Does anyone else kinda group this period say from the end of August 1996 through June 1997 or so in their heads as one interesting little era in and of itself? I call it the "Space Jam" era. I have a lot of memories from this time and it just feels very unique. It feels like a weird sort of bridge period between the core of the 1990s and the beginning of the late 1990s.

Maybe I am just colored by subjective experience but for myself this period represented a lot of change, and the last period that felt "core 90s" was around late June/early July of '97 and afterward even as a child I felt a very distinct sort of change in the year to things just feeling different - things just seeming like they were heading in a new direction in terms of pop culture. For example, Rap had become so mainstream within such a short amount of time that by the spring of 1997, even kids in 1st grade with me were referring to things as "phat."

For me it was my junior year of highschool. I had some fond memories of the span in general. :)

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I do that because it was a single year in school for me. I was in kindergarten.

P.S. It's nice to have you back. :)

I was in High School, Junior year. I was 16. It was around that time that I first started to use the internet at school. We used Windows 95. It was all new to me.

I was in High School, Junior year. I was 16. It was around that time that I first started to use the internet at school. We used Windows 95. It was all new to me.


My family got a Windows 95 Computer around this time too.

My family got a Windows 95 Computer around this time too.

I didn't start using that operating system until 1998. I only used the Mac operating system until then. It was all about the Macs, 'bout the Macs, no Windows.

I was a senior in high school (Class of '97) and one song that sticks out is "No Diggity" by Backstreet. Also it was the beginning for then known as Puff Daddy, Spice Girls, and Hanson. Buffy was a popular show that premiered around that time, and I believe 7th Heaven as well. It was yet to become the Y2K era, but it was no longer the grunge and college radio alternative era neither.

My family got a Windows 95 Computer around this time too.


As did mine. We got our first computer, a Win 3.1 Packard Bell Legend in early 1995, and then replaced that with a Windows 95 HP Pavilion PC sometime during '97

Spring 1997 was the Batman & Robin era. Or was that Summer 1997? Come on, you remember Moloko's "Fun For Me" video being played nonstop on MTV. ZING ZANG ZOOM, FUN FOR ME! FUN FOR ME!

I started school in September 1996 but my memories of the 96-97 school year aren't very clear. I don't remember having a computer in my classroom - I think we had to go to the classroom next door on the few occasions we actually used a computer!

Summer 1996 I had just started my first engineering job, and bought my first nice car (a very sporty station wagon).  Graduated college with my degree in December 1996.  Parents got a long overdue divorce in 1997 and fighting had been constant.  So I spent most of my nights in the city where I worked, frequenting coffeehouses, roaming 24 hour stores, accumulating used music, sleeping in the car in parking lots.  Spent my weekends just driving around aimlessly and camping in the car, or driving 3 hours to the big city.  Then I tried roller skating and spent the next 6 weeks with my arm in a cast.  That era was a very dark time, even literally since I worked in a windowless office from dark to dark.  Since I wasn't home I never watched TV.  I didn't like much of what was on the radio, though a couple songs I remember in particular were "In The Meantime" by Spacehog, and "1979" by Smashing Pumpkins.  I bought hundreds of 99 cent used tapes, primarily pop artists from the 80s such as Til Tuesday and Belinda Carlisle.  I still have all those tapes, and many of those artists are still my favorites today.

By fall 1997 my mom moved out, and I got my first computer (a used Tandy 386SX/33) and got online, and things started looking up.  Spring 1999 I bought my first house.

Spring 1997 was the Batman & Robin era. Or was that Summer 1997?
According to Wikopedia, the film was released in the entire United States on June 20th, which was more or less Summer Solstice. So that would be the very beginning of summer.

The 96-97 school year felt like a transition period to me....I agree that it felt different from the rest of the decade.

The best thing about the time period for me?  I started Fall 96 newly dating, and ended Spring 97 engaged  :-*

I was partying it up in college. Women. School. Clubs.
I lived in an apartment off campus and skated to class. I also had to work PT. Good times. Big hit then: Where It’s At- Beck