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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think the 90s weren't all that?

30 replies

HappyPlacemat · 27/09/2021 00:40

Don't get me wrong, I had the best time back then but all of this retrospective bollocks seems a bit much. They even had a feature about music from 1991 on World At One R4 today. It all seems to be because the programmers and controllers are around 50 and just want to go "oh yeah I was at this cool gig when I was 20". I remember them doing the same thing with the 60s when I was young in the 80s and although I kind of enjoyed it it meant as little to me then as 90s means to people now ie nice and nostalgic but get over it granddad.

Also am watching TOTP from August 1991 and Bryan Adams was at number one for fucking forever so it was hardly all cutting edge. Plus there is a fair bit of footage of midge ure in weird boots and that mark guy from UB40 slapping away at his bass like dance hadn't happened yet. Ie there was a lot of shit around.

OP posts:
DismantledKing · 27/09/2021 00:41

Mark King was in Level 42, not UB40.

Original poster
HappyPlacemat · 27/09/2021 00:42

Aye right thanks. 🤣 Involved 40 though 😂

OP posts:
Limejuiceandrum · 27/09/2021 00:45

Aaaah
Nostalgia

Gets you every time

Original poster
HappyPlacemat · 27/09/2021 00:49

Yeah see it does to a point but like I say the charts from that time weren't all that. And even with the music I liked, I don't listen to that much of it now. Some yeah but you would with any year. I dunno it just feels like all us old guys are fossilising our music. We don't need to. I mean we don't need to make out it was more than it was.

OP posts:
Judashascomeintosomemoney · 27/09/2021 00:50

Yeah, you’re on the wrong channel. Switch to Sky Arts and watch the Isle of Wight Festival 2021, Liam was on earlier, and then come back and say that the 90s weren’t all that! GrinWink

Original poster
HappyPlacemat · 27/09/2021 00:51

Oh aye Liam has totally found himself again hasn't he? Am v happy about that!

OP posts:
Original poster
HappyPlacemat · 27/09/2021 00:53

I do love the 90s btw. I just think it's self indulgent the way every cunt goes on about them now.

OP posts:
Harford · 27/09/2021 00:57

Yanbu op and times generally don't change,every generation will have its ups and downs,its good movies/TV shows/songs/bands etc .

It's just that we have a habit of looking back and thinking life was better back in the day when really it wasn't. It is more that the 90s offer nostalgia for today's generations of 30s to 50s generation but loads of the TV shows,music and movies from the era were crap.

In 30 years time people will be talking about today saying life was perfect in so many ways etc when we know it bloody well isn't. You'll also have people romanticising the lockdowns when for many they were pure hell in the same way you have the people moved to the country in world war 2 romanticised as if it was all a big holiday.

Harford · 27/09/2021 01:06

It is more that the 90s offer nostalgia for today's generations of 30s to 50s generation but loads of the TV shows, music, and movies from the era were crap

Can I also add to my post that the 90s is revered by the middle-aged of today and those approaching it as life was simpler back then for many of us because we were younger. Many of us were still naive and generally oblivious to how shit life can be when the hard realities kick in with life experience and maturity.
I myself was 14 when the 90s ended so yes I was happier because it represented an innocent time with much less responsibility and pressure of work, money, relationships, worrying about the future etc.... So yea it's more the nostalgia of the era.

Limejuiceandrum · 27/09/2021 01:08

Drugs were actually better in the 90s though
Fact

Harford · 27/09/2021 01:10

Drugs were actually better in the 90s though
Fact

I'd disagree with that on the basis there is more added to them these days to get you high. Course that is worse for your health but the buzz would be stronger.

Susannahmoody · 27/09/2021 01:13

Liam Gallagher?

Goldenbear · 27/09/2021 01:14

I think it was a bit better but I was child to teenager in the 90s, I think life was more interesting without the stress of social media..I had a phone in the 6th form but didn't want to use into text etc. Due to price of texting. The end of the 90s started to have internet cafes or was that early 00s and I think that was quite enjoyable, more sociable. My DS is 14 and has joined me in watching a few Dawson's Creek episodes on Netflix and Party of five, he asked if people spoke like that to each other in the late 90s and then -emotional teenage intense stuff. I did say that I don't remember anyone speaking liking that in South west London, in fact it was laughable but still there is something quite comforting about it all. I think things were a bit more real then. I used to write a diary and I think that is a pretty alien concept now due to not using pen and paper anymore.

