90 's Culture Research

90s culture served as the bridge between the outrageous 80s and the high-tech cross into the new millennium (who can spell that over-used 90s word without spell check??).  As a result, the 90s saw big changes in everything from music totechnology (wish I had a dime for each time I heard or used "Y2K" in the late 90s) and that came through in the culture of the decade.  We became always available with the mainstream adaptation of cell phones, email and the Internet.  It is hard now to imagine the unplugged 80s when you were just unavailable if you weren't near your land line - how primitive!

Here we include links to interesting 90s culture items and stories to escort you down memory lane or introduce you to this culture for the first time.

This decade had so much going for it, at least those of us who grew up in the 90s think so. So join us and let's travel down nostalgia road reminiscing about the good ole days we like to call the 1990s. If you remember all these fond memories then you too are 90's kid. Without further ado, you grew up in the 90s if .

• You remember when it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons
• You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school
• You remember reading "Goosebumps"
• You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, wax off"
• 'Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?' was both a game and a TV game show
• You remember when Super Nintendo's became popular
• You remember watching Home alone 1, 2, and 3 . . . and tried to pull the pranks on 'intruders'
• You remember the phrase, "I've fallen and I can't get up" (and have said it yourself many times)
• You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates
• Trapper Keepers were an essential back-to-school item
• You never got injured on a Slip 'n' Slide
• You remember boom boxes vs. CD players
• You played and/or collected "Pogs"
• You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet or Nano and brought it everywhere
• You watched the original Ninja Turtles & Power Rangers . . . Cowabunga Dude!
• The Hardy Boys were the best mystery books ever!
• You remember when the new Beanie Babies were always sold out
• You've gotten creeped out by ‘Are You Afraid of the Dark?'
• You know the Macarena by heart
• "Talk to the hand" was enough said
• You thought Brain would finally take over the world
• You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"
• You remember when everyone went slinky crazy
• You remember when Razor Scooters were cool
• You knew Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen collectively as Michelle Tanner
• You remember when teachers used to confiscate your Slap Bracelets
• You remember a time before . . . Internet, text messaging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Sidekicks, iPods, PlayStation2, X-BOX, Wii, Blu-Ray, & HD TV
• You remember when light-up sneakers were cool
• You remember when you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs
• You remember when gas was $0.95 a gallon & Caller ID was a new thing
• You remember when we recorded stuff on VCRs & paid $3.50 to go to a movie
• You remember when the Chicago Bulls were the best team ever
• You remember playing Tag, Hide-n-Go Seek, Red Light Green Light, Heads Up 7 Up, Kick Ball, Dodge Ball, Red Rover, Mother May I, Four Square, Tetherball, Skip-It, Bop-It and Flashlight Tag
• "Get Over Here!!!!" means something to you
• You remember when Tickle Me Elmos and Furbies were the "IT" toys
• You remember running through the sprinklers
• You remember Ariel as 'The Little Mermaid' and you cried when Mufasa died in 'The Lion King'
• You remember getting the privilege to sit in the front seat of the car
• You called the radio station to request songs to hear on your Walkman
• Capri Sun, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gushers, & Fruit By The Foot were staples in your lunch box
• You were an avid watcher of ABC's TGIF, SNICK, Nick in the Afternoon, Disney Afternoon, FOX Kids, Nick Junior, Teen NBC (TNBC), & Nick at Nite
• Kool-Aid was your drink of choice
• $5 seemed like a million, and another dollar a miracle
• You begged to go to McDonalds everyday for dinner
• Toys R Us overruled the mall
• You wish you could get 'slimed'
• Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"
• Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming "Do over!"
• 'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest
• Interactive games meant going outside to play with friends
• Money problems were handled by whoever was the Monopoly banker
• It wasn't odd to have two or three best friends
• Being old referred to anyone over 20
• It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the 'big people' rides at the fair
• Playing Nintendo was the hardest thing ever
• You remember before we realized all this would eventually disappear.

The 1990s was the decade in which the world got a whole lot smaller thanks to a slew of technological innovations that changed the way people interacted with each other on an international scale. Inventions in the 1990s would include some of the most important communications advances to ever find their way into human hands, as well as revolutionary digital devices that would change the way we approached music and movies forever. One of the first real revelations found in the science and technology of the 1990s was the emergence of the internet, the world wide web and email as the glue that

would bind the global village together. Suddenly, information became democratized, and anyone with access to a personal computer and a modem could post news and personal opinions on a bulletin board that was free to be read by millions of others.

Email let families and friends stay in touch electronically across enormous distances, and encouraged new connections as people made new 'pen' pals from far away countries and different cultures. The internet also invented a new way to work – no longer would individuals be imprisoned in cubicles, slaving the day away. Instead, they could 'log in' to the office from home and explore a different lifestyle that would have been inconceivable even ten years beforehand.

