I know from a calendar perspective the '90s began on January 1, 1990 and ended on December 31, 1999 but for me 1992-97 and all that I remember from that period in my life and pop culture are really the "90s" for me.  In that period I watched shows like Beavis and Butthead, Ren and Stimpy, Seinfeld and remember events like the O.J. Simpson trial and the death of Princess Di.  I would say from late '91 to early '98 was when things had a "90's" feel.  For me the '90s ended probably after 1997/98 when I entered high school and grew out of a lot of the kids stuff that I liked from the early/mid '90s even though some of the music could still be considered "90's".  Early 1999 was when the "90's" seemed over for good when Britney Spears and Eminem first came on MTV. When did the decade end for you?

The nineties ended in 98 when I gave birth to my son and graduated college after going for a sixth year! I was a certified adult, so any fun besides any involved in motherhood was over!

Tanya

The 90's begin the day I was born on May 2, 1991 and it ended on November 22, 1999, when Grandpa got his stroke.

the nineties didn't really begin for me til 91' because any song that came out the year before, i had trouble remembering if it came out in 89 or 90!!! And I can honestly say i don't remember specifically what i did that year. i began dating this one girl in 92' so that's easy but the nineties ended probably in mid 98' when I became a christian and started listening to that music. the music scene was great for christian music when the secular world was getting boring for me (as in music).

They started to early and ended too late.

This strange question has been asked many times before, and people give strange responses. Come on now, people; the 1990s began on January 1st, 1990; and they ended on December 31st, 1999. Any argument to the contrary is unfounded.

Why? The reason that the years 1990 through 1999 are called the "1990s" is because those are the years that contain "nineteen ninety" when you say them. I.O.W., 1990 is when we began saying "ninety" for the year, and 1999 was the year in which we stopped saying it. Thus, it is ILLOGICAL to think of anything before 1990 or after 1999 as part of the 90S. Even though pop culture of one decade often carries over into the next, the decaide truly begins on January first of the year ending in 0.

Heck, as a child of the 80s (I was born in the year 1980), I was excited about the 90s starting.

Technically, the 90s started on Jan 1, 1991, just as the new millenium technically started on January 1, 2001...

Kryllith

Technically, the 90s started on Jan 1, 1991, just as the new millenium technically started on January 1, 2001...

Kryllith

Not true. That's when the 200th Decade started. Let's use the Venn Diagram example: one circle represents the "1990s" (that is, the years that contain "nineteen ninety" when you say them) and the other circle represents the "200th Decade". The year 1990 will be by itself in the left circle. The years 1991 through 1999 will be in the intersection of the two circles. The year 2000 will be by itself in the right circle.

I'm telling you, the "1990s" and the "200th Decade" are two different time periods. So there.

They began April 1991 when I had my child, and ended election day November  7, 2000, when hell opened up and gave power to its spawn.

They began April 1991 when I had my child, and ended election day November  7, 2000, when hell opened up and gave power to its spawn.


You just don't get it, do you? We began saying "ninety" for the year on 1/1/1990, and we stopped saying it on 12/31/1999. Could it be any more obvious?!? >:( ::)

You just don't get it, do you? We began saying "ninety" for the year on 1/1/1990, and we stopped saying it on 12/31/1999. Could it be any more obvious?!? >:( ::)


How sad, to be so rigid, you wouldn't be related to GW would you?

You just don't get it, do you? We began saying "ninety" for the year on 1/1/1990, and we stopped saying it on 12/31/1999. Could it be any more obvious?!? >:( ::)



Thats why the thread is titled "When did the '90s start and end for you?"

You just don't get it, do you? We began saying "ninety" for the year on 1/1/1990, and we stopped saying it on 12/31/1999. Could it be any more obvious?!? >:( ::)


I agree with Ellipsis 100%; what he said is 100% factual and true. You have the years 1990 (nineteen ninety), 1991 (nineteen ninety-one), all the way through 1999 (nineteen ninety-nine); hence the term, 1990s. That should be rather intuitive. It is NOT some symbolic name.

I agree with Ellipsis 100%; what he said is 100% factual and true. You have the years 1990 (nineteen ninety), 1991 (nineteen ninety-one), all the way through 1999 (nineteen ninety-nine); hence the term, 1990s. That should be rather intuitive. It is NOT some symbolic name.


Come on, this is GW isn't it? ;)

90s Began: January 1st, 1990

90s Ended: December 31st, 1999.


From a more pop culture perspective, what is usually thought of as "more 90s" probably began sometime in 1992, not 1990.  This core years of "90s style" and culture ended in 1998.  1999 was the start of a slightly different style.

   

It's a lot like how the 80s didn't really begin until about late 1981 either, and ended around 1987 or '88. 