JulesRimetStillGleaming · 27/09/2021 01:18

Mid to late 90s was better music wise. I turned 18 in 1995 when Brit Pop was at its height and it was great. Still my favourite music decade.

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HappyPlacemat · 27/09/2021 01:19

Ok so the drugs were good but I am continuing to watch totp and I've just seen Arnie and the Terminators with I'll be back and fuck me I require stronger drugs than I had then. Plus horror of horrors we're now on simple minds with Jim Kerr and his shit arm wavey dancing. Honestly the only band who's been slightly interesting so far are EMF but only because they've got that weird cramming dirt in your mouth south west primitive vibe (remember that? when crusties were a bit scary?)

OP posts:
Original poster
HappyPlacemat · 27/09/2021 01:22

@Goldenbear afaik the big draw of Dawson's creek is that the characters were hyper lingual and articulated their processes in a way that rl people didn't. I loved it for that.

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Goldenbear · 27/09/2021 01:45

Yes, that was the funny part to us, it was so intense and the idea of dissecting your every thought and feeling in that way was very alien. They looked pretty old for 6th formers as well. I liked the late 90s indie stuff and the start of 00s indie bands so for me that is the type of music I still like.

Harford · 27/09/2021 01:48

afaik the big draw of Dawson's creek is that the characters were hyper lingual and articulated their processes in a way that rl people didn't

it was aimed at teenage girls, and somewhat boys, who love all that kind of drama. I recall 1 night on the So Graham Norton show he had the cast on and was playing Dawsons Speak, basically mocking, in good spirits, how they spoke in like Shakespeare characters.

The actors were attractive in it too and the soundtracks and photography/cinematography was good so it helped. I recall that it was massive around the 99/00 era.

Harford · 27/09/2021 01:50

Yes, that was the funny part to us, it was so intense and the idea of dissecting your every thought and feeling in that way was very alien. They looked pretty old for 6th formers as well

in fairness, it was just 90s home and away on steroids when you think about it.

NiceGerbil · 27/09/2021 01:59

The mid 90s onwards were shit IMO.

The squashing of all the good stuff under the steamroller of 'lad culture'.

It was when the alternative clubs, the various strands of rave/ dance scene got totally invaded by wankers with silly hats.

And the fashion went grey and bland.

And lads mags.

And any woman who liked pints and trousers was a ladette IE a wannabe bloke.

And it stayed like that for fucking years.

Awful.

Harford · 27/09/2021 02:03

And lads mags

I recall far more girls mags with half-naked men etc and pin-up boys than lads mags from the 90s.

NiceGerbil · 27/09/2021 02:16

I remember the sun all over the place, in pubs you bought peanuts and it slowly revealed a naked or scantily clad woman. Nudie calendars up in some places selling stuff.

Then. Became a bit not the done thing.

Brief but not total respite.

BOOM lads mags all over the place.

I didn't like it.

LobsterNapkin · 27/09/2021 02:32

I don't think the 90s were great. Music started to go downhill fast, lacking in complexity, increasingly commercial, and navel-gazing lyrics. And the fashion was bland overall, there were a few nice things - I'll always enjoy a flannel shirt and a pair of Docs - but nothing very exciting or original.

There was a little golden age for television, the P&P with Colin Firth, or The Sopranos being good examples, when there were some really excellent original shows and great adaptations of books - they started to have real arcs, intelligent writing, great actors, they assumed the audience would be intelligent enough to follow along with it and that they didn't have to tell us what we were supposed to think about the story the author wanted to tell. That is long gone now, though.

LobsterNapkin · 27/09/2021 02:34

@Harford

And lads mags

I recall far more girls mags with half-naked men etc and pin-up boys than lads mags from the 90s.

Gosh, did you have Teen Beat in the UK? I knew a lot of girls who wallpapered their rooms with pages from it!
malificent7 · 27/09/2021 04:27

90s were fab...80s were better!

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