I kind of consider 1994-1997 an "era" in terms of popular culture. Although the 1990s saw such a dramatic amount of change to point where nothing was really the same for a long period of time, the heart of the '90s was pretty much as close to a "uniform culture" as the decade gets.

Here I will divide the era into multiple segments of culture, from most to least important.

1. Music
2. Fashion
3. Television
4. Movies
5. Video Games

In the 2000's, #3 and #4 switched in importance. In the 2010's, #3, #4, and #5 have switched in importance.

This is American-centric. I tried to equal out "White People '90s" and "Black People '90s" since they were radically different and segregated cultures that rarely (if ever) came together. As half-Caucasian/half-Latin myself I though "Ethnic '90s" was totally superior!!  ;)

I made this post on my iPhone notes over a period of several weeks. After thinking this out, here is this long post that I will copy and paste from it. Get ready!


Music

Genres
1) Gangsta Rap
2) Post-Grunge
3) Contemporary R&B
4) Hip-Hop Soul
5) House
6) Adult Contemporary
7) Miami Bass
8) Trip-Hop/Downtempo
9) Roots/Blues/Country Rock
10) Punk

Songs
1994
1) Creep - TLC
2) Interstate Love Song - Stone Temple Pilots
3) Juicy - The Notorious B.I.G.
4) All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
5) Do You Wanna Get Funky? - C+C Music Factory

1995
1) Hey Lover (feat. Boyz II Men) - LL Cool J
2) Tell Me - Groove Theory
3) Runaway - Janet Jackson
4) Beautiful Life - Ace of Base
5) Comedown - Bush

1996
1) California Love (feat. Dr. Dre) - 2Pac
2) Who Do U Love - Deborah Cox
3) Don't Speak - No Doubt
4) Mouth - Merril Bainbridge
5) Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand - Primitive Radio Gods

1997
1) Bitch - Meredith Brooks
2) Cupid - 112
3) I Will Buy You a New Life - Everclear
4) Da' Dip - Freak Nasty
5) Return of the Mack - Mark Morrison

Fashion

Women
Hair
1) The Rachel
2) The Flip
3) Braids
4) Wavy Hair
5) The Half-Up (Fishtail)

Makeup
1) Brown Makeup
2) Lip-Liner
3) REALLY Plucked/"Spermy" Eyebrows!! :o
4) Metallic Makeup
5) Blue "Frosted" Eyeshadow

Top Apparel
1) Crop Tops
2) Vests
3) Minidresses
4) Turtlenecks
5) Baby Tees

Bottom Apparel
1) Miniskirts
2) Tight Pants
3) Overalls
4) Wale Cord Carpenter Pants
5) Denim Shorts

Shoes
1) Mary Janes
2) Go-go Boots
3) Block Heels
4) Adidas Sneakers
5) Chunky Loafers

Men
Hair
1) Curtained Hair
2) Spiky Hair
3) Caesar Haircut
4) Bald
5) Cornrows (Black Guys)

Top Apparel
1) Polos
2) Polyester Shirts
3) Leather Vests
4) Wool Sweaters
5) Half-Zip Pullovers

Bottom Apparel
1) Bootcut Pants
2) Chinos
3) Levi 501s
4) Plaid Pants
5) Overalls

Shoes
1) Square-Toed Shoes
2) Adidas Sneakers
3) Hiking Boots
4) Slides
5) Lugz


Television

Sitcoms
1) Sienfeld
2) Friends
3) Sabrina the Teenage Witch
4) Moesha
5) 3rd Rock From the Sun

Drama
1) Party of Five
2) 7th Heaven
3) My So Called Life
4) Chicago Hope
5) ER

Action
1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2) The X-Files
3) Xena: Warrior Princess
4) La Femme Nikita
5) Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

Children's
1) Animaniacs
2) Are You Afraid of the Dark?
3) The Secret World of Alex Mack
4) Batman The Animated Series
5) Superman The Animated Series

Movies

Horror
1) Scream (1996)
2) Alien: Resurrection (1997)
3) Brainscan (1994)
4) I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
5) In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

Thriller
1) Seven (1995)
2) Speed (1994)
3) Conspiracy Theory (1997)
4) Fear (1996)
5) Face/Off (1997)

Comedy
1) Toy Story (1995)
2) Clueless (1995)
3) Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
4) The Nutty Professor (1996)
5) The Mask (1994)

Drama
1) Good Will Hunting (1997)
2) Braveheart (1995)
3) Babe (1995)
4) Twister (1996)
5) Little Women (1994)


Video Games

Playstation
1) Tomb Raider (1996)
2) Resident Evil (1996)
3) Rayman (1995)
4) Tekken 2 (1995)
5) Gran Turismo (1997)

Nintendo 64
1) Super Mario 64 (1996)
2) Wave Race 64 (1996)
3) Goldeneye 007 (1997)
4) Star Fox 64 (1997)
5) Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (1997)

SNES
1) Donkey Kong Country (1994)
2) Super Metroid (1994)
3) Final Fantasy VI (1994)
4) Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995)
5) Clock Tower (1995/Japanese only)

Feel free to debate amongst yourselves. Are you from a different country? Perhaps the culture of the 1990's was very different from that of the United States (although most of what was popular here at the time was also popular overseas). Maybe the 1990's were even more fragmented in your home country/continent, or perhaps they were more uniform. Maybe the layout was different (say, 1992-1996 or 1995-1997 where you lived). I also could have included way more songs, but withheld from doing so because of the length of this post. What do you guys think? I'm off to bed now, laters!

Er, continuing from before, since this thread disappeared for some reason (decadeology?).


Teen pop was definitely around in 1997 in the USA, but it was a minority. 1997 was the year of East Coast Hip-Hop (it's rival died that year).

While teen pop would obviously peak in 1999 in the US (when Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera released their debut albums and the Backstreet Boys came out with Millennium), it was undoubtedly a significant force in 1997.  The Spice Girls had three consecutive top 5 hits, including the #1 single Wannabe.  On the year-end chart, Wannabe, Quit Playing Games (With My Heart), and Mmmbop were the #10, #11, and #12 singles of the year, respectively, and several other teen pop anthems were present in the top 50.  For sure East Coast hip hop was the dominant trend of the year, but the first wave of teen pop was a significant accompaniment.

In my view 5th Gen 3D games took off in 1996. Super Mario 64, Resident Evil, and Tomb Raider were just too huge that year to delay the kickoff into 1997.

They were all very popular as soon as they came out, but aside from Resident Evil, they were all released towards the end of the year.  1997 was the first year that the N64 and PS1 had a significant gaming arsenal, including several multiplayer titles like GoldenEye 007, Mario Kart 64, and Diddy Kong Racing.  The explosion of multiplayer titles, imo, completed the transition towards the 5th generation of video games because they transformed the N64 from the hardware needed to play Super Mario 64 into the ultimate party machine, paving the way for more multiplayer games in the future.  In late 1996, you'd still be wise to purchase a Super NES because it still had a lot of fresh recent titles, including Super Mario RPG and Donkey Kong Country 3 (released November that year), but the diversification of solid 5th generation games in 1997 finally rendered the system obsolete.

Buffy isn't exactly a millennial show, at least when it started. The first three seasons had this rebellious, introspective tone to it that very much describes Generation X's more hardcore tastes. Sarah Michelle Gellar was born in 1977, so I think people born three years older and younger than her (1974-1980) would have been the target audience initially. My mom (a 1963 baby) was a huge fan from the start. She started disliking the show more after season 3. Besides, most Millennial wouldn't have been old enough to watch the show at first anyway. My mid '80s born sister wasn't even allowed to watch the show until she started high school in 2000. That show dealt with some pretty serious stuff; vampires and monsters don't exist, but demons, the devil, and hell actually do exist (as well as rape, murder, stalking, underage sex, etc). The first season was filmed in '96, but didn't air until early 1997. I still pair up season 1 with 1996 anyway.

Kind of an odd argument, considering the show ran from 1997 all the way to 2003.  Regardless of how core 90s the first few seasons seem to you, the show is still a hallmark of the general millennial period.

1997 didn't have gangsta rap, but it had mafioso rap, which is kind of like an East coast version of gangsta rap.

