The 90s

[Claire903]

Anyone else feel like the 90s were just peak life? Honestly, what a laugh that decade was. You could crack a joke and no one was instantly offended, people weren’t on edge or “at work” 24/7-even though I’m posting this from my phone, which is a bit ironic, considering how we actually spoke to each other back then!

Remember when the Spice Girls ruled everything? Union Jack dresses, platform trainers, “girl power” on every magazine cover, and all of us desperately trying to decide if we were more Sporty or Baby Spice. I still remember choreographing dance routines in my mate’s living room, belting out “Wannabe” and thinking we were destined for Wembley. And the fashion! Butterfly clips, chokers, slip dresses, and those chunky shoes that could do some serious damage if you tripped over them on a night out

The weather honestly seemed better-proper summers, ice pops from the corner shop, and not a mobile phone in sight unless you count the odd Nokia 3210 (which was basically indestructible and only used for Snake anyway). No one was glued to screens; we were out knocking for each other, hanging out in the park or at the precinct, and if you missed an episode of “Byker Grove” or “Live & Kicking,” you were genuinely out of the loop until Monday at school.

TV was golden: “The Crystal Maze,” “TFI Friday,” “The Big Breakfast” with Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin, and of course, the absolute chaos of “Noel’s House Party.” And who else had a Tamagotchi that died a tragic death because you forgot to feed it for a day? Or a window full of Beanie Babies you were convinced would pay your mortgage one day (still waiting on that one)

Music was unreal-Oasis, Blur, All Saints, 5ive, and the whole “Cool Britannia” vibe. Even the football was iconic: Euro ’96, Three Lions on the radio, and everyone thinking Gazza’s dentist chair celebration was the height of comedy.

Maybe I’m just getting old, but it really felt like life was simpler, funnier, and just a bit more carefree. Anyone else wish we could go back, even just for one more night out in a dodgy club, dancing to “Spice Up Your Life” in our best crop tops and cargo pants?

Would love to hear what you all miss most!

I wonder how the teens of today will reminisce about this decade? Everyone has a decade they look at through rose-tinted specs.

Oh I do religiously 😂

And collecting the lyric cards of the back of smash hits magazine

Does anyone remember trying to record the top 10 charts on a tape? It took real skill to stop it at the right time to not get talking on the recording 😆

I wonder how the teens of today will reminisce about this decade? Everyone has a decade they look at through rose-tinted specs.

they are all cos-playing as 90s teens!

What about these? I had loads of them, and wore them all at once!

Can't say I miss interest rates at nearly 15%

Aren't the ones today not too dissimilar because the house price is higher?

Yes and lucky trolls and necklaces on black string and shag bands😂

Take your dummies and raise you trolls 🤣

Oh yes 🤣 I forgot about the black shag bands haha. And the trolls!

This thread is a great trip down memory lane

Surprised at comments that LGB groups didn’t exist - we had a weekly LGB night at university in the late 90s which wasn’t groundbreaking. The 90s was a decade of freedom - to be who you want to be 😎

If you were a kid/teen/student in the 90s, then it's probably the last time in your life that (for the majority) you didn't have any serious worries or responsibilities. That always helps with the rose-tinting. Plus it's the first time in your life that you're figuring out for yourself who you're going to be as a person.

It was a particularly good decade for culture to be fair. But I 'm sure there are 19 year olds out there right now without a care in the world, listening to music I couldn't bare the sound of, spending their money on awful clothes and their time on Tik-Tok l, who will look back in 20 years and think that nobody had it better 😅

I miss the weekends - meeting up at the shopping centre, looking though the Athena posters and trying on body shop White Musk and Dewberry testers then TopShop to get a £5 dress in the sale before getting a free burger at Burger King off your mate that worked there
Off Licence for a half bottle of Grants vodka then back to your mates house to listen to the radio while getting ready in your new outfit, drinking electric white, Taboo and MD20/20. Then off to the bar that doesn’t ever ask for ID and charges 80p a vodka, then the club that let you in as long as you were over 14 in a short dress .

Looking back though - so many creepy older guys that thought a drink bought you. Although I don’t think that has changed tbf

This is absolutely AI generated!!

You sound like that "brilliant" bloke from The Fast Show OP.

I loved the 90s, but boys were utter bastards back then. Hopefully they have got better since then!!

Like many I was young during the 90s so of course I have rose tinted nostalgia.

However someone mentioned "freedom" above and that's one of the things I remember about the 90s. There was a sense that things were changing for the better, society was becoming more open and that this would continue with more freedom for all.
We had the fall of communism which took a lot of the threat of nuclear war away, peace in Northern Ireland. I remember lots of discussions and campaigns around racism and gay rights. Awareness of gender equality started being a big thing. The economy started to improve.
I was in Ireland and we had huge watershed events with the divorce referendum, contraception, abortion being discussed. These weren't all sorted during the 90s but there was a sense that barriers were coming down, things were being discussed, change was coming.

