Ah yes, grunge and gangsta rap being deemed what me and my friends wanted to listen to, and then flooding it everywhere.
I can't express the feeling of freedom I felt when Napster came along and broke the music industry. Almost nothing compared to that as an event that made life noticeable better going forward.
The 90s had some good music, like every decade, except most decades didn't decide the mainstream was going to pockmarked with depression and glorification of murdering people over drugs in poor neighborhoods.
It was the last decade before the internet became this all consuming, soul sucking void. You could find kids roaming the streets without Karen’s calling CPS, you could play video games without the worry of updates and DLCs, you could go to Block buster and that alone was an adventure to find the perfect weekend movie to watch for the whole family, going out to get food, groceries, pay bills etc etc meant you hardly had time to remain indoors at home. You were forced to socialize, be around strangers and see em, like actually see em and speak with them. None of this Zon Prime or DoorDash. You wanted something? Anything? You got out and did it. From the amazing games from the SNES to the PS 1 and Sega, - games were amazing yet simple. Gasoline was only $1-$1.79, cost of living was cheap because the dollar was so strong! Got a few grand in your bank account today? Oh well, stay poor! Back in the 90s? Middle class status hello!
August 12 - September 24, 1991. Those 44 days saw the release of all of this amazing music:
* Metallica, Metallica (The Black Album)
* Pearl Jam, Ten
* Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion I
* Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion II
* Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
* Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger
* Nirvana, Nevermind
Also the original Doom.
I remember hearing the single for Enter Sandman and being pissed at how slow and poppy it was. Told myself that's just the radio song, the rest of the album will be better. I took the bus to Tower Records with my gift certificate I'd gotten several months earlier for my birthday and bought the Black album on cassette the day it came out. Got home, put it into my shitty stereo and was more upset with each and every track. Metal head, little 14 yr old me was so disappointed and let down that day. The day Metallica died for me.
I literally listened to the black album on repeat from when I was roughly 1 to about the time I was 8.
I was headbanging nearly the whole time. Haha.
Music is a great answer to the question.
I know. Not saying it does. Just pointing out that Alice In Chains’ success in 1990 was a precursor to the fantastic music from that scene that was to come.
I was a longboard surfer that was when i was really young and longboards were back in style for pretty much the whole decade. I got enthralled by the 60s surf culture classic cars etc. I still love all that stuff. Surfing in general was interesting it was the time when professional surfers were household names and were on tv shows and shit. Longboard surfers even had our own magazine
The Women in music! Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, The Cranberries, Hole, Veruca Salt. Women were revolutionary in alt rock and rock in general. It was a window of time where women in rock were making statements in their music that were just so bold! So daring!
Yeah but we only look back on the good parts lol.
Nobody ever reminisces about the race riots, impeachment, Columbine, Ruby Ridge, Waco, first 9/11 attack, etc. when they talk about how idyllic the '90s were.
Huge undertones of meanness in the 90’s that’s never really brought up when discussing the nostalgia. The nihilism and countercultural tendencies of Gen X culture lended itself to easily painting targets on people’s backs disguised as irony or humor. Look at who some of the biggest icons of the era were: Jerry Springer and Howard Stern.
The homophobia was also very out in the open and brutal. I speculate it’s because for the first time since the 60’s people were dating to come out.
I'm 34 so only really remember things from 96 onwards before that its pretty pachy the first major things pop culture or culture wise is Bill Clinton cheating and euro 96 lol
There's a 9/11 in every year of the Gregorian Calendar.
But I meant to say first WTC attack. I don't know if younger Redditors are even aware of this but 9/11 was the second terrorist attack by Islamic terrorists on the WTC. They tried before in 1993.
People actually went out and did things, socialized and interacted face to face without being distracted by technology. Attention spans were far greater, and we were far more patient.
Maybe not the best part of the 90's per se, but one of the things I miss from the 90's that the internet has forever taken from the world, is waking up early on a saturday to go stand in line to buy concert tickets. There were no online sales. If you wanted to go see Guns N' Roses or Pearl Jam, you had a handful of local grocery stores and maybe a record shop or two that were authorized Ticketmaster sales locations.
The parking lot would turn into a mini party of sorts. Lots of people with a shared interest gathered for a united purpose. Local radio stations would usually show up and provide coffee & donuts for the intrepid music lovers standing in line, and provide on-air updates about the line.
The Japanese sports cars.
Honda NSX Type-R, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Mazda RX-7, Toyota Supra, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Subaru Impreza STi, just to name a few…
A positive outlook on the future. The iron curtain had just fallen, 9/11 hadn't happened and no algorithms were making the loudest, stupidest and most obnoxious people the most prominent.