Mafioso rap was more 1995-1996, when Jay-Z released Reasonable Doubt, Raekwon came out with Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, and Nas released It Was Written.  By 1997, hip hop was already moving in a glossier, less threatening direction, as represented by Puffy and Mase's hit singles, which talk less about a life of crime and more about how many expensive cars they own and how many beautiful hotels they've stayed at.  Even Jay-Z's In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 went down a significantly poppier route than the rapper's gritty debut.

Furthermore, a lot of other urban styles were starting to come in and replace older ones.  The bassy, funky, synth-driven Dr. Dre influence found on records like TLC's CrazySexyCool and Monica's Miss Thang was now being overtaken by a more modern style, with more emphasis on the treble than the bass drum, as well as more of a shuffle feel.  This would be the dominant style in pop urban all the way through the early 2000s.  New artists like Ginuwine and Usher helped signal this shift, and songs like You Make Me Wanna, Up Jumps Da Boogie, Pony, and Don't Leave Me all sound like they could have been produced in the early 2000s.  Even Dr. Dre's own production, No Diggity, has a beat that more closely resembles Mary J. Blige's 2001 hit Family Affair than 2Pac's California Love, which was popular only months before it.

"Real" grunge ceased to exist after 1994 (imo the last true grunge song was "Zombie" by The Cranberries). However, post-grunge took over with artists such Bush, Live, and Alanis Morissette. Other forms of rock besides grunge became popular in 1994 too, which was still big in 1997.

I'm incredulous about "real" grunge not existing in 1995 or 1996, considering Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and Soundgarden were all still very popular during that time.  True, they began experimenting a little more during those years, but songs like Alice in Chains' Grind, Pearl Jam's I Got Id, and Soundgarden's Pretty Noose and Burden in My Hand still maintain those clawing melodies and electrifying distorted guitars that defined grunge during the Nirvana years.  Let's not forget their lyrics, which talk very unapologetically about such topics as self-destruction, sin, and insanity.  They all very much stood in contrast to poppier, less aggressive songs like Shine, Molly (Sixteen Candles), and Tomorrow.  Songs of the grunge style this bleak would never surface again after Blow Up the Outside World, the only grunge song popular in 1997.

As far as the other rock subgenres that entered the mainstream in 1994 go, post-grunge and pop punk both survived into the 2000s, remaining a mainstream force for several years until the beginning of 2010.  Even then, both the Offspring's Ixnay on the Hombre and Green Day's Nimrod offered significantly different styles than their mid-90s predecessors; Ixnay was the Offspring's debut record on Columbia, thus ditching the gritty sound of Smash, while Nimrod sounds a lot more like American Idiot than it does Dookie or even Insomniac.  1997 was also the year Blink-182 released Dude Ranch, their major label debut and a harbinger of the coming wave of pop punk that would define the early 2000s.  The only definitive mid-90s rock genre that died within a few years was britpop, which particularly peaked in 1994-1996 and became obsolete after Radiohead released the seminal OK Computer album and Oasis failed to match it with Be Here Now.  That was all in 1997.

I agree about the 4th Gen, but I'd say the Sega/Nintendo rivalry died on E3 1995 due to Genesis shipping controversy and development teams support shifting to Nintendo as a result.

This was definitely part of the downfall, but since Sega was still technically at a hardware advantage after the Saturn came out, I wouldn't call the rivalry truly over until the N64 was released and the Playstation emerged as the system's true contender, not the Saturn.

Er, continuing from before, since this thread disappeared for some reason (decadeology?).


Actually I requested the original's deletion because I though it was too long. So I decided to split it into parts.

Actually I requested the original's deletion because I though it was too long. So I decided to split it into parts.

Yeah I figured. Because this thread isn't decadeology at all! Almost everything that was written was pretty much spot on! :)

Music wise this is a bit off because Pearl Jam was HUGE in 1994 and 1995, and long hair was an in style for men and the grunge look was still prevalent, at least in 1994 and early 1995.

Music wise this is a bit off because Pearl Jam was HUGE in 1994 and 1995, and long hair was an in style for men and the grunge look was still prevalent, at least in 1994 and early 1995.


Yes, but that's primarily white boys. I'm trying to portray a balance of White and Black cultures in the 1990's.

I kind of consider 1994-1997 an "era" in terms of popular culture. Although the 1990s saw such a dramatic amount of change to point where nothing was really the same for a long period of time, the heart of the '90s was pretty much as close to a "uniform culture" as the decade gets.

Here I will divide the era into multiple segments of culture, from most to least important.

1. Music
2. Fashion
3. Television
4. Movies
5. Video Games

In the 2000's, #3 and #4 switched in importance. In the 2010's, #3, #4, and #5 have switched in importance.

This is American-centric. I tried to equal out "White People '90s" and "Black People '90s" since they were radically different and segregated cultures that rarely (if ever) came together. As half-Caucasian/half-Latin myself I though "Ethnic '90s" was totally superior!!  ;)

I made this post on my iPhone notes over a period of several weeks. After thinking this out, here is this long post that I will copy and paste from it. Get ready!


Music

Genres
1) Gangsta Rap
2) Post-Grunge
3) Contemporary R&B
4) Hip-Hop Soul
5) House
6) Adult Contemporary
7) Miami Bass
8) Trip-Hop/Downtempo
9) Roots/Blues/Country Rock
10) Punk

Songs
1994
1) Creep - TLC
2) Interstate Love Song - Stone Temple Pilots
3) Juicy - The Notorious B.I.G.
4) All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
5) Do You Wanna Get Funky? - C+C Music Factory

1995
1) Hey Lover (feat. Boyz II Men) - LL Cool J
2) Tell Me - Groove Theory
3) Runaway - Janet Jackson
4) Beautiful Life - Ace of Base
5) Comedown - Bush

1996
1) California Love (feat. Dr. Dre) - 2Pac
2) Who Do U Love - Deborah Cox
3) Don't Speak - No Doubt
4) Mouth - Merril Bainbridge
5) Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand - Primitive Radio Gods

1997
1) Bitch - Meredith Brooks
2) Cupid - 112
3) I Will Buy You a New Life - Everclear
4) Da' Dip - Freak Nasty
5) Return of the Mack - Mark Morrison



You're showing your age. People much older than you will ALWAYS prefer 1988 to 1994.

Fashion

Women
Hair
1) The Rachel
2) The Flip
3) Braids
4) Wavy Hair
5) The Half-Up (Fishtail)


Also:

Several different toned-down 80's hairsprayed styles.

Thick straight hair. Parted to the side. Sometimes even double. I think Madonna had that style at one point. Demi Moore as well in Disclosure (1994).

More like 1993-1997 was the heart of the 90s.

The heart of the 90s was July 1992 - January 1998.  Everything else sucked, though June 6, 1991 was kind of a good day

More like 1993-1997 was the heart of the 90s.


1993 has nothing in common with 1996 and 1997, especially in the realm of fashion. 1994 however, does.

1993 has nothing in common with 1996 and 1997, especially in the realm of fashion. 1994 however, does.


I wouldn't go quite as far as to say 1993 is completely different from 1996, even though it's still more early 90s than core 90s.  Gangsta rap, grunge, neo-acoustic rock, and alternative were all in full bloom in 1993.  2Pac's mainstream breakthrough was the song I Get Around, a few years before his peak in 1996.  Some of the other biggest musical acts of 1993 were Dr. Dre, Alice in Chains, Mariah Carey, the Smashing Pumpkins, Janet, Toni Braxton, and the Gin Blossoms, all of which were also still extremely popular in 1996.

Frasier and The X-Files premiered in the autumn of that year, while The Simpsons and Seinfeld were both in their golden eras.  Jurassic Park was the most popular movie of 1993, paving the way for the rest of the CGI-aided blockbusters of the decade like Independence Day, Twister, and Mission Impossible.  1993 was also a breakthrough year for Tom Hanks, probably the most significant actor of the 90s, thanks to Sleepless in Seattle and Philadelphia.