Then there are those transition years like 1978 to 1981, or 1989 to 1992, etc, etc....where the decades blend in together.  The 2000s are the exception to this, since everything looks to just be more or less a modified 90s style.  Things changed in 1999, but not really that much, everything is just a rerun of the late 90s.

Okay..though this seems to be going off on a tangent about the technicalities about when the 90's started, as opposed to what I thought was asking, as wagonman76 said, when did they begin FOR YOU...well, I'm going to go with that.

Well, for me, the 90's began in 1989-because I graduated high school in 1990, so I was really excited about it getting here! ;)  And then in 1992 I got married and shortly thereafter started having my kids, so the "90's" kind of got lost in the shuffles of life for me.  It ended in 1999, when I lost my mom..so it started out good, and ended on a really sad note, FOR ME.  :-\\

Okay..though this seems to be going off on a tangent about the technicalities about when the 90's started, as opposed to what I thought was asking, as wagonman76 said, when did they begin FOR YOU...well, I'm going to go with that.




They didn't begin and end FOR ANYBODY. Time doesn't wait for anyone; it goes by whether you want it to or not. Period.

By the way, I had to spell out my name, because it gave me an error message when I tried to use "...". I guess somebody used it as their username or something? Maybe I should have registered for an account already. Who stole my pseudonym?

The 90s were a blur (no I'm not talking about the band  ;D). I was on a conveyor belt of calamity and it didn't stop until 2000/2001 really. I know I haven't answered the thread question but it was a decade of realisation for me and so, like music videos and parental certificates, was pretty defunct to put it diplomatically.  :)

In 1990 I was a very small child, just two years old. We had just moved from Dallas to a mid-sized town, my older brother who is 10 years older still lived at home.

At the end of 1999, I was almost 12, my parents had split up once, I had been best friends with my cousin since 1993, I had gotten into music, and I had just started to "like like" girls ;D

For me it began January 1, 1991 and ended December 31, 1999.

I think everybody here knows the real start and end dates of the decade.  This question just asks what felt MOST like the 90s to a person, from a personal perspective.

Even though I KNOW it started 1-1-90, and ended in 12-31-99, by way of pop culture, the purest forms of the 90s seem to be from 92-97, when alternative and gangsta rap were the biggest music of the year and movies weren't quite as advanced.

Let's see...

I guess the ninties started on Jan. 1, 1990 and ended on December 31, 1999 for me.

I could just be strange though.

It started in 1991 when I started highschool

It ended when I moved here in August, 1999: Suddenly Britney, Backstreet boys, and the I bubble bust felt as it flooded in afterwards.

'92 to '02, that is pretty much how all of the decades that I have been around for seem like they should be.  It takes a good two years to settle into a decade and get it going into its own!! ;)

It started in 1991 when I started highschool

It ended when I moved here in August, 1999: Suddenly Britney, Backstreet boys, and the I bubble bust felt as it flooded in afterwards.


I know what you mean.

Culturally, the 90's began with the rise of Nirvana(and I wish they ended with Kurt Cobain's suicide!), whose despicably self-serving grunge made kids regard everything that came before it as musically irrelevant, and ended (although boy-bands and slut-pop had put it on life-support for a number of years earlier) probably with the premiere of American Idol, which showed the world there were still talented singers out there.

If I think of anything else on this, I'll post again.

Your Pal,
Doc
8)
Very few of the people on American Idol have gone onto have incredible long term success except for Kelly Clarkson, and Chris Daughtry. Can the teens who grew up on 80's pop culture stop thinking the 90';s was all about grunge? About the grunge kids thinking everything that was musically irrevalent that came before it: allot of people that liked grunge in the 90's probably grew up on teen idols like New Kids On the Block, and MC Hammer before getting into Nirvana or Pearl Jam.

I get kinda of upset  of  people saying we would more fun in the 80's: I mrean you younger then so everything was more carfreee because you didn't have to worry about working a job probably. The 90's were more fun for me than the 00's but I don;t put down everything about the 00's as a teen of the 90's.

Above poster: You forgot Carrie.

I jokingly say that the 90's began in 1989, but of course I know it's not literally true. What I mean is that a lot of the styles and pop-cultural trends that were prevalent in the early 90's started in 1989 (some even as early as 1987), like the premier of the Simpsons. The early 90's had a lot of family/teen sitcoms like Saved By the Bell, Family Matters, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Married With Children, and Full House as well as The Arsenio Hall Show, In Living Color, and Martin. Musically the 80's metal started to fade away during this period, and there was a rise in New Jack Swing, gangsta rap, grunge, dance, and cheesy pop (New Kids on the Block, Milli Vanilli, M.C. Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Marky Mark, etc.). The early 90's were very Gen-X oriented, and most of the Gen-Xers were in their teens at the time. This was the first phase of the 90's, and it lasted till about late 1992/early '93.

