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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:
DesignforLife · 23/02/2023 10:08

I love a 90s thread. I do think we are an incredibly fortunate generate to have one foot in analogue and one foot in the digital age.

I don't know if it's the effects of covid and that uncertainty about "normal life", or just normal growing old which has had me reminiscing over the 90s a lot over the last few years. I miss it so much it's actually painful and wish I could back, just for a day.

For me, as with others here, it was all about the music, and the way that music shaped your personality and allowed you to find your tribe. It was also the sense of hope and ambition, for myself and also for the world. It was the hippy skirts and band t-shirts, worry beads and wooden hair-clips. It was deep and far-out conversations with friends while a boy with floppy hair strummed a guitar. It was fun - gigs and indie clubs where everyone looked natural with no posing for selfies, we were 100% in the moment.

EmmaEmerald · 23/02/2023 11:06

lazycats · 23/02/2023 08:29

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

Youth wasn't carefree, not at all. You couldn't pay me to go back to all the worry and the long working hours!

My life is so much easier now. But London in the 90s was so, so special. Driving along the Embankment, swearing when a very, very rare cyclist came into view. Streets not dominated by effing fast food places or huge pedestrianised areas with people eating! Hardly any little kids. Individual, non corporate cafes.

I could say more but I don't want to get banned.

EmmaEmerald · 23/02/2023 11:09

DesignforLife · 23/02/2023 10:08

I love a 90s thread. I do think we are an incredibly fortunate generate to have one foot in analogue and one foot in the digital age.

I don't know if it's the effects of covid and that uncertainty about "normal life", or just normal growing old which has had me reminiscing over the 90s a lot over the last few years. I miss it so much it's actually painful and wish I could back, just for a day.

For me, as with others here, it was all about the music, and the way that music shaped your personality and allowed you to find your tribe. It was also the sense of hope and ambition, for myself and also for the world. It was the hippy skirts and band t-shirts, worry beads and wooden hair-clips. It was deep and far-out conversations with friends while a boy with floppy hair strummed a guitar. It was fun - gigs and indie clubs where everyone looked natural with no posing for selfies, we were 100% in the moment.

We had a really great 90s thread here in maybe 2016? Talking about Swampy...someone here lived on Regents Canal? I asked for it to go in Classics but I don't think it did.

we were comparing various illegal raves around the North Circular Road, if anyone remembers.

MissDollyMix · 23/02/2023 11:26

DH and I often go off on a nostalgia trip about the 90s. They were good times. My teenager often says he wishes he was growing up back then.
DH famously ran away to Glastonbury with just a loaf of bread and a bottle of vodka, no ticket- climbed over the fence. Now he’s Mr Corporate and Sensible in a grey suit and driving a Volvo… 😂
It’s definitely a 90s thing. We were still young in the 00’s but they weren’t as good. We think 9/11 changed a lot. People become more serious after that.

FredaFox · 23/02/2023 17:55

Sign me up!

Oblomov23 · 23/02/2023 18:14

I probably shouldn't be on this thread because I was mainly 80's, early 90's, but I had a good time, remember it with fondness, glad there was no record eg mobile phones to take pictures etc.

Twinsforthewin · 23/02/2023 18:49

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

Do do do doo do do do do doo

The time has come to

(Robot voice)

PUSH THE BUTTON

(Ok technically early 00s but YANBU 100%)

snowbellsxox · 23/02/2023 18:51

I've had 90s pop in Spotify today 😭

Ilikeviognier · 23/02/2023 19:01

Me too.

insomnia
born slippy
smash hits
going clubbing and it being the best thing ever

The giant top shop on Oxford street.

Sigh. I feel old now.

2ManyPjs · 23/02/2023 20:06

Genuinely grateful to have been part of the rave generation.

Sillybanana · 23/02/2023 20:56

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!

Had to highlight this, just such a spot on post! Think you’ve summed up everything that affects today’s teens. Loved the 90s as we didn’t have all this to deal with, we were free to just be..

CathyorClaire · 23/02/2023 21:10

Spent the 90's in a haze of nappies and tantrums so no. Wouldn't go back there.

Time machine to the 80's though and I'd be all over it and then some.

I do however thoroughly appreciate the lack of whipped up SM frothing, ubiquitous uploaded Ring and dashcam footage and general internet fuckwittery that pertained in both eras though.

SilentHedges · 23/02/2023 21:17

rebekahnorris · 22/02/2023 22:51

Did anyone go to Glastonbury or a festival in the 90's?....just ace!!

Glasto 87 (punk rock phase) Glasto 95 (Brit Pop phase). That Glasto featured possibly every 90s band you'd ever want to see, Prodigy, Portishead, Oasis, The Cure, Pulp etc etc. I saw Oasis at Knebworth 96, 1st night. I get moved to tears of nostalgia when I watch the footage of that gig. The countdown to screaming before they kicked off to "Columbia" was insane.

I absolutely made the most of those years with bells on. Completely OTT behaviour and I went to countless gigs. These Animal Men, Blur, Oasis, Elastica, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Bowie, too much to list.

I've tried all sorts of extreme sports, various clubbing experiences, but just can't seem to recapture those feelings of excitement of the 80s, 90s and perhaps early 2000s. Youth culture now looks woeful, unoriginal, and confused.

Time machine please...

