I've been thinking about this for a while. I've seen many people, both on the internet (including this website) and in real life, group the 80s and 90s together. And I'll admit, for a while I probably did the same thing. But as I analyzed both decades, I've come to realize that people are only really referring to the late 80s and VERY early 90s (like 1990-much of 1991). But I don't think the statement holds much water. For starters:

1. Synth and Dance pop was huge in the 80s. There were a few holdovers from the genres in 1990. But many of them were already declining by about late 1991.

2. House music was much bigger even in the early 90s alone than it was in the 80s.

3. Yes, Hair Metal was relatively popular for the first year and a half, or so, of the 90s. But it wasn't nearly as popular as it was around 1986/1987ish.

4. Animation was really booming. In the 70s and early-mid 80s, a lot of animation was cheaply made (compared to the golden age from the 1930s-early 1960s) and was mostly made to sell toys (ie, He-Man, Transformers, G.I. Joe, etc.). This was already changing in the late 80s with cartoons like Ducktales, TMNT (I guess one could argue that this was made to sell toys too, but it still was high quality than the early 80s cartoons), and The Real Ghostbusters, to name a few. Then, of course, in the 90s, you had a huge explosion of high quality animation. Tiny Toons, Ren and Stimpy, Batman The Animated Series, Rocko's Modern Life, etc. Not to mention, in the film industry, you had the Disney Renaissance.

5. Fashion. Now this is where things might get a bit dicey. And I'll admit I'm not as well versed in this category as I'd like to think. But if we look at the majority of the 90s, say from about mid 1992 onward, we can see that it's totally different from the 80s. Barring the fact that grunge was popular, regular fashion was a lot more casual. Now I know a lot of people have argued that "big hair" stayed until 1994. But really, it's was just more voluminous hair. I mean, here are some pics just for comparison sake:

1987:

https://i.etsystatic.com/6191330/r/il/84c674/1220508629/il_794xN.1220508629_c2fi.jpg

1992:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/6d/17/986d17c92749ad9535614af5f35f99e5.jpg

Yes, the second one is more voluminous compared to hair styles in the mid-late 90s, but I wouldn't consider it "big hair". And it's very different from the first image. You can clearly see those two years are two different eras. There are some more examples, but I don't want to overfill this post.

I'm not really going to get into the political differences, as I am not too familiar with the politics of either era (at least not on a meaningful level). But I'm sure there are significant differences there, so if anyone cares to fill us in on that, feel free.

the early 90s obv had alot of similarities with the late 80s, but apart from that the decades were noticebly different from eachother

Who is grouping the 80s and 90s together as one thing? I haven't seen that. And if anybody is doing that they couldn't be more incorrect. Those two decades were as different as chicken and cheese.

Who is grouping the 80s and 90s together as one thing? I haven't seen that. And if anybody is doing that they couldn't be more incorrect. Those two decades were as different as chicken and cheese.


I think by 90s he means early 90s. I've seen a few people here say that 1990 is the most '80s year. ;D

I only group them together because I grew up during both decades.

I only group them together because I grew up during both decades.




you didnt grow up in the 80s since you were born in 1980, you have to be born in 1975-1977 to having grown up in the 80s
if you were born in 1980 your memories began on January 1th 1983, so how can you claim to having grown up in the 80s then since you cant even remember 1980-1982?
read what Nicole1977 has to say in this thread and read it really carefully http://www.inthe00s.com/archive/inthe90s/smf/1293764034.shtml,  she was born in 1977 so she was the ultimate 80s kid according to herself

I guess it's because they're last two decades of the previous century and therefore the most modern of the bunch and yet simultanously "retro nostalgic" since they're dated on their own right which in turn creates loads of cliches that are attributed to both.

Most people on the internet nowadays are unable to tell what sets 1983 from 1987 apart, or 1995 from 1992, so seeing those decades as big consistent blobs has become somewhat the norm, which easen the process of lumping them together as well.

That girl in the second pic looks like Phoebe Buffay from Friends ;D.

you didnt grow up in the 80s since you were born in 1980, you have to be born in 1975-1977 to having grown up in the 80s
if you were born in 1980 your memories began on January 1th 1983, so how can you claim to having grown up in the 80s then since you cant even remember 1980-1982?
read what Nicole1977 has to say in this thread and read it really carefully http://www.inthe00s.com/archive/inthe90s/smf/1293764034.shtml,  she was born in 1977 so she was the ultimate 80s kid according to herself


Well I can remember everything, so yes I grew up in the 80s. My memories did not start in 1983. I have memories of 1981 and 82 as well. And I have a good memory. Everyone is different. Not EVERYONE begins to have memories at age 3.

you didnt grow up in the 80s since you were born in 1980, you have to be born in 1975-1977 to having grown up in the 80s
if you were born in 1980 your memories began on January 1th 1983, so how can you claim to having grown up in the 80s then since you cant even remember 1980-1982?
read what Nicole1977 has to say in this thread and read it really carefully http://www.inthe00s.com/archive/inthe90s/smf/1293764034.shtml,  she was born in 1977 so she was the ultimate 80s kid according to herself


That's a bit off topic, dude.

