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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To want the 90s back?

163 replies

JulianFawcettMP · 22/02/2023 22:38

I know I am of course. It can't happen and I'm so grateful for that time but I miss it. I want to go clubbing without looking like a dodgy old person and dance to the verve and the chemical brothers

OP posts:
Alanisadick · 23/02/2023 00:56

Honestly we had it so good. The music, the free parties, knowing our whole lives were ahead of us and anything was possible. Compared to today’s teens whose lives are dictated/ruined by social media, with the country on its arse in so many ways. There’s just not the same hope for them. Me and a friend moved in together in 1999 aged 18, in a 2 bed flat in a nice area for £300 a month (so £150 each). Obviously wages were lower but it was more than possible to move out and be independent on even a crappy wage.

EmmaEmerald · 23/02/2023 00:57

smileladiesplease · 23/02/2023 00:50

This may be age?

It's not what it was in my day. My 89 year old dad says this

'Twas ever thus :)

Someone always comes along and says this and I always say no

my life is much better from say 2010 onwards, but the era was better then. It was for me anyway. And 2019 was awesome, easily one of the best years of my life. The kind of happiness you know will be spoilt by a bolt from the blue...
I didn't think the bolt would be so long lasting though.

Anyhoo, I think people living it up in the 90s were very aware how great it was. I think what we couldn't foresee - or was I shortsighted? - was how quickly the pendulum would swing the other way.

EmmaEmerald · 23/02/2023 01:01

Oh, and nobody foresaw house prices, rents, employers insisting on degrees when they have no bearing in the role...it made such a difference to the vibe that it was okay to live on your wage.

I'd happily be 46 in the 90s and early 00s, but boy, I'd hate to be young now. To quote Matty Healy, "I'm sorry if you're living and you're seventeen".

Changingmynameyetagain · 23/02/2023 01:10

I was a teenager in the 90s, I lived in Manchester and had the most amazing time, I was too young for the whole madchester scene but britpop happened when I was 14/15 and me and my mates would be out at gigs every weekend.
I’ve seen everyone from the prodigy, greenday, Foo fighters, skunkanansie, korn and the counting crows to Oasis, blur and one memorable time Bon jovi.
I bloody loved it!

BananaCocktails · 23/02/2023 01:13

When I went to Ibiza, everybody who was raving it out all night long was at least 45 to 50+ maybe you could go there ha
jokes aside, you can be any age to go out, or throw a party

SunsetStrip · 23/02/2023 01:43

I'd live from 1980 to 2000 all over again. So 12 to 32, absobloodylutely fabulous!

LocatioLocationLocomotion · 23/02/2023 02:32

I miss it too

Less screens
More family time
Nicer vibe
Felt like more opportunities
Less politics and division
People were actually outside more
Less obesity

I could go on… I just miss the way things were and wish I could bring my kids up in the 90s. The way the world is now terrifies me

Foodroofandfamily · 23/02/2023 04:02

The 90'S were amazing for music. You had the new dance sub culture, rave and r&b. House parties raves and dancing to nothing in car parks. I saw many bands. The Wonderstuff, Mega city 4, Back to the planet, The Levellers, Carter the unstoppable sex machine to name a few. I am lucky that I still go and see some of them still now at age 45. I cant dance like I used to but When I listen I am that 14/5/6 year old drunk on cider and smoking Marlboro reds.
The kids today are growing up scared of everything, cant live without SM and Offended by everything. I pitty my childs future. He wont know the freedom and fun we had.

tackling · 23/02/2023 05:49

Movies were better too. Remembering the sheer excitement of Jurassic Park in the cinema, or even Titanic, shite story that it was, the spectacle was amazing.

And now everything's CGI all the time and sort of the same feel to it all and so dull.

And hair and clothes - I swear we didn't all dress exactly like clones back then. We looked dreadful but we were united in that Grin

JunkinDonuts · 23/02/2023 06:06

I want my 80s back 😭
It's very true that youth is wasted on the young.....rejoice in your youth young man / woman for it will never return.
The world was my oyster and I never realised it.

cptartapp · 23/02/2023 06:53

I tuned 18 in 1990 so had the very best of the decade.
People just seemed so happy. What happened?

Ndd135632 · 23/02/2023 06:57

cptartapp · 23/02/2023 06:53

I tuned 18 in 1990 so had the very best of the decade.
People just seemed so happy. What happened?

The internet and social media HAS to play a part. We are all so fragile and polarised now. Scared to say what we think. Scared to offend. Scared to post pictures. Scared what people will say. Sitting in an echo chamber. Surely the internet and social media has to have played a massive part of that.

