Why do some people my age and older see 1990 as the last year of the late 80s? I know about how the first year AD is AD 1, but it seems lazy of people to call 1990 an 80s year.

The music, movies, books, video games, and toys might have been produced in 1989, but ‘89 was the final year of the 80s to get things ready for the 90s.

It bothers me when people do this for some reason. What are your thoughts on this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcYHdaUx3hA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcYHdaUx3hA


I agree. It confuses people because 1990 was supposed to be a 90s year.

I see 1990 as a 1990s year, it said so on my calendar back then.

To be honest, I don't really mind. But, looking back at 1990, it was obvious that people were trying to put the 80s behind them and trying to start the 1990s on a seperate path from the 1980s. What kind of bothers me is when 1991 is called an 80s year, Hip Hop was already becoming the dominant genre, alternative rock was already making it into the mainstream, House music was huge, music in general (especially New Jack Swing) was becoming more groovier and slicker, the Disney renaissance was fully established, there was the bit wars in video gaming, television was also very 90s already in 1991 (The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Law & Order, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Beverly 90210 and much more were on the air) and there other stuff I have missed out too.

To be honest, I don't really mind. But, looking back at 1990, it was obvious that people were trying to put the 80s behind them and trying to start the 1990s on a seperate path from the 1980s. What kind of bothers me is when 1991 is called an 80s year, Hip Hop was already becoming the dominant genre, alternative rock was already making it into the mainstream, House music was huge, music in general (especially New Jack Swing) was becoming more groovier and slicker, the Disney renaissance was fully established, there was the bit wars in video gaming, television was also very 90s already in 1991 (The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Law & Order, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Beverly 90210 and much more were on the air) and there other stuff I have missed out too.


1990 seems to be the most slept on years of the 90s to people today. Whenever someone on a blog does a flashback article for 1990, some people who were alive then write off 1990 as a late 80s year. The crazy thing about it all is no one brings up anything that happened in 1990 in any message boards with threads about the 80s.

I’ve seen some writers for websites call 1991 as an 80s year as well. That could be because they’re thinking of the spring of 1991. Nirvana’s “Bleach” was sold at Sam Goody and Tower Records in August of 1989, but those writers ignorantly will go on to say it was still the 80s until Nirvana ‘showed up’. Grunge was more ‘92, but some folks who don’t care about the 90s will add to any conversation on the 90s that “Nevermind” changed the lives of many people in the fall of ‘91. Everything was moving along more in 1991 better than 1990, so teenagers of the 90s should know better than to call 1991 a late 80s year.

1990 still has trends that scream late 80s. 1991, however was more 90s than 80s. Most New Jack Swing hits got rid of its gated drum in favor of natural and quieter drums. House Music and Alternative Rock were flooding the charts.

Hm. I really don't know. I remember 1990 very well and to me there weren't any 80s trends that I can remember. Even music sounded different than it did in 1989. I can remember that well.

1990 still has trends that scream late 80s. 1991, however was more 90s than 80s. Most New Jack Swing hits got rid of its gated drum in favor of natural and quieter drums. House Music and Alternative Rock were flooding the charts.


1990 was more of the time of the late Xer and Xennial than the rest of the 90s. Basically, we didn’t get the 90s that Millennials know well until 1991.

Most adults and teenagers of the early 90s think of every early 90s year as ‘very 80s’.

Xennials would tell you it was the 90s, though.

It was like Boomer culture washed away in 1990. Completely different world from the 80s.

Everything on this poster from France was our world as Xennials still in 1990:

http://i.imgur.com/pE7v5cd.jpg

All it’s missing is “Dick Tracy”, “The Simpsons” (initially a Gen X trend), and a few other things which aren’t coming to me now. 1990 was one hell of a good year!

A older Millennial would probably be able to tell a Gen Xer the difference between 1990 and 1989.

In ‘89, 2 year olds were wearing McKids clothing, whereas in 1990, all generations except the Traditionalists (Silent Generation) wore “The Simpsons” shirts.

I think the memories of Gen Xers and Jones of the early 90s is hazy to them today because they other things to focus on and not pop culture alone.