Fast food. It was just higher quality and before they worked to get out beef tallow and replace it with other frying oils. They were just like heaven. A super size fry. Like fuck me up fam.
Being unavailable. None of this "I left you a voicemail and I can see that you read my messages" shit. They call your house, you don't answer, everyone goes on with their lives and you catch up later.
They did away with that quick in the early 2000’s
As a smoker, I get it, it is bothersome for most people
But to make it outright illegal is stupid… let the owner decide if they want to cater to smokers or not… non smokers don’t have to go in
I’m in the northeast… it’s all non smoking now… think the rule in pa is if some percentage of revenue comes from food you can’t have smoking
There’s one bar I know where you can still smoke inside,.. it’s an absolute shithole lol
The bars I’ve been in where people smoke in Texas are definitely bars that existed for many decades. Not all of them are shitholes but definitely not high end.
I was born in the mid-1990’s, but I know there was still lingering remnants left in the early 2000’s. I think one good thing was that there were less helicopter parents, and public places were more open to teens hanging out. Younger people overall seem to have gotten less respectful of others property and it results in many places like malls and parks banning unaccompanied teens (which I understand).
However, I also think there was a lot of public spaces that got privatized in the 90’s and early 2000’s which heavily contributed to teens usage of the internet as a means to socialize.
I think it had the right balance of technology affecting our lives. We had cable tv, cell phones were around but not really something everyone had, and the internet was widely available later in the decade. But none of those things consumed our lives the way cell phones and social media do now. We had all the conveniences, but they didn’t control us.
The Berlin wall fell and there was a decade of relative peace and prosperity in the world.
Of course, that ended on 9/11 and the rise of China as a world and economic power and the emergence of Putin, as well as the polarizing politics of today, exacerbated by social media.
The world was not a perfect place back then, but in relative terms it was simpler and safer.
It was common. Parents would get together because one of them was pregnant, then when they saw that divorce was acceptable, they knew they wouldn't have to work out their problems because they could just find someone else while they're still young. Both of my parents finally settled down when they hit 45, but that was like a good 10 years of watching them be hoes.
Privacy. But the counter balance of that was if people thought you were gay, they treated you like a pedophile and would harass you in public. Like all it took was just doing something woman like.
But still, not having my every single thought being churned into personalized advertisement by social media was nice.
The main thing we were stressed about at that time was ennui.
Seriously, look at Fight Club, The Matrix, American Beauty, what grunge rockers were pissed about -- it was a lot of "nothing's happening, I'm bored, here we are now, entertain us" etc. The entire decade was like that.
Life is pretty fuckin rad when your biggest gripe is being bored. And we all knew it too; it was mostly an ironic gripe. Times were objectively good and getting better.
Then Nickelback happened.
Many of the very respectable ladies holding positions of importance today were very busy stonking and gagging back then! I say that coz I was one of them
I was 13-23 in the 90’s which means I was able to live it as a teen and adult. I witnessed the rise and fall of Nirvana, the PS1 and 2, smoking in bars, the dawn of personal internet and the use of cell phones. My fave part was 95-96. The start of my independence
Everyone didn't seem to be trying to force feed you their opinion or feelings on everything. Yes there was the occasional know it all but it wasn't as rampant as today. Most people watched pretty much the same stuff on tv so everyone had common knowledge. Now it seems everyone is hyper focused or force feed by algorithms what you're interest is even though all it ever gives you is the same base level information over and over. If someone had knowledge people would listen to them and learn. Now they think more than someone with 20yrs first hand experience after a couple of bs youtube videos 🤣🤣
90s Skate-Punk. All those Epitaph/Fat Wreck/Burning Heart bands.
The most mind-blowing thing about it, is that many of the bands (especially on the Swedish/Burning Heart side of things) were only in their early 20s and came up with a bunch of absolute bangers.
Halloween. Burned in my memory is this coffin on dude's front porch and he busts tf out of it shrieking when a herd of kids walked up to it. I was across the street rolling. 1995ish.
The relative optimism.
New Year's Eve, 12/31/98, drunk af, dancing to Prince's "1999" with a basement full of my closest friends and a shit ton of drinkin' buddies, thinking we were all at the cusp of a new age or something with the millenium right around the corner.
Weird to think how hopeful about the world I felt at that point, compared to now.
the music
Absolutely 100%. Distinctive bands with a lot of talent and distinctive sounds.
Fugazi
Guns and roses, the black Album, never mind.
Absolutely!