The second phase of the 90's, the mid-90's (1993-1996) was more adult oriented as some of the Gen-Xers have reached their adulthood years. There were more adult oriented sitcoms that were popular during this period like Friends, Seinfeld, and Frasier. Musically it was the prime of alternative bands and artists like Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, and Nine Inch Nails. It also has some of the biggest blockbuster hits of the 90's like Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, and Independence Day. It was also when the internet and Starbucks first became popular.

The third phase (late 90's) started around 1997 and some of the styles and cultural aspects lasted as late as 2002. It was an experimental period with music with electro-pop sounds like Aqua's "Barbie Girl" or "We Like To Party" by Vengaboys, The Spice Girls, and other Europop groups like Eiffel 65 (The Blue Song) and Daft Punk, as well as a rise in teen pop (Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, etc.), and post-grunge bands like Sublime, Sugar Ray, Smashmouth, Third Eye Blind, etc. The late 90's felt a lot like the early 80's new wave period, not just with experimental music but also with all the new technology coming out. Much like how CD's, VHS, camcorders, and PC's first became common household items in the early 80's, the same holds for the late 90's with digital technology such as DVD's, mp3 players, digital cameras, etc.   

I'd say when the Y2K happened... I was 6-- I remember everyone on the news and stuff being so scared about what was about to happen: and then it didn't. The world and pop culture proceeded to hurry along a swift downward spiral.

For me the 1990s began when I was born and ended in 1999 when Pokemon reached its peak as far popularity, Teen pop music played on the radio and I went to a new school and got a great teacher.

I swear we had another thread like this. My answer in that thread was the autumn of 1999 because I moved houses. The '90s started when I was born lol.

im 10 and the 90s started whn rock was born with nirvana and ended in 2010 when they relesed the ipad now every kid plays witj a ipad so im an 90s kid cuz i was born in in the 90s in 2008

Why are people bumping this thread?

The 1990s (pronounced "nineteen-nineties" and abbreviated as the "Nineties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1990, and ended on December 31, 1999.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s

The seeds of the '90s were sown in 1977. Bush killed it.

The seeds of the '90s were sown in 1977. Bush killed it.


1977?

In the calendar sense the 90s began when the clock struck midnight, January 1, 1990. But in the pop culture sense the 90s era could of began as early as 1989 and ended as late as 2001 or 2002. You know by 1989, we did somehow get the first vestiges of the 90s. Take the Simpsons, Seinfeld, and Family Matters for example. As you know those shows debuted in 1989, but they had a greater impact in the 90s, and their better remembered as 90s vestiges. And then again you have the Little Mermaid, which is notable for being the first movie to be released in the Disney Renaissance era, which was cornerstone to the 90s. And although it was released in 1989, the movie actually had a greater impact in the 90s than it did in the 80s. Thus, it wasn’t released on home video until 1990, especially since the movie was released theatrically in November of the previous year. And in 1992 it did spawn an animated series, and eventually a rerelease in 1997.

And then by about 1991, that’s when we began to see some of the 90s vestiges shifting to full swing, especially with grunge explosion and Nirvana releasing their iconic Nevermind album. And then we had Beverly Hills 90210, though debuted in October 1990, it didn’t gain consistent popularity until a 1991 summer season, which really capitulated into popularity. And of course, 90210 is one show we do typically associate with the 90s.

And by about 1998, we began to see a cultural transition between the summer of 1998 and the summer of 2001. Starting with the Dotcom Boom, the Internet started to become a household commodity, and many shows we associate with the 90s such as 90210, Melrose Place, X-Files, Family Matters, Step by Step, and Home Improvement started to go off the air. And grunge was pretty much a thing of the past.

And after 9/11, that’s really when the 2000s, were starting to come into reality. Bush was now President, and pretty all 90s vestiges were gone.

1977?


Yep!

For me personally, it began when I was born -- 1990. I can remember all of the kid stuff from the mid-90s such as Legends of the Hidden Temple, Barney, Rugrats, Power Rangers, the debut of Hey Arnold & Blue's Clues, etc. My parents did have a Hootie & the Blowfish CD, so I can vaguely remember mid-90's music. Definitely remember the Macarena! I'd say around 1st & 2nd grade is when I began to understand pop culture and what was "cool" at the time -- Hanson, Backstreet Boys, Will Smith, Spice Girls, etc. I'd mark the true "ending" somewhere in 2001. The whole boy band craze died out, 9/11 occurred, and I heard Linkin Park for the first time. I couldn't remember the early 90's, but it seems like most mark 1992 as the true beginning of the 90's.