The way I remember it, there were more items in stores for Millennials starting in 1991. Anything that was for the Silent Generation in the 80s was gone in 1992.

I've heard the 1989-91 period described as the "Neighties." It appeared that 1990 was the last big year with anything from the late 80s before everything swung to the 90s. Even New Jack Swing, which was probably considered very 90s in 1990, still had that gated drum sounds typical of the 80s. Hair Metal was still around but declining. The 80s were drying out but there wasn't much to turn to yet. That's just my impression of that era.

I've heard the 1989-91 period described as the "Neighties." It appeared that 1990 was the last big year with anything from the late 80s before everything swung to the 90s. Even New Jack Swing, which was probably considered very 90s in 1990, still had that gated drum sounds typical of the 80s. Hair Metal was still around but declining. The 80s were drying out but there wasn't much to turn to yet. That's just my impression of that era.


Interesting. I’ve read that ‘the late 80s plus the early 90s’ is the ‘Neighties’ on Google.  :o

It seems there are some people who can’t tell their memories from the late 80s apart from those of the early 90s, so they combined the two to make one big era.  :o

I can see how the fall of 89 into February or March of 1990 is a ‘gray area’ for some people who are low middle class or lower class, but it’s not hard for other people to tell them apart. Perhaps, some lower middle class or lower class people of the late 80s and early 90s today could tell you the difference between the times.

The early 90s has more recognizable culture for Millennials than the late 80s did. Millennials missed the whole “Ghostbusters 2” versus “Batman” battle of 1989. The oldest Millennials from ‘87 probably know of Michael Keaton’s Batman (due to the craze lingering into the 90s and “Batman Returns”), but can’t put their finger on who he fought in the movie (Jack Nicholson as The Joker). The only movie Millennials were familiar with the 80s before the early 90s came around was “The Little Mermaid” or “All Dogs Go to Heaven”. “The Wizard” went over their heads because live-action isn’t liked by toddlers a lot of times. In the early 90s, Millennials had “The Simpsons”, “Tiny Toon Adventures”, and “Captain Planet” (more Xennial, but Millennials learned to watch it from us). Whereas, all Millennials had in 1989 was “Beetlejuice” and “Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers” (if they even watched those at the tender age of 2 and 1 years old).

I've heard the 1989-91 period described as the "Neighties." It appeared that 1990 was the last big year with anything from the late 80s before everything swung to the 90s. Even New Jack Swing, which was probably considered very 90s in 1990, still had that gated drum sounds typical of the 80s. Hair Metal was still around but declining. The 80s were drying out but there wasn't much to turn to yet. That's just my impression of that era.


Yeah, 1991 is when things are starting to swing to early 90s territory.

Yeah, 1991 is when things are starting to swing to early 90s territory.


We were very much living in the early 90s in 1991. Early 90s territory ranges from 1990 to 1992 or 1993. In the fall of 1991, things were starting to swing towards the mid 90s. “Seinfeld” wasn’t named “The Seinfeld Chronicles” anymore, Naughty By Nature and Nirvana (in the Dave Grohl days) was on MTV, and Boris Yeltin replaced ‘Gorb’ as the Soviet Union dissolved. The turn of 90s was starting to feel a little old in the fall of ‘91.

We can see the differences between 1990 and 1991 by using episodes of “Saved by the Bell”.

In season 1 (first shown in 1989, repeated in early 1990), pop culture references from the last half of the 20th century are used only: “This is Study Hall, not Soul Train!” (Aloha Slater)

Then, in season 3, pop culture references from late in the 20th century into the 21st century are used:

Screech:
Now should I go as Bart Simpson and shave my head or as Al Bundy and shave my back?

Lisa:
Why don't you go as "Barf Bundy" and put your head in a bag?

(The Last Dance)

I can see why someone would say that 1990 is late 80s now. We were living in the analog age for all of 1990 and only half of 1991. The big ‘www’ change started in the fall of 1991. Still, things like mainstream rap, “The Simpsons”, and “Beverly Hills 90210” were around in 1990. 1990 wasn’t late 80s, but it wasn’t the early 90s that the world knows either. The beginning of it all…