I only group them together because I grew up during both decades.


I guess I can understand that. My older sister was born in 1987, so 1990-1999 was her childhood, and she tends to group it all together. My post wasn't really targeting anyone on this site. In fact, it's mostly outside of this site, where people see the 80s and 90s as one whole era. Particularly on Youtube, Buzzfeed, various news sites, etc.

That girl in the second pic looks like Phoebe Buffay from Friends ;D.


I believe that's Drew Barrymore in the second pic. But yeah, she does look a bit like Phoebe.

To people who fully experienced the 80s: do you think the 90s relate overall more with the 80s or the 2000s?

ABC now groups them together on Wednesday nights, with The '80s-themed The Goldbergs being followed by the '90s-based spinoff Schooled. But it depends on the situation, as it works better in certain subjects.

Socially, the '90s are more like the '00s, but technologically more like the '80s. VCRs, modern tube TVs with features like stereo sound, closed captioning, and wireless remotes, CRT computer monitors with command prompts and floppy disks, cassettes and CDs (though obviously the later gradually became more popular), beige furniture, wooded kitchen cabinets, white and black-colored appliances, and landline telephones with answering machines come to mind when I think "80s and 90s tech" grouped together. The modern "PC movement" got its start in the early '90s, along with the Third Way movement, compared to the more conservative eighties. There was a lot more diversity in pop culture in the '90s as well.

Most of the "grouping" IMO comes from the 1987-1995 period, when things like TMNT, New Jack Swing, golden age of hip hop, the Disney Renaissance (including DuckTales and Roger Rabbit), Full House, Bon Jovi, golden age Nickelodeon, high-volume hair, adult contemporary balladeers, and "Pizza Hut"-type culture prevails. The last few years of the '90s of course are a bellwether to the '00s millenial culture and Internet revolution. But at the end, we're coming up on 20 years since the end of the '90s and 40 since the start of the '80s, which means that this period now lasts just about as long as the time since then, and as time passes on, will continue to become more blended, with the next "fallacy" being the entire late 20th century period, including the late 1960s and 1970s with things like rock's overall popularity, the life of Baby Boomers, television before the Internet took over, postmodern art, and others that we may not make out at this time.

you didnt grow up in the 80s since you were born in 1980, you have to be born in 1975-1977 to having grown up in the 80s
if you were born in 1980 your memories began on January 1th 1983, so how can you claim to having grown up in the 80s then since you cant even remember 1980-1982?
read what Nicole1977 has to say in this thread and read it really carefully http://www.inthe00s.com/archive/inthe90s/smf/1293764034.shtml,  she was born in 1977 so she was the ultimate 80s kid according to herself

Go attention seek somewhere else please.

Go attention seek somewhere else please.



oh look we have another 1980 born "80s kid" ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

oh look we have another 1980 born "80s kid" ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D


It doesn't matter being born in 80 that's still an 80s kid. I was 7 in 1987....it was the 80s and I was a kid. What do you call that? THAT'S AN 80S KID! I wasn't 6 or 7 in 1992 or 2002. I'm an 80s kid like it or not.

It doesn't matter being born in 80 that's still an 80s kid. I was 7 in 1987....it was the 80s and I was a kid. What do you call that? THAT'S AN 80S KID! I wasn't 6 or 7 in 1992 or 2002. I'm an 80s kid like it or not.
Same with me!

It doesn't matter being born in 80 that's still an 80s kid. I was 7 in 1987....it was the 80s and I was a kid. What do you call that? THAT'S AN 80S KID! I wasn't 6 or 7 in 1992 or 2002. I'm an 80s kid like it or not.
I consider you an 80s kid. You were old enough to remember the regan era.

I consider you an 80s kid. You were old enough to remember the regan era.


Ok now I feel really old  ;D

I consider you an 80s kid. You were old enough to remember the Reagan era.

I remember that era too.

It doesn't matter being born in 80 that's still an 80s kid. I was 7 in 1987....it was the 80s and I was a kid. What do you call that? THAT'S AN 80S KID! I wasn't 6 or 7 in 1992 or 2002. I'm an 80s kid like it or not.