Video games were very much in their fourth generation, as the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were still the big contenders of the day; however, the year was also the first time companies tried to kickstart the fifth generation, with the releases of the 3DO and Atari Jaguar.  Both consoles failed commercially, but they did represent a significant trend of the mid-90s, namely the slow and painstaking transition into the fifth generation of gaming, which wouldn't come full circle until late 1996.

Geopolitically, not a whole lot happened in 1993 that separates it from 1996.  Bill Clinton was president during both years, and both times were defined by the neoliberal post-Cold War climate.  The Internet first garnered attention in 1995, but it hadn't yet established itself as the absolute way of the future in 1996.

While I think 1994 introduced a lot of significant 90s culture to the world that bridges it a lot closer to 1996 and the late 90s, 1993 is still a solidly 90s year in its own right; it's just that it has as much in common with 1992 as 1996, so the transition to the core 90s was not yet finished, even if leftover 80s culture was already pretty much completely dead.

While I think 1994 introduced a lot of significant 90s culture to the world that bridges it a lot closer to 1996 and the late 90s, 1993 is still a solidly 90s year in its own right; it's just that it has as much in common with 1992 as 1996, so the transition to the core 90s was not yet finished, even if leftover 80s culture was already pretty much completely dead.


There is no such thing as "leftover '80s culture", you mean "early '90s culture" because the TV shows, movie characters, toys, clothes and trends that showed up in the late '80s (1987,1988 and 1989) all spent more time in 1990, 1991 and 1992 than they ever did in 1987, 1988 and 1989. According to you, The Simpsons would be "leftover '80s culture", but only 14% of the US population knew of 'the yellow people' back in the very late '80s. Pop culture institutions span eras for a good reason. As human beings, we prepare for the future while living in the present. It will always be that way.

There is no such thing as "leftover '80s culture", you mean "early '90s culture" because the TV shows, movie characters, toys, clothes and trends that showed up in the late '80s (1987,1988 and 1989) all spent more time in 1990, 1991 and 1992 than they ever did in 1987, 1988 and 1989. According to you, The Simpsons would be "leftover '80s culture", but only 14% of the US population knew of 'the yellow people' back in the very late '80s. Pop culture institutions span eras for a good reason. As human beings, we prepare for the future while living in the present. It will always be that way.


Stuff from 1991 isn't purely "early 90s culture" or "leftover 80s culture," but rather a combination of both.  Transitional years like 1991 for the 90s, or 1981 for the 80s, are a mixture of older trends that were popular at the end of the previous decade and about to disappear from the mainstream (like bands such as Huey Lewis & the News and Guns N' Roses still being popular, or The Cosby Show and Cheers still being on the air) as well as brand new trends that would still have yet to set the complete standard (like grunge, fourth generation video games, and shows like Seinfeld and Ren & Stimpy).  The definitively late 80s stuff clashed with the early 90s stuff, so labeling 1991 as culturally late 80s or early 90s really depends on which of the two eras' influence is the strongest.  To me, personally, the 90s threshold was crossed in December 1991, since that was the month when the USSR dissolved, Smells Like Teen Spirit exploded on the Billboard Hot 100, and lots of kids were getting Super Nintendos or Sega Geneses for Christmas.  There was still a lot of culture in 1992 that's more associated with the late 80s, but it was the early 90s stuff that truly defined the year.  Conversely, even though The Simpsons, the Disney Renaissance, etc. existed in 1990, that year still felt much more like a continuation of 1989 than the beginning of the early 90s (which, imo, lasted from December 1991 to April 1994).

Also, regarding your point about The Simpsons, that show ironically was "leftover 80s" culture in a sense since the family had already been famous since 1987 on the Tracey Ullman Show, and even the series premiere was a Holiday Special in December of 1989.  The show itself is definitely much more associated with the 1990s as a whole, though.

Stuff from 1991 isn't purely "early 90s culture" or "leftover 80s culture," but rather a combination of both.

I'm sorry, but you're looking at '91 all wrong. The pop culture of 1991 was a mixture of early '90s culture (i.e. A Different World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bill and Ted) and INCOMING mid '90s culture (Ren, Stimpy, Pearl Jam and City Slickers).


Transitional years like 1991 for the 90s, or 1981 for the 80s, are a mixture of older trends that were popular at the end of the previous decade and about to disappear from the mainstream (like bands such as Huey Lewis & the News and Guns N' Roses still being popular, or The Cosby Show and Cheers still being on the air) as well as brand new trends that would still have yet to set the complete standard (like grunge, fourth generation video games, and shows like Seinfeld and Ren & Stimpy).  The definitively late 80s stuff clashed with the early 90s stuff, so labeling 1991 as culturally late 80s or early 90s really depends on which of the two eras' influence is the strongest.  To me, personally, the 90s threshold was crossed in December 1991, since that was the month when the USSR dissolved, Smells Like Teen Spirit exploded on the Billboard Hot 100, and lots of kids were getting Super Nintendos or Sega Geneses for Christmas.  There was still a lot of culture in 1992 that's more associated with the late 80s, but it was the early 90s stuff that truly defined the year.

'91 still felt a year of the early '90s (1990-1993). Yes, it was starting to look a little bit more like the start of 1993 by the end of the year. The Cosby Show, Cheers and Huey Lewis were all around in the early '90s due to the success they found in the late '80s. I wouldn't say they were still popular in '91. By the end of '91, we had moved on to Roseanne,  Murphy Brown and Extreme.

Grunge wasn't a trend in 1991. I don't know where you got that from. The 'non-look' was "in" from the fall of 1992 to sometime in 1995. I honestly do not know of a soul who picked up on the presence of Ren and Stimpy before the shirts were in stores (around April of '92).

What is definitely late '80s stuff? By that, I hope you meant ALF, Max Headroom, The Noid and Head of the Class. Those shows and commercial characters actually spent a good deal of time (all of '87 to the end of '89) in the late '80s unlike Married With Children, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Saved By The Bell.

I would say the '90s threshold was crossed in January of 1993 because Bill was in office, the Dallas Cowboys were America's team (darker colors were in as a result) and Leprechaun was in theaters.   

Again, what culture of '92 was more associated with the late '80s?! More people know of Wayne and Garth because the movies and not the skits.

Please tell me what early '90s stuff defined 1992. Thank you.

Conversely, even though The Simpsons, the Disney Renaissance, etc. existed in 1990, that year still felt much more like a continuation of 1989 than the beginning of the early 90s (which, imo, lasted from December 1991 to April 1994).

1990 was a much bigger and better year than '89. '90 was the strongest year of the early '90s also.

Let's look at some events from 1990:

The release of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System

The banning of Bart Simpson shirts in elementary schools

Nelson Mandela was freed from prison

Turtlemania!

Home Alone topping the box office in its opening weekend



Also, regarding your point about The Simpsons, that show ironically was "leftover 80s" culture in a sense since the family had already been famous since 1987 on the Tracey Ullman Show, and even the series premiere was a Holiday Special in December of 1989.  The show itself is definitely much more associated with the 1990s as a whole, though.


What world are you living in?! The Simpsons WERE NOT FAMOUS ever since their DEBUT on the The Tracey Ullman Show. Only 14% of the American population knew of them before The Simpsons was officially launched as a television series on January 14 of 1990. Where were you when The Simpsons blew up in the spring of 1990?

I'm sorry, but you're looking at '91 all wrong. The pop culture of 1991 was a mixture of early '90s culture (i.e. A Different World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bill and Ted) and INCOMING mid '90s culture (Ren, Stimpy, Pearl Jam and City Slickers).

That's exactly how I described it.  I see things like Bill & Ted and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as being part of a distinct era that peaked from 1989-November 1991 but had mild influence as as early as the end of 1987 and as late as the beginning of 1993.  I prefer to describe it as the true late 80s, since most of it was more tied to core 80s culture than core 90s culture, and I see the "early 90s" as December 1991-April 1994.

'91 still felt a year of the early '90s (1990-1993). Yes, it was starting to look a little bit more like the start of 1993 by the end of the year. The Cosby Show, Cheers and Huey Lewis were all around in the early '90s due to the success they found in the late '80s. I wouldn't say they were still popular in '91. By the end of '91, we had moved on to Roseanne,  Murphy Brown and Extreme.

