How cool or uncool are the 90s?

[Al B. Sure!]

Exactly. We run on a 20-year retro cycle.

Back in the 70's you had Happy Days, Crocodile Rock, Grease, American Graffiti and such looking back to and remembering fondly the 50's.

In the 80's I remember the Wonder Years, a Beach Boys resurgence, Field of Dreams and other things looking back fondly on the 60's. I remember also a lot of talk about how the 70's absolutely sucked, the fashion, the music, everything was just the dregs of culture.

Then, the 90's came around, and suddenly the 70's were cool again. It was the 80's now that sucked.

The last decade, of course, the 80's have had a bit of a retro renaissance.

People grow up in a particular decade and call it their own, and dislike the one immediately preceding it, and the one following it. So everything we liked about the 90's as we were growing up was trying to distance itself from the 80's as much as possible and proclaim itself new and different, yet at the same time rediscovering that which the last decade discarded and derided. Then the next decade rolls around and they do the same. So 90's people constantly complain about music and culture of the 00's. Just like 80's folks no doubt did about the 90's.

All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.

Yeah, Ozzy... To support your theory of fondly looking back upon the 80's now...

[Al B. Sure!]

I do remember in the late 90's there was a very brief time when swing music was popular (Lou Bega, for example, was briefly huge).

[Barnabas]

Even if the 90s were not the best decade, in my opinion the 90s were the less ridiculous of all the decades from the 60's on (with regards to music and fashion) not a lot particularly shameful with regards to music or fashion

[Al B. Sure!]

Yeah says the Argentine... You guys are like 20 years behind America to begin with!

It may not have been that bad but that's because we're not that many years removed from it so it doesn't seem ridiculous yet but I suspect our kids would laugh.

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:



90's clothes were pretty 'busy'. It doesn't seem TERRIBLE but it would be pretty noticeable today if you wore clothes like this.


Consider, this is also when jeans with tears in them were considered cool and on the latter end of the 90's, really baggy clothes got popular.

[Al B. Sure!]

Okay and the 90's are the same decade as stuff like this...



and, of course, Zubaz... *shudder*




Of course ripped jeans...

[Al B. Sure!]

And tail-end of the 90's...



and throwback jerseys exploded in popularity. People wore jerseys all the time.

[Al B. Sure!]

**** man even 90's Nikes were busy...

[Al B. Sure!]

Remember LA Gear? The shoes with the lights?



Why were there lights on shoes?!

Here's one of their ads complete with plenty of 90's fashion:




Sorry Barnabas, but our kids will definitely laugh at 90's fashion. It was as silly in retrospect as anything from the 80's or 70's, just as one day, the clothes of the 2000's will look silly.

I think fashion in the 90's was just too... extra. It was too busy and too colorful (what was it? They figured out how to get neon colors on clothes and couldn't stop?! )... and then to add I don't know a grunginess to fashion people started ripping giant holes in their jeans.

yeah, 90's was as bad as any other decade.

[Al B. Sure!]

I can't resist to put up more pictures of 90's TV show casts...



For some reason, jeans and white t-shirts was popular for these shots...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Most of the "busy" stuff seemed to be carry over from the 80s. As the last post you posted shows, the colors got far more muted in the mid-late 90s. Especially after grunge.

[Nikolai]

"Party of five " looks like it could have been made today...

[DaShi]

They aren't dressed slutty enough:

[Barnabas]

Most of the ridiculous stuff you posted is eightish, leftovers from the 80s, 1990 and 1991 were culturally 80s, Roxette had like 5 number 1 singles in those two years.

Ridiculous stuff became much less common in the 92-97 period

think of the stuff the characters from seinfeld or friends would wear


One hit wonder from the 90s