Ignore him. He makes everything about decade kid debates. You could have a thread about Ancient Egypt and his only contribution to the thread will be "You have to be born 2567 BC to remember life before the Pyramids, people born late 2566 BC were too late"  ::)

Ignore him. He makes everything about decade kid debates. You could have a thread about Ancient Egypt and his only contribution to the thread will be "You have to be born 2567 BC to remember life before the Pyramids, people born late 2566 BC were too late"  ::)


Hahaha  ;D

People group the 50s and the 60s together even though the 50s were more socially aligned with the 40s than the 60s.  I think the real reason people do this is first of all, the cultural eighties lingered into the 90s for a good while.  I would say the true 90s feel didn't arrive until 1993.  Secondly, for older people the difference between the two decades may be less than people who grew up then think.  I would say the four biggest differences between the 80s and the 90s are as follows.

1) Music: Dominant genres in the 90s, after about 1993, were very different from what was popular in the 80s.
2) Entertainment: The 80s were very safe and basic.  The 90s were a lot more experimental and were a time to push the envelope.  This is one reason the religious right loved the 80s but hated the 90s.
3) Tech: The Internet wasn't for everyone in 1990.  It was slow and difficult to use and there wasn't a lot of content available.  In 1999, everyone was either online or knew somebody who was.  In the 80s the cassette ruled while in the 90s it was all about the CD.
4) Geopolitics: The 80s was still the Cold War.  The 90s was more similar to the current era.

However, older people may have been able to completely or almost completely avoid the 80s-90s transition.  80s-style music was still widely available and played in the 90s on "lite rock" radio stations.  There was also plenty of family-friendly television available in the 90s even though prime time network TV was becoming edgier.  Also, there still were quite a few stragglers, managing to avoid the Internet until the '00s.  Cars still came with cassette players as late as the early 2000s. Also, some people just don't follow politics, period.  For these people, they might not perceive that many differences between the two decades.  There were lots of similarities between them as well.

I would say two decades that people in the future will probably link together are the 00s and the 10s.  The 10s are evolved from the 00s but I wouldn't say they are radically different.

People group the 50s and the 60s together even though the 50s were more socially aligned with the 40s than the 60s.  I think the real reason people do this is, first of all, the cultural eighties lingered into the 90s for a good while.  I would say the true 90s feel didn't arrive until 1993.  Secondly, for older people, the difference between the two decades may be less than people who grew up then think.  I would say the four biggest differences between the 80s and the 90s are as follows.

1) Music: Dominant genres in the 90s, after about 1993, were very different from what was popular in the 80s.
2) Entertainment: The 80s were very safe and basic.  The 90s were a lot more experimental and were a time to push the envelope.  This is one reason the religious right loved the 80s but hated the 90s.
3) Tech: The Internet wasn't for everyone in 1990.  It was slow and difficult to use and there wasn't a lot of content available.  In 1999, everyone was either online or knew somebody who was.  In the 80s the cassette ruled while in the 90s it was all about the CD.
4) Geopolitics: The 80s was still the Cold War.  The 90s was more similar to the current era.

However, older people may have been able to completely or almost completely avoid the 80s-90s transition.  80s-style music was still widely available and played in the 90s on "lite rock" radio stations.  There was also plenty of family-friendly television available in the 90s even though prime time network TV was becoming edgier.  Also, there still were quite a few stragglers, managing to avoid the Internet until the '00s.  Cars still came with cassette players as late as the early 2000s. Also, some people just don't follow politics, period.  For these people, they might not perceive that many differences between the two decades.  There were lots of similarities between them as well.

I would say two decades that people in the future will probably link together are the 00s and the 10s.  The 10s are evolved from the 00s but I wouldn't say they are radically different.
As a 09s kid I see the 10s and 00s as very different but a person who's older may not see it. Just like how Rainbow was able to distinctly tell the difference between the mid 10s and late 10s music.

As a 09s kid I see the 10s and 00s as very different but a person who's older may not see it. Just like how Rainbow was able to distinctly tell the difference between the mid 10s and late 10s music.


I relate to Rainbow because I was a teen in the early-mid 2010s. During my senior year in 2016-2017, things started to change when pop culture felt kinda dark.

the early 90s had many commonalities with the late 80s, personally i think of 91-93 as the going from the late 80s to the core 90s period
with every year becoming less 80s and more 90s like, considering change is gradual and doesnt happen overnight

I was born in 82.  I got the joy of  hearing Barbie Girl before I went deaf.  I cannot recall any music that stupid from the 80's at any time.  I don't think it's just my age, cartoons were not good in the 90's.