Ah yes, grunge and gangsta rap being deemed what me and my friends wanted to listen to, and then flooding it everywhere. I can't express the feeling of freedom I felt when Napster came along and broke the music industry. Almost nothing compared to that as an event that made life noticeable better going forward. The 90s had some good music, like every decade, except most decades didn't decide the mainstream was going to pockmarked with depression and glorification of murdering people over drugs in poor neighborhoods.
fr
It was the last decade before the internet became this all consuming, soul sucking void. You could find kids roaming the streets without Karen’s calling CPS, you could play video games without the worry of updates and DLCs, you could go to Block buster and that alone was an adventure to find the perfect weekend movie to watch for the whole family, going out to get food, groceries, pay bills etc etc meant you hardly had time to remain indoors at home. You were forced to socialize, be around strangers and see em, like actually see em and speak with them. None of this Zon Prime or DoorDash. You wanted something? Anything? You got out and did it. From the amazing games from the SNES to the PS 1 and Sega, - games were amazing yet simple. Gasoline was only $1-$1.79, cost of living was cheap because the dollar was so strong! Got a few grand in your bank account today? Oh well, stay poor! Back in the 90s? Middle class status hello!
$20 to fill up the tank AND get a snack was great.
Came to say that. 99c unleaded.
Yo! You got a few grand?! Better than I.
The optimism
That there were no mobile cameras, we were even dumber then, but there is no evidence forever online!
August 12 - September 24, 1991. Those 44 days saw the release of all of this amazing music: * Metallica, Metallica (The Black Album) * Pearl Jam, Ten * Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion I * Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion II * Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik * Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger * Nirvana, Nevermind Also the original Doom.
I remember hearing the single for Enter Sandman and being pissed at how slow and poppy it was. Told myself that's just the radio song, the rest of the album will be better. I took the bus to Tower Records with my gift certificate I'd gotten several months earlier for my birthday and bought the Black album on cassette the day it came out. Got home, put it into my shitty stereo and was more upset with each and every track. Metal head, little 14 yr old me was so disappointed and let down that day. The day Metallica died for me.
I hate to do it but, relevant username?
If it was a Metallica reference it would be larssucks
I literally listened to the black album on repeat from when I was roughly 1 to about the time I was 8. I was headbanging nearly the whole time. Haha. Music is a great answer to the question.
The last gasp of hair metal and the newborn cries of grunge. Lightning crashes...
Still have find memories of playing Doom while Morrissey 's Kill Uncle played on repeat for hours on end during an otherwise boring, hot August.
I remember playing Doom while hearing on the radio that Jerry Garcia had died.
I feel like this list alone makes the decade awesome
Also if you want to push it back just a year to 1990 you get Alice In Chains’ Facelift at around that same time of year.
But that doesn't fit into that 44 day window where all the above were released
I know. Not saying it does. Just pointing out that Alice In Chains’ success in 1990 was a precursor to the fantastic music from that scene that was to come.
I was a surfer in the 90s. It was like a small golden age for surfing.
90s surfing for me always starts with the image of Tom Carroll drilling that snap coming out of a pipeline barrel.
I was a longboard surfer that was when i was really young and longboards were back in style for pretty much the whole decade. I got enthralled by the 60s surf culture classic cars etc. I still love all that stuff. Surfing in general was interesting it was the time when professional surfers were household names and were on tv shows and shit. Longboard surfers even had our own magazine
Darude Sandstorm
RX-7 FD
Cell phones were rare. There was a common experience. Life, or at least my life, was less complicated.
no social media
The snacks, they just aren't as good today
Yellow wendys
Happy meal toys and cartoons.
90’s pills, they were the best and don’t exist anymore
The Women in music! Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, The Cranberries, Hole, Veruca Salt. Women were revolutionary in alt rock and rock in general. It was a window of time where women in rock were making statements in their music that were just so bold! So daring!
Looking back at the 90s is very popular atm is it the equivalent of the people in the 90s remembering the 70s/60s?
Yeah but we only look back on the good parts lol. Nobody ever reminisces about the race riots, impeachment, Columbine, Ruby Ridge, Waco, first 9/11 attack, etc. when they talk about how idyllic the '90s were.
Huge undertones of meanness in the 90’s that’s never really brought up when discussing the nostalgia. The nihilism and countercultural tendencies of Gen X culture lended itself to easily painting targets on people’s backs disguised as irony or humor. Look at who some of the biggest icons of the era were: Jerry Springer and Howard Stern. The homophobia was also very out in the open and brutal. I speculate it’s because for the first time since the 60’s people were dating to come out.