Culturally, I think only the final month of 1991 is truly connected to the 1992-early 1994 period, which was comfortably 90s but still in the early phase.  The rest the year is much closer to 1989, which feels more like the late portion of the 80s rather than the early portion of the 90s, due to a Republican being president, hair metal still being popular, gated drums still being ubiquitous in popular music, and the Soviet Union still on its way out.

Grunge wasn't a trend in 1991. I don't know where you got that from. The 'non-look' was "in" from the fall of 1992 to sometime in 1995. I honestly do not know of a soul who picked up on the presence of Ren and Stimpy before the shirts were in stores (around April of '92).

Smells Like Teen Spirit topped the alternative rock charts during the week of November 23, 1991 and later exploded on the Billboard Hot 100 the following month.  Nirvana's Nevermind was the #1 album on the Billboard 200 for January 11, 1992 and February 1, 1992.  The grunge movement was clearly in full force by the point in time I personally consider the crossover into the early 90s, even though Pearl Jam's Ten wouldn't truly catch on until late summer, 1992.  Even as early as summer 1991 though, Alice in Chains' Man in the Box became a mild radio hit that helped its parent album to be certified Gold before Nirvana became popular.

What is definitely late '80s stuff? By that, I hope you meant ALF, Max Headroom, The Noid and Head of the Class. Those shows and commercial characters actually spent a good deal of time (all of '87 to the end of '89) in the late '80s unlike Married With Children, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Saved By The Bell.

Stuff from 1987 to 1988 still feels caught in the core period of the 80s (which began for me around the start of 1984 and lasted until the end of 1988).  Popular music was still predominantly hi-nrg and synth-influenced, most hair metal hits were actual rockers as opposed to power ballads, the Gipper was still president, the most popular movies of the time were action flicks like Lethal Weapon and Die Hard, and Don Bluth was still outmatching Disney in the animation world.  Newer stuff like old school hip hop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and new jack swing existed, but did not peak until the 1989-1991 period.  Saved By the Bell did not premiere until 1989, and it was still on until 1993, so I don't consider it a true part of the era that contained 1987 and 1988.

I would say the '90s threshold was crossed in January of 1993 because Bill was in office, the Dallas Cowboys were America's team (darker colors were in as a result) and Leprechaun was in theaters.

I can sort of understand arguments that say the beginning 1993 was the 90s threshold (since 1992 still had a bit of leftover 80s culture), but I don't really see how the Cowboys winning the Superbowl and Leprechaun being released makes that much of a difference.

Again, what culture of '92 was more associated with the late '80s?! More people know of Wayne and Garth because the movies and not the skits.

+ Bush '41 still being president
+ The Cosby Show, Cheers, and Saved By the Bell airing their final seasons
+ Hair metal (Def Leppard's Let's Get Rocked and Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad, Guns N' Roses' November Rain, FireHouse's When I Look Into Your Eyes, Van Halen's Right Now)
+ Hip hop still mostly in its old school phase (Baby Got Back, Too Legit to Quit, etc.)

It's not as much as the strictly early 90s culture listed below, hence why I consider the entire year culturally 90s overall and not 80s, but it's essentially the last breath of true 80s culture before vanishing completely.

Please tell me what early '90s stuff defined 1992. Thank you.

Easy.

+ Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten (released in '91, but most popular this year; Alice in Chains' Dirt was released in '92 and most popular in '93)
+ Dr. Dre's The Chronic (though it wouldn't achieve significant success until 1993)
+ Sonic the Hedgehog (which lots of children got for Christmas in 1991) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2
+ Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, and Doug
+ Bram Stoker's Dracula
+ Bill Clinton winning the election
+ Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin
+ The Legend of Zelda:  A Link to the Past
+ Mortal Kombat
+ Media controversy (Cop Killer, Mortal Kombat, Ren & Stimpy, etc.)

Again, I personally consider the span of the "early 90s" December 1991 to April 1994, not 1990-1993 like you do.

1990 was a much bigger and better year than '89. '90 was the strongest year of the early '90s also.

Let's look at some events from 1990:

The release of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System

The banning of Bart Simpson shirts in elementary schools

Nelson Mandela was freed from prison

Turtlemania!

Home Alone topping the box office in its opening weekend

Super Mario Bros. 3 was the landmark title of the Nintendo Entertainment System, a video game console whose heyday was predominantly the late 80s and which really began to decline after Sonic the Hedgehog came out.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was primarily a Bush '41-era phenomenon.  It was already starting to lose popularity in 1992 when the first Nicktoons were out, and it truly jumped the shark after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III was released in early 1993.

Home Alone is one of the very few things 1990 has that's much more connected to the 90s than the 80s, the others being The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Mariah Carey, and the Disney Renaissance.  Even so, The Simpsons was very different during its first two seasons than its later seasons, as it was mostly just an animated sitcom about a dysfunctional family, in the same vein as Roseanne, as opposed to a biting satire of American culture in general, and focused mostly on Bart as its central character instead of Homer.  Seinfeld was not yet that popular, and Mariah Carey's first album was still similar to Whitney Houston's 80s output, and not truly 90s like her work from Music Box on.  The Little Mermaid (still in theaters at the beginning of the year) did not use digital ink, and the Rescuers Down Under is much more connected to the 80s in general, due to its Australian setting, and the fact that it's not a musical like the rest of the Disney Renaissance movies.

What world are you living in?! The Simpsons WERE NOT FAMOUS ever since their DEBUT on the The Tracey Ullman Show. Only 14% of the American population knew of them before The Simpsons was officially launched as a television series on January 14 of 1990. Where were you when The Simpsons blew up in the spring of 1990?


This point was pretty insignificant, I only made it to show that the Simpsons family first appeared on national television deep in the 80s, even though they wouldn't develop their true identity until the 90s.

That's exactly how I described it.  I see things like Bill & Ted and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as being part of a distinct era that peaked from 1989-November 1991 but had mild influence as as early as the end of 1987 and as late as the beginning of 1993.  I prefer to describe it as the true late 80s, since most of it was more tied to core 80s culture than core 90s culture, and I see the "early 90s" as December 1991-April 1994.

I must be older than you. I can remember when 1990 was thought of the first year of the early '90s by the media. My sister had an issue of Disney Adventures magazine (the very first issue from the summer of '90) that lists The Simpsons as being in existence from the late '80s to the early '90s thus far (some people thought The Simpsons would be cancelled in 1991, boy were they ever wrong).

Married with Children, A Different World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, MC Hammer, Public Enemy, Poison, The Simpsons, side ponytails and Nike Air Max sneakers were all introduced in 1987.

Married with Children, A Different World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, MC Hammer, Public Enemy, Poison, The Simpsons, side ponytails and Nike Air Max were all popular from 1990 to 1993.

I have no idea why you see December of 1991 to April of 1994 as the early '90s. That would be like me saying that December of 1988 to April of 1991 was the late '80s.

I knew we were in the mid '90s once Beavis and Butthead premiered on MTV in March of 1993. It was apparent that we were in a new time (the early '90s) once The Simpsons began airing regularly on FOX  in 1990. 


Culturally, I think only the final month of 1991 is truly connected to the 1992-early 1994 period, which was comfortably 90s but still in the early phase.  The rest the year is much closer to 1989, which feels more like the late portion of the 80s rather than the early portion of the 90s, due to a Republican being president, hair metal still being popular, gated drums still being ubiquitous in popular music, and the Soviet Union still on its way out.

I'm sorry to break it to you, but you are the only person I know who believes the final month of 1991 is connected to the '92 to 1994 period. 1992 was the last year when the American population wore clothes from '89. Bush was president in 1992 also, not to mention, Mr. Big went to number one at the start of 1992. The early '90s (1990,1991 and 1992) 'set the score' for the mid '90s (1993, 1994 and 1995). 


Smells Like Teen Spirit topped the alternative rock charts during the week of November 23, 1991 and later exploded on the Billboard Hot 100 the following month.  Nirvana's Nevermind was the #1 album on the Billboard 200 for January 11, 1992 and February 1, 1992.  The grunge movement was clearly in full force by the point in time I personally consider the crossover into the early 90s, even though Pearl Jam's Ten wouldn't truly catch on until late summer, 1992.  Even as early as summer 1991 though, Alice in Chains' Man in the Box became a mild radio hit that helped its parent album to be certified Gold before Nirvana became popular.