I was born in 82.  I got the joy of  hearing Barbie Girl before I went deaf.  I cannot recall any music that stupid from the 80's at any time.  I don't think it's just my age, cartoons were not good in the 90's.
Oh wow I though you were born in 87. I know you feel like a veteran on this site.

just new people around here.  I just wonder why in the past and now nobody has ever really asked me any questions.  I don't often get comments from my comments either.

The late '90s and early '80s are very different. The mid '90s and the mid '80s are moderately different. The early '90s and the late '80s aren't very different.

Not that complicated IMO.

ABC now groups them together on Wednesday nights, with The '80s-themed The Goldbergs being followed by the '90s-based spinoff Schooled. But it depends on the situation, as it works better in certain subjects.

Socially, the '90s are more like the '00s, but technologically more like the '80s. VCRs, modern tube TVs with features like stereo sound, closed captioning, and wireless remotes, CRT computer monitors with command prompts and floppy disks, cassettes and CDs (though obviously the later gradually became more popular), beige furniture, wooded kitchen cabinets, white and black-colored appliances, and landline telephones with answering machines come to mind when I think "80s and 90s tech" grouped together. The modern "PC movement" got its start in the early '90s, along with the Third Way movement, compared to the more conservative eighties. There was a lot more diversity in pop culture in the '90s as well.

Most of the "grouping" IMO comes from the 1987-1995 period, when things like TMNT, New Jack Swing, golden age of hip hop, the Disney Renaissance (including DuckTales and Roger Rabbit), Full House, Bon Jovi, golden age Nickelodeon, high-volume hair, adult contemporary balladeers, and "Pizza Hut"-type culture prevails. The last few years of the '90s of course are a bellwether to the '00s millenial culture and Internet revolution. But at the end, we're coming up on 20 years since the end of the '90s and 40 since the start of the '80s, which means that this period now lasts just about as long as the time since then, and as time passes on, will continue to become more blended, with the next "fallacy" being the entire late 20th century period, including the late 1960s and 1970s with things like rock's overall popularity, the life of Baby Boomers, television before the Internet took over, postmodern art, and others that we may not make out at this time.


Technologically speaking, it's kind of weird. The start of the 00s and end of the 00s were drastically different from each other. I'd say the early 00s were definitely more similar to the 90s. VHS tapes were still the primary format for films, CRT T.V.'s were wayyyy more commonplace than flat-screen T.V.s (you had to be loaded to own one back in the early 00s). People were also still using floppy disks, and to a lesser extent, cassette tapes (though by this point CDs were more common). To be honest, even in the mid-late 90s, CDs were already starting to supplant cassette tapes. The one area that was advancing pretty quickly in the early 00s were video games. In 2000, we were still primarily in the 5th generation of consoles. But by 2002ish, the 6th generation was in full force. That's probably the only exception.

To put it short, I agree that the 80s and earlier 90s are very similar, when it comes to technology. Not so much the mid-late 90s.

I definitely agree that the 90s were socially closer to the 00s than they were to the 80s. The Reagan and Clinton eras were as different as night and day.

To be honest, I've never thought to group 1987-1995 as one era. 1987/1988-1991, possibly also 1992, but definitely not 1993-1995. It just seems way too broad to me. It's true that TMNT was arguably at it's peak in the early 90s, especially with the first two live-action movies. And it's also true that the original series did air until 1996. However the third movie turned out to be a disaster both financially and critically, the episodes of the mid 90s (Red Sky era) were significantly less popular than the ones of the late 80s/early 90s. The mid 90s were all about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I'm honestly not to familiar for what constitutes the golden age of hip hop, to be honest, so I can't really say anything there. All I know is that around late 1992/1993ish, Gangsta Rap exploded into the mainstream.

I personally wouldn't include Ducktales and Who Framed Roger Rabbit as apart of the Disney Renaissance. I mean, I think they definitely helped the company become more successful after their Dark Age in the 70s and early-mid 80s. But I wouldn't say they signified the beginning of the Renaissance. Although, the term "Disney Renaissance" is pretty retroactive, and probably didn't exist until the 90s were well over. Though I would agree that the earlier part of the Renaissance (1989-1994) was far more successful than the latter part (1995-1999). I've honestly never heard the term "Pizza Hut Culture", so I'll take your word for it. I've also heard multiple definitions of the "Golden Age of Nickelodeon", so I guess I'll take your word on that too.

Full House may be the main reason why people group 1987-1995 together. But from my understanding, the earlier seasons, were not very popular. As for stuff like Bon Jovi, Adult-Contemporary music, and high-volume hair, they did still exist in the early-mid 90s. But they had all updated with the times. They really were not the same as they were in the 80s.

I agree that it's probably because the entire 90s are now 20+ years old now, that they get grouped with the 80s nowadays.

I call 1987 to 1992 the Everything is boxy, big, and bulky, era.  :)