I think in my day personal relationships between younger men and women were better. There were no dating apps, dating culture and crap "commitment" conversations. Sex was also free of the current pornographic influences. I say this acknowledging that consent wasn't in the discourse the way it is now but comparing what the current generation goes through, I don't envy them. There was also a lot more fluidity to step outside the mainstream gender roles a little and be a bit more masculine or feminine (or even be in different sub-groups (ravers, goths, grunge etc)). Now we seem to be more Identikit.

(However it was very common for teenage girls to have older boyfriends and I'm glad this seems to be gone).

Anyway, to me there was an overall sense that the world would continue to develop for the better. That the future was bright.
We seem to be going violently backwards however.

I was in my 30s in the 90s, and married. I still think those days were so much better than now.

While I'm sure there are lots of young people who will look back at fondly at this decade in the future, there are a huge amount with mental health issues who won't. Those issues just weren't around when I was at school, or if they were they weren't nearly as bad and didn't affect their day to day life.

Mental health issues aren’t a modern phenomenon by any means.

Self harm was a biggie (admittedly that was probably more 00s) but eating disorders were massive in the 90s, pardon the pun.

Teen pregnancy was a big problem as well, as were anti social teens in need of ASBOs. I remember Tony Blair’s speech circa 1996 just before he was elected as PM where he said that in our country there was ‘more violence, families breaking down.’

James Bulger was killed in 1993 and that sparked a huge wave of insistence that the youth of today (today being the 90s) were inherently evil due to video nasties. The 90s also saw the killing of Stephen Lawrence in a racially motivated attack no one would have given a shit about had he not had an extremely courageous and determined mother (and the daily mail helped with that enormously, a fact I haven’t forgotten but MN has.)

Philip Lawrence (head teacher of St George’s) was stabbed to death in 1995 too. Knife crime in London was a problem then and it is now.

There was a recession in the early 90s and that was a tough time for a lot of people. It really wasn’t the endless carefree summer some remember it to be. The troubles in NI overshadowed much of the decade.

Bullying in schools was - Jesus, if you didn’t attend a school like mine, maybe you don’t know! But fights were always kicking off, teachers crying on the stairs, really nasty stuff. And safeguarding did not exist. Victoria climbie’s death happened in 1999 and that started to put safeguarding as we have it now into some sort of embryonic process but still, long way to go.

Honestly , this isn’t saying the 90s was all bad. I just have to admit I find it really odd when people point to a specific decade (as opposed to a time in their life) and cry about it and think that things will never again be this good. And if you hate phones that much, don’t have one, or literally only use it for banking or whatever. Would you actually like to go and buy a regular camera, print a paper statement at the bank, write a cheque, not have access to modern technology? Madness!

The troubles in NI overshadowed much of the decade.

I disagree with this, if you lived in NI then yes but the rest of the UK then no. As a Londoner I didn't think about it much & felt far more anxious post 9/11 & 7/7. 7/7 really shook me.

Sorry to disagree with some of this nostalgia but Chris Evans was / is a nasty sexist wanker and he was absolutely central to 90s culture.
I remember his enormously entitled attitude when he decided he was such a huge star that he could dictate whether or not he turned up for the radio 1 breakfast show, which he ran surrounded by his sycophant posse.
He actually weighed posh spice live on TFI and openly ogled and made sexual comments to any female guest.
He stalked then 18 year old Billie Piper when he was 32.
I absolutely loathed him and the influence he had on pushing “ladette” culture. Girls were encouraged to be second level boys by liking drinking, football, soft porn and loutish behaviour.
So called “girl power” was often more about encouraging young women’s sexual promiscuity by marketing it as female empowerment when in reality it was still all about being what men want albeit dressed up in faux enlightenment and self determination.
I am all for women being who they want to be but this was not what this was about at all.

Well yes, you lived in London. Bit different if you lived in Belfast or even Manchester or Warrington.

I have a theory about the 90’s and why it was so brilliant. We were on the cusp of emerging technology, so there was excitement about that, but it was no where enough to take over our lives and we were happy to pick it up and put it down as we wanted.
Everything was fun and exciting- music, films, TV.
I’ve spoken about this with various age people (up to the age of 80) and they all agree that late 80s and 90s were peak times to live.
Im happy I got to experience it.

I look back on the 90s with great fondness; when in reality I was getting bullied at school and trying to come to terms with my dad’s sudden death. Nostalgia is a slippery thing that can’t be trusted.

It was brilliant but it’s because we were young and free from responsibilities or serious problems 😃I’d hate to be young now with social media.