There is a distinct era from the core mid-late 1990's and core early-mid 2000's, you could call it the Very Late 90's/Very Early 2000's or simply as everyone else calls it the Y2K era.

I define it as going from Late 1998-Early 2002, from.(see below)

It was really distinct from the late 1990's of 1997-1998 and early 2000's of Spring 2002-2003(Even 2004 could be added to this).

Futuristic aesthetic, every single genre of music was huge in some form of sub genre, raunchy comedies & futuristic action blockbusters ruled cinemas.

This is how I define it:

Y2K era: January 1999 - April 2002

Transition into: Summer/Fall of 1998
Transition out: Spring/Summer 2002
Peak of this era: Summer 1999 to Summer 2000 which ironically is smack middle of it.

Now why do I start it at late 1998/early 1999 and end it at early 2002 in April 2002?





To me, the Y2K era started when Britney Spears popped outta nowhere with Baby One More Time. I clearly remember when TRL debuted that music video and Carson Daly was telling is about a new artist named Britney Spears, the video then blew up.

Problem?

I don't remember the specific date, I always thought it was January 1999 from pure memory but wikipedia is saying that song came out in Sept 1998 music video debuted in November 1998 which doesn't match with what I remember, because I can clearly remember that music video and song coming out and immediately hitting #1 in January of 1999.

Another video at the same time was Cher's comeback with "Believe" and Eminem debuted with "My Name is"(An album I got when it came out from Circuit City)

These two songs started the era, it took us into the New Millennium and from then on everyone started changing their style of songs and music video. Compare NSYNC's "Drive myself crazy" to their previous videos, or Ricky Martin's "Livin the vida loca" to "Cup of Life" the previous year.

Shortly afterward Backstreet Boys released "I want it that way" and TLC released "No Scrubs" which also had that futuristic vibe and look to the song and videos, compare those to Backstreet Boys and TLC's core 90's hits and videos.

Another example is that in late 1998 Mya released "Take me there" for the Rugrats movie, which is again another song that led to me starting to watch TRL daily and that video felt like a core late 90's pre Y2K video, as did Brandy/Monica's The Boy is Mine & Ricky Martin's Cup of Life(Both of which I got that year as well  ;D )

Also The Rock's Corporation Storyline that started in November of 1998 with his heel turn at Survivor Series 1998, changed the WWF dramatically from how it had been from the early Attitude era of 1997-1998 and started a new phase of the then ongoing Attitude era, this is where The Rock became the top star and draw of the WWF and beat WCW, leading to record ratings and a babyface turn in April. This lead the WWF into the New Millennium.

So I put the transition into the era as Late 1998, as that started me getting hooked to TRL, and movies like Armageddon coming out which led to Y2K era.


Now the end of Y2K era as April of 2002, Teen pop was done as Britney, Backstreet Boys and NSYNC went on hiatus, while Justin Timberlake went solo and Christina Aguilera went "Dirrrty" by summer 2002.

WWF's Attitude era ended with the brand split in April of 2002 and changed their name to "WWE".

Music went into more Punk/Pop-Rock and Rap heavy genres.

Movies got more streamlined and Superhero Craze started with Spider-Man in 2002, although I classify Spider-Man as a Y2K movie, the last big one in fact.

Transition out?

9/11, this slowly led to the phasing out of the Y2K era by mid 2002.

The 2001-2002 school year is indicative of this, started off Y2K and ended in transition summer of 2002 we were out the Y2K era.

Where do you start and end it and what are your thoughts on where I define it?

Also 2002 was the year Mp3 and Music downloads started becoming the norm, as well as DVD starting to overtake VHS.

Fall of 2001-Spring of 2002 is when 6th Gen of gaming took off.

While the PS2 was released in October 2000, PS1 was still current main console until fall of 2001 when PS2 finally started having good games, same with X-box and Gamecube, N64 remained main until mid-late 2002.

5th Gen was still the main, until Summer/Fall of 2002 when 6th Gen fully took over.

Mid 1998 to late 2002.

Mid 1998 to late 2002.


What were the events of those two periods that marked it for you?

For me it's late 1998/January 1999-August 2002.

Events that started it:

TRL
Britney Spears Baby one more time
Cher's Believe.
Rock exploding in popularity.

Events that ended it:

NSYNC, Britney, & Backstreet Boys on hiatus, Justin/Britney break up, Justin Timberlake solo debut.
Christina Aguilera steps away from Y2K teenybopper days and enters "Dirrrty" era
Neptunes overtake Max Martin, Bubblegum Pop and Numetal overtaken by more urban & punk sounds.
Rock passes torch to Brock Lesnar, transition from Attitude era to Ruthless Aggression era that started in March is complete by Summerslam.

1995-2003

1995-2003


1995 and early 1996 had way too many core 90's elements, even 1995 had a bunch of late 80's/early 90's elements hanging over(See: Dr. Jekyl and Ms. Hyde)

Then 2002-2003 was core 2000's, futuristic vibes of Y2K ended in mid 2002.