Were you alive from 1991 to 1992? It does not sound like you were.


Stuff from 1987 to 1988 still feels caught in the core period of the 80s (which began for me around the start of 1984 and lasted until the end of 1988).  Popular music was still predominantly hi-nrg and synth-influenced, most hair metal hits were actual rockers as opposed to power ballads, the Gipper was still president, the most popular movies of the time were action flicks like Lethal Weapon and Die Hard, and Don Bluth was still outmatching Disney in the animation world.  Newer stuff like old school hip hop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and new jack swing existed, but did not peak until the 1989-1991 period.  Saved By the Bell did not premiere until 1989, and it was still on until 1993, so I don't consider it a true part of the era that contained 1987 and 1988.

Well, '87 and '88 were full Reagan years, but the culture born in them was for the Bush 41 era.


I can sort of understand arguments that say the beginning 1993 was the 90s threshold (since 1992 still had a bit of leftover 80s culture), but I don't really see how the Cowboys winning the Superbowl and Leprechaun being released makes that much of a difference.

The Cowboys winning the Super Bowl changed everything. After that event, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Deion Sanders were America's favorite football players for the rest of the mid '90s into the late '90s. Leprechaun sequels span well into that 1999-2002 period (like a lot of pop culture institutions born in the '90s).


+ Bush '41 still being president
+ The Cosby Show, Cheers, and Saved By the Bell airing their final seasons
+ Hair metal (Def Leppard's Let's Get Rocked and Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad, Guns N' Roses' November Rain, FireHouse's When I Look Into Your Eyes, Van Halen's Right Now)
+ Hip hop still mostly in its old school phase (Baby Got Back, Too Legit to Quit, etc.)

It's not as much as the strictly early 90s culture listed below, hence why I consider the entire year culturally 90s overall and not 80s, but it's essentially the last breath of true 80s culture before vanishing completely.

Bush 41 was not president for most of the actual late '80s (1987, 1988 and the very start of '89).

Saved By The Bell was never popular in 1989. The show had a history of getting cancelled from each season to next.

Only "Pour Some Sugar on Me" from Def Leopard is associated with the late '80s.  Their last album never caught on like that one.

Guns 'N Roses was one of those bands that made a better first impression than a sophomore album. "November Rain" is still an early '90s song. I do not know of anyone who brings that single up when talking about 1988 or 1989.

The first Firehouse album is from 1990, not 1987, 1988 or 1989.

I do not know anyone who confuses "Right Now" from Van Halen for being a late '80s song.


MC Hammer and Sir Mix-A- Lot are best known for their hits in the early '90s. They are fun hip hop artists of the early '90s. Yes, their first albums were from the late '80s, but they never caught on in the late '80s like they did in the early '90s.



Easy.

+ Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten (released in '91, but most popular this year; Alice in Chains' Dirt was released in '92 and most popular in '93)
+ Dr. Dre's The Chronic (though it wouldn't achieve significant success until 1993)
+ Sonic the Hedgehog (which lots of children got for Christmas in 1991) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2
+ Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, and Doug
+ Bram Stoker's Dracula
+ Bill Clinton winning the election
+ Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin
+ The Legend of Zelda:  A Link to the Past
+ Mortal Kombat
+ Media controversy (Cop Killer, Mortal Kombat, Ren & Stimpy, etc.)

Again, I personally consider the span of the "early 90s" December 1991 to April 1994, not 1990-1993 like you do.

Incoming mid '90s (1993, 1994 and 1995) musicians, TV and video game stars:

Pearl Jam

Alice In Chains

Sonic The Hedgehog (There were two Sonic TV shows in 1993; Sonic belongs to the mid '90s)

Ren & Stimpy, Doug and the Rugrats

Mortal Kombat

Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg as solo artists

Everything for the Super Nintendo


You look at the last month of 1991 to April of 1994, because you were either too young to see the period for what it was or not born yet.


Super Mario Bros. 3 was the landmark title of the Nintendo Entertainment System, a video game console whose heyday was predominantly the late 80s and which really began to decline after Sonic the Hedgehog came out.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was primarily a Bush '41-era phenomenon.  It was already starting to lose popularity in 1992 when the first Nicktoons were out, and it truly jumped the shark after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III was released in early 1993.

Home Alone is one of the very few things 1990 has that's much more connected to the 90s than the 80s, the others being The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Mariah Carey, and the Disney Renaissance.  Even so, The Simpsons was very different during its first two seasons than its later seasons, as it was mostly just an animated sitcom about a dysfunctional family, in the same vein as Roseanne, as opposed to a biting satire of American culture in general, and focused mostly on Bart as its central character instead of Homer.  Seinfeld was not yet that popular, and Mariah Carey's first album was still similar to Whitney Houston's 80s output, and not truly 90s like her work from Music Box on.  The Little Mermaid (still in theaters at the beginning of the year) did not use digital ink, and the Rescuers Down Under is much more connected to the 80s in general, due to its Australian setting, and the fact that it's not a musical like the rest of the Disney Renaissance movies.

Home Alone was definitely a movie of the early '90s. Macaulay Culkin got his start in the late '80s and  found fame in the early '90s. His success story is similar to the one for Julia Roberts.

I must be older than you. I can remember when 1990 was thought of the first year of the early '90s by the media. My sister had an issue of Disney Adventures magazine (the very first issue from the summer of '90) that lists The Simpsons as being in existence from the late '80s to the early '90s thus far (some people thought The Simpsons would be cancelled in 1991, boy were they ever wrong).

Married with Children, A Different World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, MC Hammer, Public Enemy, Poison, The Simpsons, side ponytails and Nike Air Max sneakers were all introduced in 1987.

Married with Children, A Different World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, MC Hammer, Public Enemy, Poison, The Simpsons, side ponytails and Nike Air Max were all popular from 1990 to 1993.

I have no idea why you see December of 1991 to April of 1994 as the early '90s. That would be like me saying that December of 1988 to April of 1991 was the late '80s.

I knew we were in the mid '90s once Beavis and Butthead premiered on MTV in March of 1993. It was apparent that we were in a new time (the early '90s) once The Simpsons began airing regularly on FOX  in 1990. 

I'm sorry to break it to you, but you are the only person I know who believes the final month of 1991 is connected to the '92 to 1994 period. 1992 was the last year when the American population wore clothes from '89. Bush was president in 1992 also, not to mention, Mr. Big went to number one at the start of 1992. The early '90s (1990,1991 and 1992) 'set the score' for the mid '90s (1993, 1994 and 1995). 

Were you alive from 1991 to 1992? It does not sound like you were.

Well, '87 and '88 were full Reagan years, but the culture born in them was for the Bush 41 era.

The Cowboys winning the Super Bowl changed everything. After that event, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Deion Sanders were America's favorite football players for the rest of the mid '90s into the late '90s. Leprechaun sequels span well into that 1999-2002 period (like a lot of pop culture institutions born in the '90s).

Bush 41 was not president for most of the actual late '80s (1987, 1988 and the very start of '89).

Saved By The Bell was never popular in 1989. The show had a history of getting cancelled from each season to next.

Only "Pour Some Sugar on Me" from Def Leopard is associated with the late '80s.  Their last album never caught on like that one.

Guns 'N Roses was one of those bands that made a better first impression than a sophomore album. "November Rain" is still an early '90s song. I do not know of anyone who brings that single up when talking about 1988 or 1989.

The first Firehouse album is from 1990, not 1987, 1988 or 1989.

I do not know anyone who confuses "Right Now" from Van Halen for being a late '80s song.


MC Hammer and Sir Mix-A- Lot are best known for their hits in the early '90s. They are fun hip hop artists of the early '90s. Yes, their first albums were from the late '80s, but they never caught on in the late '80s like they did in the early '90s.


Incoming mid '90s (1993, 1994 and 1995) musicians, TV and video game stars:

Pearl Jam

Alice In Chains

Sonic The Hedgehog (There were two Sonic TV shows in 1993; Sonic belongs to the mid '90s)

Ren & Stimpy, Doug and the Rugrats

Mortal Kombat

Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg as solo artists

Everything for the Super Nintendo


You look at the last month of 1991 to April of 1994, because you were either too young to see the period for what it was or not born yet.

