(This is a personal opinion post based on this 2011 article by CNN.com. To read, click link).
My goodness. Not that long ago, my twin sister, who is a bit of a hard shell (a.k.a. "Hard to Please"), was just super duper excited that VH1 decided to air a special documentary titled "The TRL Decade". We got to see familiar faces and events, such as Britney Spears, N'Sync, P.Diddy, etc during their prime. Plus, not that long ago, MTV's channel Hit List decided to play Boy Band music videos. My twin sister shrieked! In the era that just past us, the 2000s, we were bombarded with gangsta rap, R&B and Hip Hop. She was an ultimate "G" girl, all things gangsta, all things street. But she isn't shy to admit that before all this wave of 2000s pop culture emerged, she was (and very much still is) a 1990s music lover, a'la N'Sync. And who can blame her? She isn't that only one who remembers the 1990s. It seems to me that our "Digital Era" generation is indeed wanting the 90s back. Whether music, TV Shows, fashion, etc....we are definitely remembering the 1990s.
Last night, me and my twin were admiring how much we want a denim blouse. As we were talking, Will Smith character from "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" was also wearing the blouse of our dremas. And soon after, as I am a huge fan of street style, I also notice that many of the style that teens are wearing today has more of a 90s reminiscent vibe. Denim shorts, ripped tights (although this was in the early 1990s), heavy ankle boots, scrunchies, baggy blouses, large pants, colorful heavy jackets, etc., are all 1990s fashion. And it has indeed return.
What about TV? Remember when TV wasn't all reality television shows? I remember school based sitcoms, such as "Boy Meets World", "Saved by the Bell", "Sabrina", "Sister, Sister" and so on. "Dysfunctional " or close knit families such as "Married with Children", "Fresh Prince", "Friends", etc., targeted adults. Nick cartoons such as "CatDog", "Doug", "Hey Arnold", "Rugrats" were meant for kids. Oh, and a bit of "Horror" such as "Goosebumps" and "The X-Files" were meant for thrill seekers. Oh, and music! Remember Nirvana? Or NWA? Or how about pop music that invaded the late 1990s such as Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, N'sync, Christina Aguilera, and so on. Remember that most of them started out in Disney? And when their careers were taking off, remember they were extremely publicized in Disney Channel? I can keep going on and on, but I have to admit, a lot of us really do miss the 1990s.
But why? Why all of a sudden this sudden urge of reviving the 90s? Now a days, I tend to see so many re-runs of "Save by the Bell" and "Boy Meets World". Teen Nick has also been playing late night airings of old 90s shows called "The 90s are All That". Stars of the 90s are having a career boom, such as Tia and Tamera Mowry with their reality show in the InStyle network. Melissa Joan Hart of "Sabrina" and "Clarissa" fame has her show along with 90s heartthrob Joey Lawrence in ABC Family (Melissa and Joey).
So how come? Well, simple. You just want to remember the good old days of your fun, careless youth. With our current economic climate, people are struggling to find some ways to live, whereas the 1990s, you didn't have to work at all [1]. Just like the CNN article explained, ".... young Americans are trying to navigate the murky waters of the economy and their future prospects." In my personal opinion, I also remember that the 1990s was a carefree era of a pre-9/11 decade. After the attacks, everything changed. A suspicious, yet a somewhat dark mood took over. Bubblegum pop didn't seem to fit well with the traumatizing vibe, and the happy sitcoms werent all that amusing when our world was just so shattered. So, reminiscing the 1990 just tend to put a huge smile on people's faces. And thanks to Facebook and other social media devices, the entertainment industry decided to re air back some of the 1990s shows, especially from Nick, due to so much buzz of users wishing they had their 90s Nickelodeon back [2].
I have to say that the 1990s was a great era for many of us, especially for pop culture. With reality television bombarding every channel and network, and music is all visual and not for the ears, everything seems a bit fake. So, I have to admit that, deep inside me, I wish we had the 1990s back.
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