Timstuff
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Looking back, people don't really seem to have much nostalgia about the 90's, at least not the way they do about other past decades. Maybe it's kind of like how the 1970s aren't considered as cool as the 1960s. As someone born in the mid 80s, I spent a good chunk of my life in the 90s but I don't really have much fondness for them. Yeah, we got some good video games, movies, and cartoons out of it, but overall it feels like the stuff we remember easily gets eclipsed by the stuff that we liked in the 1980s and 2000s.
I'll compare the past 3 decades in the following categories that I felt that the differences between decades was the most noticeable:
Hair
2000s: We did get the rise of the bowl cut and emo hair, but generally the hair of the 2000s was "keep it natural, but keep it managed."
1980s: We learned that hair comes in two varieties: naturally swept but managed, or outrageously but skillyfully tressed. We got some pretty hideous perms, but overall the bad wasn't too bad.
1990s: Everyone's hair was grown out down to their neck and parted down the middle, or chopped into big messy plumes of nonsense. Anyone remember "the mushroom cut?" Apparently, a hair scientist in the 90s had a theory that penis-shaped hair was attractive. Not to mention all those kids with pseudo-mullets and buzz cuts, and we still had lots of bad perms.
Fashion
This is an area that I'm not particularly an expert in, but I think most people have enough taste to know bad fashion when they see it.
2000s: Clean and simple, with room for moderate experimentation. Medium-to-low cut jeans became popular again, and zip-up hoodies increased in popularity, which is great since they're one of the most comfortable and practical clothing items a person can own. Classy looking hats also came back into style, as did women's spaghetti straps.
1980s: Fashions got pretty crazy at times, but in a way that we can feel nostalgic about. People weren't afraid to be colorful or edgy, but practicality also had value.
1990s: EW! What were we thinking!? The cuffed up jeans, the lime-green T-shirts, the sideways-twisted baseball caps with the brim popped up that made people look like ******s, the dumpy flannel unbuttoned shirts... Not to mention the WORST aspect of 90's fashion-- women's pants, underwear, and swimsuits. The only possible ethos I can contrive out of them is that in the 90's, they wanted to make women's butt cracks look as long as possible.
Technology:
1980s: This was an EXPLOSION! Video games, home computers, the walkman, CD players, VCRs, even the primodial internet were all at our fingertips (it was all text based, but still, internet!). This was the beginning of the modern tech age, where consumer electronics were becoming a fundamental part of peoples' daily lives.
2000s: What started in the 1980's is being fully realized. We have powerful computers that can run our entire houses if we want them to, our cell phones let us carry hundreds of songs and movies and be connected to the internet everywhere, social networking and e-commerce have exploded, there's a video game system in 3/4 of homes, and laptop computers and tablets let you work anywhere you want while remaining connected to the whole world. We even have GPS units for cars that have rendered traditional maps obsolete except for emergency use.
1990s: This was a transitional period with a lot of emerging technologies that were not very practical. We had the internet, but it still sucked. We had cell phones, but they sucked. We had laptop computers, but they sucked. We had "Quicktime" for our computers, but it sucked. We had digital music on the go (Portable CD-R players), but they sucked. Our video games were great, but they certainly were not as iconic in terms of the graphics and sounds as what we saw in the 80s, or as polished as what we saw in the 2000s in terms of production values and technology. Many 90s games had muddy graphics and choppy sounding music that couldn't decide whether it was trying to sound real or sound like chiptunes.
I don't mean to sell the 90's short-- they had a lot of good stuff, especially in regards to TV shows (the 2000s had nothing on the 90s in that regard), but looking back it was definitely a transitional decade. Aside from the TV, computers / games, and a few standout movies, I can't help but feel that there's very little about the 90s that makes me think "man, what I wouldn't give to go back." Anyone else feel similar?
I'll compare the past 3 decades in the following categories that I felt that the differences between decades was the most noticeable:
Hair
2000s: We did get the rise of the bowl cut and emo hair, but generally the hair of the 2000s was "keep it natural, but keep it managed."
1980s: We learned that hair comes in two varieties: naturally swept but managed, or outrageously but skillyfully tressed. We got some pretty hideous perms, but overall the bad wasn't too bad.
1990s: Everyone's hair was grown out down to their neck and parted down the middle, or chopped into big messy plumes of nonsense. Anyone remember "the mushroom cut?" Apparently, a hair scientist in the 90s had a theory that penis-shaped hair was attractive. Not to mention all those kids with pseudo-mullets and buzz cuts, and we still had lots of bad perms.
Fashion
This is an area that I'm not particularly an expert in, but I think most people have enough taste to know bad fashion when they see it.
2000s: Clean and simple, with room for moderate experimentation. Medium-to-low cut jeans became popular again, and zip-up hoodies increased in popularity, which is great since they're one of the most comfortable and practical clothing items a person can own. Classy looking hats also came back into style, as did women's spaghetti straps.
1980s: Fashions got pretty crazy at times, but in a way that we can feel nostalgic about. People weren't afraid to be colorful or edgy, but practicality also had value.
1990s: EW! What were we thinking!? The cuffed up jeans, the lime-green T-shirts, the sideways-twisted baseball caps with the brim popped up that made people look like ******s, the dumpy flannel unbuttoned shirts... Not to mention the WORST aspect of 90's fashion-- women's pants, underwear, and swimsuits. The only possible ethos I can contrive out of them is that in the 90's, they wanted to make women's butt cracks look as long as possible.
Technology:
1980s: This was an EXPLOSION! Video games, home computers, the walkman, CD players, VCRs, even the primodial internet were all at our fingertips (it was all text based, but still, internet!). This was the beginning of the modern tech age, where consumer electronics were becoming a fundamental part of peoples' daily lives.
2000s: What started in the 1980's is being fully realized. We have powerful computers that can run our entire houses if we want them to, our cell phones let us carry hundreds of songs and movies and be connected to the internet everywhere, social networking and e-commerce have exploded, there's a video game system in 3/4 of homes, and laptop computers and tablets let you work anywhere you want while remaining connected to the whole world. We even have GPS units for cars that have rendered traditional maps obsolete except for emergency use.
1990s: This was a transitional period with a lot of emerging technologies that were not very practical. We had the internet, but it still sucked. We had cell phones, but they sucked. We had laptop computers, but they sucked. We had "Quicktime" for our computers, but it sucked. We had digital music on the go (Portable CD-R players), but they sucked. Our video games were great, but they certainly were not as iconic in terms of the graphics and sounds as what we saw in the 80s, or as polished as what we saw in the 2000s in terms of production values and technology. Many 90s games had muddy graphics and choppy sounding music that couldn't decide whether it was trying to sound real or sound like chiptunes.
I don't mean to sell the 90's short-- they had a lot of good stuff, especially in regards to TV shows (the 2000s had nothing on the 90s in that regard), but looking back it was definitely a transitional decade. Aside from the TV, computers / games, and a few standout movies, I can't help but feel that there's very little about the 90s that makes me think "man, what I wouldn't give to go back." Anyone else feel similar?