Home Alone was definitely a movie of the early '90s. Macaulay Culkin got his start in the late '80s and  found fame in the early '90s. His success story is similar to the one for Julia Roberts.



Why was it close to getting cancelled?

I must be older than you. I can remember when 1990 was thought of the first year of the early '90s by the media. My sister had an issue of Disney Adventures magazine (the very first issue from the summer of '90) that lists The Simpsons as being in existence from the late '80s to the early '90s thus far (some people thought The Simpsons would be cancelled in 1991, boy were they ever wrong).

You just said nobody knew about The Simpsons in the late 80s?

Married with Children, A Different World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, MC Hammer, Public Enemy, Poison, The Simpsons, side ponytails and Nike Air Max sneakers were all introduced in 1987.

Married with Children, A Different World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, MC Hammer, Public Enemy, Poison, The Simpsons, side ponytails and Nike Air Max were all popular from 1990 to 1993.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular since their 1987 premiere and declined a bit in popularity after the premiere of the first Nicktoons in 1991.  Public Enemy's first really popular album was It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, from 1988.  They lost significance after Fear of a Black Planet.  A Different World was a spin-off of a quintessentially 80s show, but unlike Frasier, premiered much earlier and did not span nearly an entire decade.  MC Hammer's breakthrough was 1990, but he wasn't a completely groundbreaking artist, as old school hip hop had already achieve massive success in the previous couple of years thanks to Tone Loc, LL Cool J, Salt-N-Pepa and the like.  His last top 10 hit was Addams Groove, which was attached to the Addams Family movie from November 1991.  Poison is hardly an early 90s phenomenon, as they were already extremely popular in 1987 with their single Talk Dirty to Me, and peaked in 1988/1989 with Every Rose Has Its Thorn.  They fell out of mainstream popularity after 1990.

I have no idea why you see December of 1991 to April of 1994 as the early '90s. That would be like me saying that December of 1988 to April of 1991 was the late '80s.

Yeah, that's about right, actually.  The turn of 1989 was when artists like New Kids on the Block, Paula Abdul, and Bobby Brown became popular, and it was also about the time old school hip hop and new jack swing overtook hi-nrg on the pop charts.  It was also when Bush the Elder became President of the United States and the Cold War finally ended, culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the wave of revolutions in the former Eastern Bloc states as they transitioned into capitalism.

Imo, the early 90s lasted roughly from December 1991 to April 1994, the mid-90s May 1994 to January 1997, and the late 90s February 1997 to September 11, 2001, although this is a different discussion altogether.

I knew we were in the mid '90s once Beavis and Butthead premiered on MTV in March of 1993. It was apparent that we were in a new time (the early '90s) once The Simpsons began airing regularly on FOX  in 1990.

That's nothing compared to the events of 1994.  Kurt Cobain died, putting a damper on the alternative rock movement; pop punk, post-grunge, and britpop all suddenly entered the mainstream, Bad Boy Records first became popular with the release of Biggie's Ready to Die (thus starting the East vs. West Coast hip hop rivalry), Sega released the ill-fated 32X, starting a long trend of bad marketing decisions that would herald their decline, Friends made its premiere, Jim Carrey became the biggest comedian in the world, and the Republicans took over Congress as a result of Clinton's rocky first couple of years in office.  1993 is a very 90s year, but it's still more a part of the early 90s period that I described.

I'm sorry to break it to you, but you are the only person I know who believes the final month of 1991 is connected to the '92 to 1994 period. 1992 was the last year when the American population wore clothes from '89. Bush was president in 1992 also, not to mention, Mr. Big went to number one at the start of 1992. The early '90s (1990,1991 and 1992) 'set the score' for the mid '90s (1993, 1994 and 1995).

Well, other people are probably not as specific to the date as I am here, and admittedly there's probably a margin of error for both my start and end points, but a lot of people do at least seem to agree that the true early 90s began with the types of things I described - Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit becoming popular, the first Nicktoons going on the air, the Super Nintendo and Sonic the Hedgehog being released, etc.  Some people go a year further, in order to include Clinton's election and gangsta rap's mainstream breakthrough, but unlike the things you listed as defining the early 90s, none of the trends I listed are interchangeable with things that were prominent during the last few years of the 80s.

Were you alive from 1991 to 1992? It does not sound like you were.

I was born in 1992, so I don't know of the transition period between the 80s and 90s by experience, but I feel I have at least a general sense of what the transition was like, just by taking in what several other people have said.  Far more people, at least from what I've seen, point to the breakthrough of grunge and gangsta rap as part of the cultural revolution that ushered in the true 90s than the first Ninja Turtles movie or MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This.  Most of the things you listed from 1990 were very significant at the time, but they didn't exactly pave the way for the rest of the 90s decade the way grunge, Sega, gangsta rap, etc. did.

Well, '87 and '88 were full Reagan years, but the culture born in them was for the Bush 41 era.

Grunge was popular in Seattle as early as the mid-80s, and the Sega Genesis was first released in Japan in 1988.  N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton, the first truly significant gangsta rap album, was from 1988, even though the genre wouldn't reach the masses until 1993.  Most trends always take a few years to fully establish themselves in the mainstream, even if they were born during a very different era altogether.

The Cowboys winning the Super Bowl changed everything. After that event, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Deion Sanders were America's favorite football players for the rest of the mid '90s into the late '90s. Leprechaun sequels span well into that 1999-2002 period (like a lot of pop culture institutions born in the '90s).

Leprechaun wasn't even that popular a movie the way Scream and The Blair Witch Project were.  The only notable impact Leprechaun had on popular culture was that it introduced Jennifer Aniston to a broader audience, even though she would truly forge her identity through Friends a year later.  If anything, I originally confused Leprechaun for an 80s horror flick, since it has that same blend of irony and horror that defined movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Gremlins, and Child's Play.

Bush 41 was not president for most of the actual late '80s (1987, 1988 and the very start of '89).

He was still Reagan's vice president since 1981, not to mention he garnered significant media attention during his 1988 campaign.  His administration represented perfectly the winding down of policies introduced by Reagan, versus the notably different direction Clinton took (which figures, considering Bush was the same party as Reagan and not Clinton).

Saved By The Bell was never popular in 1989. The show had a history of getting cancelled from each season to next.

If it kept getting cancelled, then why do so many people bring it up when discussing the transitional period from the 80s to the 90s?

Only "Pour Some Sugar on Me" from Def Leopard is associated with the late '80s.  Their last album never caught on like that one.

Seriously?  Pour Some Sugar on Me was not the only significant single Def Leppard released in the late 80s.  Love Bites made it to #1, and Hysteria produced four other top 20 singles during 1988 and 1989.

But regarding your second point, while Adrenalize certainly wasn't as successful as Pyromania or Hysteria, it still produced two top 20 singles (Let's Get Rocked - #15 - and Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad - #12), a particularly impressive feet, considering it was harder for rock songs to do well on the Billboard Hot 100 by that point.

Guns 'N Roses was one of those bands that made a better first impression than a sophomore album. "November Rain" is still an early '90s song. I do not know of anyone who brings that single up when talking about 1988 or 1989.

Guns N' Roses' period of fame wasn't really any different from Poison, who you apparently associate more with the early 90s.  They first gained attention in 1987, peaked in 1988/1989, and had a bit of leftover popularity at the beginning of the 90s.  Both of the Use Your Illusion albums are stylistically pretty much the same as Appetite for Destruction.  Nothing like November Rain would become truly popular in the 90s after its peak on the charts.

The first Firehouse album is from 1990, not 1987, 1988 or 1989.

FireHouse is an anomaly in that their signature style was very representative of the late 80s, even though the band itself was popular only during the 90s, from 1991-1995.  Regardless of when they were popular, they certainly sound nothing like the majority of bands popular during the early-mid 90s, like Nirvana, R.E.M., and the Spin Doctors.

I do not know anyone who confuses "Right Now" from Van Halen for being a late '80s song.

It certainly isn't a typically 90s song, either.