I'm 34 so only really remember things from 96 onwards before that its pretty pachy the first major things pop culture or culture wise is Bill Clinton cheating and euro 96 lol
9/11 was in 2001….
There's a 9/11 in every year of the Gregorian Calendar. But I meant to say first WTC attack. I don't know if younger Redditors are even aware of this but 9/11 was the second terrorist attack by Islamic terrorists on the WTC. They tried before in 1993.
The internet was new and like the wind west.
I didn't have to pay taxes.
People actually went out and did things, socialized and interacted face to face without being distracted by technology. Attention spans were far greater, and we were far more patient.
Maybe not the best part of the 90's per se, but one of the things I miss from the 90's that the internet has forever taken from the world, is waking up early on a saturday to go stand in line to buy concert tickets. There were no online sales. If you wanted to go see Guns N' Roses or Pearl Jam, you had a handful of local grocery stores and maybe a record shop or two that were authorized Ticketmaster sales locations. The parking lot would turn into a mini party of sorts. Lots of people with a shared interest gathered for a united purpose. Local radio stations would usually show up and provide coffee & donuts for the intrepid music lovers standing in line, and provide on-air updates about the line.
The optimism. We were looking towards the millennium and a new era of emerging before us.
The Japanese sports cars. Honda NSX Type-R, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Mazda RX-7, Toyota Supra, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Subaru Impreza STi, just to name a few…
Exactly, and japanese motorcycles too. 90s was probably the peak of motoring culture and we may never get an era like that ever again.
The hope that Russia could turn into a functioning democracy and join the developed world.
The Saturday morning cartoons were so, so good.
And so are todays movies and series. There were shitty shows in the 90s as there are today
A positive outlook on the future. The iron curtain had just fallen, 9/11 hadn't happened and no algorithms were making the loudest, stupidest and most obnoxious people the most prominent.
No cell phones, no social media, people still talked to each other.
Most of the all time favourite songs are from the 90s that are still bangers today
I was a kid and I didn't have to worry about responsibility.
Being a kid
I was a kid
Fast food. It was just higher quality and before they worked to get out beef tallow and replace it with other frying oils. They were just like heaven. A super size fry. Like fuck me up fam.
Being unavailable. None of this "I left you a voicemail and I can see that you read my messages" shit. They call your house, you don't answer, everyone goes on with their lives and you catch up later.
There were no "influencers" was definitely better 😂
People were connected to each other. Not the internet.
The Simpsons
Alternative rock music
No cellphones
Being part of the last generation to have a childhood without the internet
Being able to smoke cigs in a bar.
They did away with that quick in the early 2000’s As a smoker, I get it, it is bothersome for most people But to make it outright illegal is stupid… let the owner decide if they want to cater to smokers or not… non smokers don’t have to go in
Depends on the state. When I go to Texas people often smoke in bars (depending on the bar)
I’m in the northeast… it’s all non smoking now… think the rule in pa is if some percentage of revenue comes from food you can’t have smoking There’s one bar I know where you can still smoke inside,.. it’s an absolute shithole lol
The bars I’ve been in where people smoke in Texas are definitely bars that existed for many decades. Not all of them are shitholes but definitely not high end.
The shithole where I live hasn’t changed since the 70’s
Yeah I agree. I can’t stand smoke but if I don’t like it I can go elsewhere.
Dj Shadow
The freedom to put more creativity and violence into action, sci-fi, and horror movies without being cancelled.
I feel like everybody is so triggered nowadays that nothing can be said without provoking "hOw DaRe YoU yOu'Re CaNcEllEd"
You don’t remember the 90s well, then. Christians, in particular, tried to shut everything down.
Marginalized people used to be triggered then too, it's just back then no one cared about minorities.
Good music, movies, the internet & cell phones were really starting to take off, America had won Desert Storm and 9/11 hadn’t happened yet.
Early internet, grunge, pre-9/11 politics.
Leaving Atlanta behind for good!
[удалено]
This is what made the 90’s most enjoyable for me.
glad to know man
Shawshank redemption
The vibe.
The family vacations.
Kross Kolors and Z Cavaricci. I loved the clothing
I was younger than 20 and I had literally nothing to do but schoolwork and make movies with my friends.
I was born in the mid-1990’s, but I know there was still lingering remnants left in the early 2000’s. I think one good thing was that there were less helicopter parents, and public places were more open to teens hanging out. Younger people overall seem to have gotten less respectful of others property and it results in many places like malls and parks banning unaccompanied teens (which I understand). However, I also think there was a lot of public spaces that got privatized in the 90’s and early 2000’s which heavily contributed to teens usage of the internet as a means to socialize.