EatYourFive · 23/02/2023 21:21

Late 90s and early 2000s for me. I was a student, spent some time living abroad, lots of carefree partying and clubbing with friends, lots of random boys too, was slim and pretty, loved the low cut jeans fashion as i had a super flat stomach back then!
I had a couple of very promiscuous years which for a long time I felt quite ashamed of, but now that I'm in my 40s I look back more fondly and I'm actually glad I had those experiences.

RackJussells · 23/02/2023 21:47

I bloody love the 90s! So many fond memories! I was born in 1987 and just when I look back at my childhood and growing up in that decade I just can’t help but smile!

I went to a 90s weekend at Butlins last year and it was like stepping back in time, loved it!

SpanishGirly · 23/02/2023 22:02

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

SilentHedges · 23/02/2023 22:29

DesignforLife · 23/02/2023 10:08

I love a 90s thread. I do think we are an incredibly fortunate generate to have one foot in analogue and one foot in the digital age.

I don't know if it's the effects of covid and that uncertainty about "normal life", or just normal growing old which has had me reminiscing over the 90s a lot over the last few years. I miss it so much it's actually painful and wish I could back, just for a day.

For me, as with others here, it was all about the music, and the way that music shaped your personality and allowed you to find your tribe. It was also the sense of hope and ambition, for myself and also for the world. It was the hippy skirts and band t-shirts, worry beads and wooden hair-clips. It was deep and far-out conversations with friends while a boy with floppy hair strummed a guitar. It was fun - gigs and indie clubs where everyone looked natural with no posing for selfies, we were 100% in the moment.

I've considered this too, but I don't think it's the normal effects of growing old that has us reminiscing. It was a truly special time. In my case every one of my teenage years was in the 80s, my 20s in the 90s, I mean seriously? It was insanely good. Everything was groundbreaking. Everything was new. Nothing has compared since.

No matter what I do thats new, it cant compare, I miss it so much its painful too. 💔

Justanotherlurker · 23/02/2023 23:09

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

It is hard to pin point one (even though I did state that originally, the one I was referring to was that I managed to pic up a white label of CeCe Peniston- Finally, had been teasing it in-between some dirty deep house for around half an hour, and it was just one of those moments I could tell I had them on the hook.

Had many others with other tracks that are more obscure now, but that was a memorable one for us trying to salvage a shit show with the generator for lighting packing up etc, same as my first drop of one my all time favourites which is Roy Davis Junior - Gabriel, I remember putting on the extended remix for the first time and just sitting back (it's 13 minutes long!) and taking time out to take a few lines and sit back and watch the vibe, it was a perfect time/place/moment for a lot of people, and years later had a fan girl moment of meeting the Roy Davis!

Have original pressings/white labels of all the classics such as Playing with Knives, Where love lives, Papua New Guinea, Big Fun, Belfast, first of the top of my head, but I was a deep and dirty house girl and we crossed a line between having 80's casuals and crusty hippys

Justanotherlurker · 23/02/2023 23:34

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

MumsnetWang should definitely become a thing, it's a perfect meme for how there is a contingent of posters who want to drag threads down to the lowest common denominator and just generally shit on a thread.

Mamai90 · 24/02/2023 00:52

I'm so nostalgic about the 90s too. But I think nostalgia clouds things a little, I fondly remember sneaking into clubs, Friends, loving school, Brit pop, Body Shop, boy bands, the Spice girls, no social media etc. But I had zero confidence, I had spots, and thought I was fat, I would say body dismorphia which only got worse in the early noughties. My memories are really wonderful but my brain has almost let me forget about how long it took for me to leave the house and spending hours getting ready even for school and still having no confidence even though I hid it really well.

Now I'm 40 and I mostly don't give a shit day to day. I'm so much happier in my own skin and I have a lovely life so I'd never go back to repeat it all, but I'd be up for a day trip!

Aphrathestorm · 24/02/2023 08:40

I take it none of you were paying a mortgage?

15%.

I'd quite happily pay 15% on a £20k flat!

Dotjones · 24/02/2023 09:08

The 90s, pre-97 especially, were great. Remember double jeopardy? I was livid when Blair took that away, being tried for a crime more than once is just wrong. There was always something going on in the 90s, the Stephen Lawrence murder, Fred & Rose West, Crimewatch was a valid source of entertainment. Remember The Bill before it turned into a full-on soap opera? The story would be wrapped up within the half-hour show rather than drag on for months. And most people actually coped with just having four TV channels because they actually broadcast stuff worth watching.

The only things that we have now that we didn't then that I'd miss are fast broadband and camera phones (not even smartphones - just ones with a decent camera).

Gjallerhorn · 24/02/2023 10:05

I remember being in Dublin and the Chemical Brothers were playing, I was on a field trip with Uni. I decided not to go with some friends and instead snogged a gorgeous Irish lad and then sat up in a cafe drinking hot chocolate and staring in to his beautiful blue eyes for hours, I had never been to an all night cafe before.

@electricmoccasins I was studying at the University of Birmingham from 1995. I used to go to The Gun Barrel's and the OVT though The Brook was actually my most frequent haunt. The Selly Sausage and Adams Plaice as well. Snobs was my fave club and I loved Mr Egg!

1990s · 31/03/2023 17:10

BashfulClam · 23/02/2023 00:30

I’ve been feeling this too and actually feel a bit homesick for them. It was my era and I was young and could do anything. Now I feel old and bewildered a lot.

This is EXACTLY how I feel.

inigomontoyahwillcox · 01/04/2023 10:30

Specifically 1995 to 2005. YANBU.