MC Hammer and Sir Mix-A- Lot are best known for their hits in the early '90s. They are fun hip hop artists of the early '90s. Yes, their first albums were from the late '80s, but they never caught on in the late '80s like they did in the early '90s.

Tone Loc was popular in 1989, and LL Cool J first gained popularity in 1987, continuing into 1989.  They were part of that same movement of "fun hip hop."

Incoming mid '90s (1993, 1994 and 1995) musicians, TV and video game stars:

Pearl Jam

Their entrance into mainstream popularity was 1992, following the success of Nevermind.

Alice In Chains

Again, riding off the success of Nirvana, who became popular in late 1991.

Sonic The Hedgehog (There were two Sonic TV shows in 1993; Sonic belongs to the mid '90s)

The first Sonic the Hedgehog game was released in 1991, and the even more popular sequel 1992.  1994 and 1995 were about the time the character first started to take a beating, due to the failed releases of the Sega 32X and Saturn (neither of which produced hallmark Sonic titles), as well as a resurgence for the SNES with the massively successful Donkey Kong Country.

Ren & Stimpy, Doug and the Rugrats

Ren & Stimpy peaked in 1991-1992 and then declined badly after John Kricfaluci was fired from Nickelodeon in September 1992.  Doug went off the air in 1994.  Rugrats remained popular into the 2000s but made its first significant impact in 1991.

Mortal Kombat

The first Mortal Kombat was released in 1992, and if anything was a more violent response to Street Fighter II, a game that was popular in 1991.

Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg as solo artists

They were popular in 1993 and early 1994, but then had to contend with Bad Boy's legion of East Coast rappers beginning in 1994.

Everything for the Super Nintendo

Hardly.  The bulk of the system's most popular titles (Super Mario World, Zelda 3, Super Mario Kart, Street Fighter II, Star Fox) were released from 1991 to early 1993.  The Donkey Kong Country trilogy is part of its own era, thanks to the groundbreaking 3D-rendered graphics and the fact that Sega was floundering at the time of its release.

You look at the last month of 1991 to April of 1994, because you were either too young to see the period for what it was or not born yet.

I refer to this period as the early 90s because that was when the most significant things attached to the early phase of the 1990s decade as a whole were most popular.  After Kurt Cobain passed away, Green Day released Longview, Collective Soul came out with Shine, Biggie broke into mainstream fame, and Friends went on the air, the climate of popular culture became notably different from the preceding two years and a half.

Home Alone was definitely a movie of the early '90s. Macaulay Culkin got his start in the late '80s and  found fame in the early '90s. His success story is similar to the one for Julia Roberts.

Home Alone is one of the only things from 1990 that feels comfortably tied to the rest of the decade.  Julia Roberts was popular for the entire decade (she was one of the lead stars from 1999's Notting Hill).

Not meaning to sound anal retentive, but I would include 1993 as being the heart of the 90s.
I can see 1990 as not having much of a 90s vibe since neon and perms were still around, but I would say as early as 1992 was when there was definition to the decade with Wayne's World, pacifier necklaces, "wiggers"(think JRoc from TPB), "NOT"...So by 1993, it seemed full-fledged with Bill Clinton as president, the end of 80s-based shows (Cheers, Wonder Years...), and of course grunge.

1993
MUSIC
-"Loser"  Beck
-"All Apologies" Nirvana
-"Runaway Train"  Soul Asylum
-"No Rain"  Blind Melon
-"Mr. Jones"  Counting Crows
-"Cryin'" Aerosmith
-"Creep" Radiohead
-"Plush"  Stone Temple Pilots
-"Mary Jane's Last Dance"  Tom Petty
FASHION
-flannel
-baggy pants  :P
-baggy clothing in general  :P
-thermal tops
-body suits
-bedhead hair
TV SHOWS
-The Nanny
-Boy Meets World
-Frasier
MOVIES
-Jurassic Park
-Coneheads
-What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Why was it close to getting cancelled?


I apologize. I thought heard that somewhere, but it never happened.

You just said nobody knew about The Simpsons in the late 80s?

The article was published after Tracey Ullman announced a four-count breach-of-contract lawsuit alleging that 20th Century Fox Film Corp. cut her out of millions in merchandising royalties and other profits from "The Simpsons."

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular since their 1987 premiere and declined a bit in popularity after the premiere of the first Nicktoons in 1991.  Public Enemy's first really popular album was It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, from 1988.  They lost significance after Fear of a Black Planet.  A Different World was a spin-off of a quintessentially 80s show, but unlike Frasier, premiered much earlier and did not span nearly an entire decade.  MC Hammer's breakthrough was 1990, but he wasn't a completely groundbreaking artist, as old school hip hop had already achieve massive success in the previous couple of years thanks to Tone Loc, LL Cool J, Salt-N-Pepa and the like.  His last top 10 hit was Addams Groove, which was attached to the Addams Family movie from November 1991.  Poison is hardly an early 90s phenomenon, as they were already extremely popular in 1987 with their single Talk Dirty to Me, and peaked in 1988/1989 with Every Rose Has Its Thorn.  They fell out of mainstream popularity after 1990.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles WERE NOT popular since their debut in December of 1987. Turtlemania swept the nation in 1990, not 1987. As for Public Enemy, their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, was released in 1987. Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black peaked at number 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 1991.

Bret Michaels posters were still on the walls of young females in 1992. 

Yeah, that's about right, actually.  The turn of 1989 was when artists like New Kids on the Block, Paula Abdul, and Bobby Brown became popular, and it was also about the time old school hip hop and new jack swing overtook hi-nrg on the pop charts.  It was also when Bush the Elder became President of the United States and the Cold War finally ended, culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the wave of revolutions in the former Eastern Bloc states as they transitioned into capitalism.

Imo, the early 90s lasted roughly from December 1991 to April 1994, the mid-90s May 1994 to January 1997, and the late 90s February 1997 to September 11, 2001, although this is a different discussion altogether.

I'm sorry, but you were born in 1992 (my last favorite year for pop culture). You are not speaking from experience, like you said.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles WERE NOT popular since their debut in December of 1987. Turtlemania swept the nation in 1990, not 1987. As for Public Enemy, their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, was released in 1987. Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black peaked at number 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 1991.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular enough early on to spawn a popular arcade game (as well as a notoriously difficult, yet still significant NES sidescroller) in early 1989.  The movie would not have been produced with the help of Jim Henson's studios merely two years and a half after the series premiere had the show not already attained some level of popularity.  1990 was the true peak of Turtlemania, but the Ninja Turtles were still popular in the late 80s as well, and fell out of favor after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III was released in early 1993.

Bret Michaels posters were still on the walls of young females in 1992.

But several other young females were now putting posters of Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder on their walls at the same time.  Again, hair metal was still popular in 1992, hence why I consider that year more transitional than fully 90s, but the 90s stuff was definitely significant.

I'm sorry, but you were born in 1992 (my last favorite year for pop culture). You are not speaking from experience, like you said.

Is your personal love of the early 90s influencing your definition of when the period took place?  Because it feels like you keep bringing up how much you loved 1990, and now 1992, in the middle of your arguments.  It seems as though you're partially focusing on when things from that general time period were at their best or most significant, which I guess falls during the period of 1990 to 1992, yet you're excluding 1989 and the end of 1988 from that equation, even though that time had a whole ton of culture that was present in 1990-1992 as well, even if some of it wasn't yet in its peak, and most of the new stuff that you referred to in 1990 was just a continuation or expansion of trends from the late 80s, whereas things like grunge, fourth generation video games, and Bill Clinton set popular culture down a different road entirely.

While I don't have the advantage of having remembered the early 90s from experience, like I'm assuming you do, I can still easily research what popular culture was like throughout history, and can trace general decade patterns through that.  I won't tout my definition as absolutely perfect, since I obviously place more weight on certain factors more than others, but I don't think it's absolutely essential for you to have been alive during a certain period to have a basic understanding of what it was like, so long as you expose yourself to enough of its culture.

I'd add the flannel look.