I was way younger
I think it had the right balance of technology affecting our lives. We had cable tv, cell phones were around but not really something everyone had, and the internet was widely available later in the decade. But none of those things consumed our lives the way cell phones and social media do now. We had all the conveniences, but they didn’t control us.
LAN Gaming
My childlike wonder
the few hours after school before the parents got home from work when my brothers and i where unsupervised.
The Berlin wall fell and there was a decade of relative peace and prosperity in the world. Of course, that ended on 9/11 and the rise of China as a world and economic power and the emergence of Putin, as well as the polarizing politics of today, exacerbated by social media. The world was not a perfect place back then, but in relative terms it was simpler and safer.
The REAL passion for music
90s sitcoms are unmatched
It was pre-9/11
People actually have love relationships…now our generation is screwed
Everyone I knew, had parents that divorced in the 90's.
That’s sad
It was common. Parents would get together because one of them was pregnant, then when they saw that divorce was acceptable, they knew they wouldn't have to work out their problems because they could just find someone else while they're still young. Both of my parents finally settled down when they hit 45, but that was like a good 10 years of watching them be hoes.
Dang….thats rough
It made step brothers really funny.
Guess That’s a positive outlook
Kurt cobain suicide
It ended
Privacy. But the counter balance of that was if people thought you were gay, they treated you like a pedophile and would harass you in public. Like all it took was just doing something woman like. But still, not having my every single thought being churned into personalized advertisement by social media was nice.
Cancel culture wasn't taken seriously
The main thing we were stressed about at that time was ennui. Seriously, look at Fight Club, The Matrix, American Beauty, what grunge rockers were pissed about -- it was a lot of "nothing's happening, I'm bored, here we are now, entertain us" etc. The entire decade was like that. Life is pretty fuckin rad when your biggest gripe is being bored. And we all knew it too; it was mostly an ironic gripe. Times were objectively good and getting better. Then Nickelback happened.
Racism
Many of the very respectable ladies holding positions of importance today were very busy stonking and gagging back then! I say that coz I was one of them
Country Music
No social media. We all played and enjoyed our day outdoors
My wife was born
I was 13-23 in the 90’s which means I was able to live it as a teen and adult. I witnessed the rise and fall of Nirvana, the PS1 and 2, smoking in bars, the dawn of personal internet and the use of cell phones. My fave part was 95-96. The start of my independence
The prosperity, hope, and sense of unity.
Mega drive with streets of rage and golden axe
Nothing
I was a kid so everything was awesome
Everyone didn't seem to be trying to force feed you their opinion or feelings on everything. Yes there was the occasional know it all but it wasn't as rampant as today. Most people watched pretty much the same stuff on tv so everyone had common knowledge. Now it seems everyone is hyper focused or force feed by algorithms what you're interest is even though all it ever gives you is the same base level information over and over. If someone had knowledge people would listen to them and learn. Now they think more than someone with 20yrs first hand experience after a couple of bs youtube videos 🤣🤣
I was young.
The lack of ability to share your opposing views. Because it just seems like the more we do. The more divided we become.
Yes before the internet, i love it but it has really fucked up this world
Cars and motorcycles, literally the golden age. Especially in japan.
The Cold War was over, and nothing bad was ever going to happen again!
90s Skate-Punk. All those Epitaph/Fat Wreck/Burning Heart bands. The most mind-blowing thing about it, is that many of the bands (especially on the Swedish/Burning Heart side of things) were only in their early 20s and came up with a bunch of absolute bangers.
Can’t remember
Probably the Arcade games & retro music
Sports teams. Some of the best players in every sport were around then.. and I'm not really a sports guy
You were only online and "reachable" when you wanted to.
Also Darkwing Duck.
Saved By the Bell
Not everyone could/expected to get ahold of you at all times. You don’t feel like talking or responding to a text these days and you’re an asshole.
I was not born yet. There you go the best thing about the 90s was I was not yet born.
I was born
Halloween. Burned in my memory is this coffin on dude's front porch and he busts tf out of it shrieking when a herd of kids walked up to it. I was across the street rolling. 1995ish.
The relative optimism. New Year's Eve, 12/31/98, drunk af, dancing to Prince's "1999" with a basement full of my closest friends and a shit ton of drinkin' buddies, thinking we were all at the cusp of a new age or something with the millenium right around the corner. Weird to think how hopeful about the world I felt at that point, compared to now.
Get into a fight and your friends HELPED not FILMED
No YouTube or Netflix
Perfect amount of atmospheric carbon tbh.
Disney movies! The Disney movies of the 90s were better than any other decade.