Ndd135632 · 23/02/2023 07:00

And maybe with any music on tap - who needs live music anymore? Who listens to an album as it should be listened to - from start to finish? Who runs out and buys the latest single with their mates from the record stores? It was nice NOT to have everything at our fingertips.

tackling · 23/02/2023 07:14

In no particular order, I think humans have not had time to evolve to cope with things like:

  • Mass information about everything going on in the world coming our way
  • Permanent information about ourselves being stored and accessible everywhere
  • Being able to built up digital lives and hide indoors a lot of the time
  • Seeing our own faces all the time on photos and videos
  • Being able to weigh and measure ourselves
  • 24/7 background noise (especially if you live near a road or in a city)
  • Mass transportation and travel
  • Medical science which can keep you alive long past a point you would have done in history
  • A huge and apparently inexhaustible food supply
  • Said food supply contaminated with plastic and added ingredients

All these things have "benefits" and plus points (there's reasons they've developed the way they have after all!)

But I also don't think we are really built to cope with them long-term. Maybe we'll find balance over time, that's the hope anyway!

Spectre8 · 23/02/2023 07:55

cptartapp · 23/02/2023 06:53

I tuned 18 in 1990 so had the very best of the decade.
People just seemed so happy. What happened?

Technology in particular the Internet

electricmoccasins · 23/02/2023 08:05

I was a teen in Birmingham in the 90s. Stoodi Bakers, Wobble, Snobs.. plus proper nongentrified pubs in Selly Oak to drink in before catching one of the no. 60s into the city... The Varsity, The Gun Barrells, Bristol Pear.

I got my first proper job on Broad Street in 2000 in HR. The office would pack up 3pm Fridays and spill into Tiger, Tiger and later, Reflex. We were all so young and ambitious (and naive).

I was only on £12,000 and bought my first house in 2001 with my boyfriend who wasn't on much more at the time. We decided to look for a house in the March and moved in to one six weeks later with a £3,000 deposit. It was all so easy looking back. I feel so sorry for the young today.

LocatioLocationLocomotion · 23/02/2023 08:16

Ndd135632 · 23/02/2023 06:57

The internet and social media HAS to play a part. We are all so fragile and polarised now. Scared to say what we think. Scared to offend. Scared to post pictures. Scared what people will say. Sitting in an echo chamber. Surely the internet and social media has to have played a massive part of that.

Show quote history

100%. It’s so sad 😞

Tromso82 · 23/02/2023 08:28

JulianFawcettMP · 22/02/2023 22:38

I know I am of course. It can't happen and I'm so grateful for that time but I miss it. I want to go clubbing without looking like a dodgy old person and dance to the verve and the chemical brothers

YABU for your choice of music Grin those two bands alone are v good reasons I'm not a 90s chick. No sophistipop for me - v mainstream all the way !

lazycats · 23/02/2023 08:29

You don't want the 90s back, you want your carefree youth back.

velvetyhotchocolate · 23/02/2023 08:43

I really miss clubbing with my friends and no phones no phone cameras. I dread to think what would have been caught if there had been cameras back then. And when our local clubs used to all shut at 2am so you were guaranteed to be able to catch a life home with a friend and never left alone.
No wonder so many young people stay in now 😂 I miss the simplicity of it.

No emails really either. Not like now anyway. I wish that my dc brought crumpled letters home from school instead of 20 school emails a day stressing me out before the 100's at work ! But obviously there are plus points to now.

velvetyhotchocolate · 23/02/2023 08:44

Catch a lift home*

Iwrotethelyricstoaxlf · 23/02/2023 08:46

Yes to all of it.

I’m possibly in denial though as I’m permanently tuned into absolute 90s and have booked a load of gigs this year.

I’m going out with similar aged friends on Friday for a very sweaty evening dancing and singing.

Squiblet · 23/02/2023 09:15

@Justanotherlurker Was a moment of bliss to see thousands of people peak on mdna because of the tune I decided to play.

Fantastic! But now you have to tell us which tune ...??

RonObvious · 23/02/2023 09:25

Nope, I don't. Whilst I do miss the music - especially all the free gigs in pubs every weekend, before the music licensing became so draconian - there's so much I don't miss. Like being groped every weekend when going clubbing. Watched Woodstock 99 recently, and it brought back so many of the attitudes of that time. Had a better time in the 2000s, to be honest.

MarshaBradyo · 23/02/2023 09:26

I don’t miss it I had fun though at the time