You know, I saw a vid of my kindergarten from 95/96 and it's terrible to see all bowl cuts and
yellow jackets accompagnied with eurodance.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular enough early on to spawn a popular arcade game (as well as a notoriously difficult, yet still significant NES sidescroller) in early 1989.  The movie would not have been produced with the help of Jim Henson's studios merely two years and a half after the series premiere had the show not already attained some level of popularity.  1990 was the true peak of Turtlemania, but the Ninja Turtles were still popular in the late 80s as well, and fell out of favor after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III was released in early 1993.


1990 was the ONLY year of Turtlemania. Again, you are not speaking from experience.


But several other young females were now putting posters of Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder on their walls at the same time.  Again, hair metal was still popular in 1992, hence why I consider that year more transitional than fully 90s, but the 90s stuff was definitely significant.

How do you know that Kurt and Eddie Vedder posters were on the wall at the same time. I have pictorial evidence of a Bret Michaels pin-up in the bedroom of someone during 1992. You are just assuming that grunge was that popular in 1992. People did not start wearing Pearl Jam shirts until 1994.

Is your personal love of the early 90s influencing your definition of when the period took place?  Because it feels like you keep bringing up how much you loved 1990, and now 1992, in the middle of your arguments.  It seems as though you're partially focusing on when things from that general time period were at their best or most significant, which I guess falls during the period of 1990 to 1992, yet you're excluding 1989 and the end of 1988 from that equation, even though that time had a whole ton of culture that was present in 1990-1992 as well, even if some of it wasn't yet in its peak, and most of the new stuff that you referred to in 1990 was just a continuation or expansion of trends from the late 80s, whereas things like grunge, fourth generation video games, and Bill Clinton set popular culture down a different road entirely.

While I don't have the advantage of having remembered the early 90s from experience, like I'm assuming you do, I can still easily research what popular culture was like throughout history, and can trace general decade patterns through that.  I won't tout my definition as absolutely perfect, since I obviously place more weight on certain factors more than others, but I don't think it's absolutely essential for you to have been alive during a certain period to have a basic understanding of what it was like, so long as you expose yourself to enough of its culture.


1988 and 1989 were the last years of the late '80s. You aren't seeing the period correctly because you were not there. The new stuff introduced in the late '80s all became popular or jumped the shark in the early '90s.

I am truly sorry to say this to you, but your general decade patterns are all off.

1990 was the ONLY year of Turtlemania. Again, you are not speaking from experience.

1990 was the year of Turtlemania, but the Turtles were still popular before and after, as well.  It's not like they were like the Macarena, in that they burst into dizzying popularity from absolutely out of nowhere and then immediately became outdated once the following year started.  The Ninja Turtles had already established a significant fan base and produced several popular spin-off products before the movie was released.

Just because you were there when it happened doesn't mean your perspective is golden.  Different people living in a certain time period are going to experience the trends of the day in their own way, depending on what they focus on.  While it's agreeable that the Turtles peaked in 1990, it seems as though you were unaware of the massive popularity they were already starting to develop in the late 80s.

How do you know that Kurt and Eddie Vedder posters were on the wall at the same time. I have pictorial evidence of a Bret Michaels pin-up in the bedroom of someone during 1992. You are just assuming that grunge was that popular in 1992. People did not start wearing Pearl Jam shirts until 1994.

I don't know, Smells Like Teen Spirit didn't reach #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 for nothing, neither did Nevermind top the Billboard 200.  Just because a lot of people still had posters of Bret Michaels in 1992 doesn't mean he was still top dog.  It took a full year for grunge to fully overtake hair metal in mainstream success, but Nirvana and Pearl Jam were pretty serious deals at the time, nonetheless.  I find it surprising you don't remember from experience how popular Nirvana was at the end of 1991 and throughout 1992, when everyone else who was there seems to almost exaggerate it.

I also find your logic contradicting, considering on one hand you were trying to argue that Def Leppard's Adrenalize wasn't a significant part of 1992 when in fact it produced four top 40 hits and received a triple platinum certification, yet on the other hand you're trying to make a point about a band like Poison still being more popular in 1992 than Nirvana and Pearl Jam.  Bottom line, hair metal was still quite popular in 1992, but it was well beyond its peak and about to disappear completely.

1988 and 1989 were the last years of the late '80s. You aren't seeing the period correctly because you were not there. The new stuff introduced in the late '80s all became popular or jumped the shark in the early '90s.

Like Saved By the Bell, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and old school hip hop?  It doesn't seem to me like the type of culture popular in 1988 and 1989 was radically different from what was big in 1990-1991, even if the latter two years had a lot of different incarnations of things from the former two.

Repeatedly telling me that my perspective doesn't matter at all simply because I wasn't alive at the time doesn't really drive any of your points home when you don't fully elaborate on how the numerous popular sources I've based my perspective on the matter are all completely wrong.  It still feels as though your decade phrasing is biased by your personal love of 1990-1992, when really there are a lot more things that connect that period to 1987-1989 and separate it from 1993-1999 than you're willing to take credit for.

You just said nobody knew about The Simpsons in the late 80s?

I knew about The Simpsons when they first debuted in 1989.

Repeatedly telling me that my perspective doesn't matter at all simply because I wasn't alive at the time doesn't really drive any of your points home when you don't fully elaborate on how the numerous popular sources I've based my perspective on the matter are all completely wrong.  It still feels as though your decade phrasing is biased by your personal love of 1990-1992, when really there are a lot more things that connect that period to 1987-1989 and separate it from 1993-1999 than you're willing to take credit for.



I'm sorry, I do not have the time like you do to refute your arguments.

I didn't include 1993 because that year is conspicuously different from 1994-1996. Here are magazine catalogs that show what was in style for each year!

1993: http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/most-embarrassing-pages-of-the-1993-jc-penney-fall-ca#.cfdMDpPr8

1994: http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/katherine-heigls-teenage-modeling-career-was-surprisingly-aw#.sqy63GVBx

1996: http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/things-you-desperately-needed-from-the-delias-summer-96-c#.ujDdqkln8

I think you get the idea. The fashion changed dramatically in one year! 1993 clearly has more in common with the late '80s, while 1994 was the beginning of the mid '90s. The late '90s fashion trends (even as far as 2001) were just more evolved versions of what became cool in 1994!

1993: http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/most-embarrassing-pages-of-the-1993-jc-penney-fall-ca#.cfdMDpPr8
I think you get the idea. The fashion changed dramatically in one year! 1993 clearly has more in common with the late '80s, while 1994 was the beginning of the mid '90s. The late '90s fashion trends (even as far as 2001) were just more evolved versions of what became cool in 1994!


I don't really consider 1993 a true mid-90s year, either, but I definitely don't see it as anything like the late 80s, either.  The closest it really gets is some of the fashions, such as erasure cuts for African American guys and curly hair for women, but even then, the other types of fashions from the Buzzfeed link (i.e., the straghtened women's hair, the curtain hair on the guys, the clothing in photo #5) seem pretty comfortably 90s, imo.

Other than that, 1993 hardly has any traces of 80s culture at all.  Music-wise, hair metal was officially dead by spring of that year, and both Bon Jovi and Aerosmith abandoned their late 80s style to keep up with current trends.  Songs from The Chronic and The Predator were dominating the hip hop world, killing off the success of MC Hammer and Sir Mix-A-Lot, and production had fully evolved out of its gated drum era with albums like janet. and Music Box.  The only popular songs in 1993 with a truly late 80s feel were Def Leppard's Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion) and Go West's Faithful, both of which were from the beginning of the year and far from the year's biggest singles, anyway.  In the gaming world, the original NES was no longer popular at all, with third-party games being produced almost exclusively for the Genesis and Super Nintendo by that point.  In political matters, Clinton was President of the United States and the former Soviet subjects were well into their respective transitions into capitalism.  In television, Saved by the Bell and Cheers both ended in the spring, The X-Files and Frasier both premiered in fall, and Nickelodeon and Animaniacs were the hotbeds of children's animation instead of the typical product spinoff shows of the 80s.  In cinema, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III ended TMNT's widespread popularity, while large-scale blockbuster movies became all about groundbreaking special effects with Jurassic Park, as macho action flicks such as Last Action Hero and Demolition Man were ignored upon their theatrical release and only became popular several years later as cult films.