in March 1997 when, just months after the death of Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G. is assassinated in Los Angeles. This is considered by many to mark the end of the Golden Age of Gangsta Rap, and the ushering in of the softer, poppier version of the genre that would dominate the 2000's. Teen Pop, meanwhile, began it's revival as the Spice Girls continued their dominance from late 1996, Hanson exploded onto the scene with the annoyingly catchy MMMBop, and The Backstreet Boys made their United States debut.

The Movies

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1997 was certainly a big year for blockbuster films. Titanic debuted at the end of the year to become the highest grossing film of all-time at that point, but before that Men in Black continued Will Smith's growing streak of Summer hits, The Lost World: Jurassic Park wasn't as critically acclaimed as the original, but it still made a whole lot of money, and The Full Monty proved an unexpected international hit.

Of course, it wasn't all good. 1997 also gave us Batman & Robin, which is universally considered one of the worst movies ever made. Meanwhile, Liar Liar proved that Jim Carrey still had his touch, Air Force One showed that a President could also be an action hero, and the first Austin Powers movie helped launch one of the most famous comedy series of all-time.

The Video Games

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1997 was nothing short of a landmark year in the history of video gaming. As the 16-bit era officially died off, the 3D era begins in earnest with a number of transformational titles that would change the way we look at games forever. Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64 brings to console gamers the First-Person Shooter, a genre which before had largely only been popular on the PC format. Mario Kart 64, meanwhile, was the first game to truly take advantage of the N64's four-player multiplayer capabilities, showing that large-scale multiplayer gaming can work on a console years before online gaming would take off in the '00s.

The PlayStation truly established itself as the dominant console in 1997 with blockbuster games like Crash Bandicoot 2, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, PaRappa the Rapper and Tomb Raider II. Then, of course, there was Final Fantasy VII, the game the caused the popularity of RPG's in the West to surge to levels never before seen, and helped kick-off an era of RPG dominance on consoles that would last into the mid 2000's. In many ways, the popularity of FF7 not only helped make RPG's popular in the U.S., but also started to change the perception of games as "kids toys" which was still dominant at that time. For many, FF7 was the first game with a "serious" story line they had ever played, and it helped prove that games could feature something more deep than just collect-a-thon platforming.

One of the most fun years.....ever! Definitely in my top 5 of favorite years of my life!

Great music that year! I'm only posting one video

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I remember this being all my dad would listen to in 1997.
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I love the hook part where it goes "Feel the viiiiibbbbbeee Feel the Presssuurrreee"