On a more personal level, the ubiquity of cellular telephones made it that much simpler to keep tabs on our more intimate circle of friends. Once the bulky, exclusive accessory of drug dealers and Wall Street traders, cell phones shrank down to a pocked-sized marvel that enabled phone calls to be made from almost every possible location. By the end of the decade, it was the norm for parents to equip their children with their own phone to help them keep track of their offspring throughout the day. Cell phones were also vilified for stealing away the attention of drivers and causing a huge number of accidents, a popular topic for car pool complainers and standup comedians alike.

Two more inventions in the 1990s would capture headlines and consumer dollars. MP3s, which were digitally-compressed music files, allowed anyone to share their entire music collection across the internet quickly and with CD-quality sound. This would ignite huge controversy as record labels fought for the right to control their intellectual property and music lovers defended their choice to do whatever they wanted with the songs and albums they had purchased. The second important digital development of the decade in terms of entertainment media was the DVD. Also known as a 'digital versatile disc', this popular storage format was the size of a regular CD but could cram more than ten times as much information onboard, making it viable for the distribution of crystal-clear digitally-encoded movies that would never wear out no matter how many times they were played. DVD players quickly outpaced VHS sales, and by the turn of the new millennium this new method of preserving television and film was pounding the final nails into the video tape coffin.

The science and technology of the 1990s would pave the way for the lifestyle that most people take for granted today. Whereas few modern teenagers could conceive of a world without MP3s, cell phones and emails, those who grew up in the 1990s not only experienced the first stumbling steps towards these products but also saw how they came to change the very fabric of our culture, keystones of modern life that were born from the imaginations of the 90s generation.

1990s Fads & Toys:
Each decade always seems to have their own toy fads, those must-have playthings that parents are willing to spend hours waiting in line for just so they can stuff their kids' stocking with the latest and greatest craze sweeping America. In the 1980's it was Cabbage Patch kids that garnered the most attention, but the 1990s had their own fair share of overnight sensations in the toy department, products that had people camping out in the aisles of their local Toys R Us in order to ensure that they wouldn't be disappointed if stocks ran out.

Beanie Babies

Of course, some of these toys were so sophisticated that not only did they have their own independent distribution network, but they also managed to transcend the typical 'toy' label and cross the line into 'collectible' status. The most prominent examples of this trend were Beanie Babies, lovable little plush toys stuffed with plastic beans that were initially modeled after animals. Beanie Babies leapt into the public consciousness in 1993 by employing a strategy of limited production numbers for each particular model, which were given cute names like 'Chocolate the Moose' or 'Legs the Frog.' Once supplies ran out, the toys were off the market forever, leading collectors who simply had to have every single Beanie Baby to bid enormous amounts for the rarest of the rare examples. Beanie Babies were at first mostly sold through small specialty retail shops, but eventually their appeal spread to such a degree that the billion dollar Beanie Baby industry colonized the cable networks, where their cute little faces would become a home shopping staple. At the end of the decade, these toys had seen their popularity fade, although there is still an active Beanie Baby trade kept alive on eBay for hardcore collectors.

Tickle Me Elmo

The next cuddly little object of desire to set the toy shelves on fire was an innocuous doll version of one of the world's favorite Muppets. Tickle Me Elmo was a soft Elmo toy that would respond to squeezes and hugs with pre-recorded laughter and giggles. It would also vibrate just like the 'real' Elmo presumably would if his funny bone had been tickled. This seemingly innocent toy would ignite a firestorm of consumer greed, with people actually beating each other up in stores to get their hands on as many of the dolls as they could. There appeared to be no real rhyme or reason behind the Elmo toy's sudden popularity amongst children in 1996, especially given the fact that other Muppets in the Tickle Me line did not fare nearly as well in terms of sales. Of course, there is rarely any sense to be found in a fad, and the Tickle Me Elmo story was a wild roller coaster that would not be duplicated in the decade's closing years.

Tamagotchi

One the less aggressively consumerist toy phenomena of the 1990's was the Tamagotchi, a tiny little computerized pet that could live on a keychain or the pocket of a child. The Tamagotchi's world consisted of a small LCD screen where its owners could play with it, feed it, and of course tidy up after it had, ahem, taken care of business. The Tamagotchi had been a huge success in Japan and when it hit North America kids went wild, with many becoming quite attached to their digital pets. One of the key ways that the Tamagotchi drew people in was the fact that the actions of its owner – how many times the pet was played with, how well it was looked after – would have a direct influence on the 'status' of the creature, in terms of its happiness and its health. In fact, a neglected Tamagotchi could actually 'suffer' and even 'die,' a somewhat cruel lesson for children who had forgotten the toy in their backpack for a few weeks. There were a number of different Tamagotchis available, with a range of characteristics, looks and sensitivities that made some easier to care for than others.

Each of these toys enjoyed the spotlight for a brief but very intense period in the 1990's, a decade where technology met cuteness and changed the lives of millions of kids around the world.

It's the nineties. iPhone – what's that? Blackberry? What, like cobbler? Droid... I'm so sure! Oh, you want to see my cell phone. Check it: it's a Nokia. The first cell phones appeared in the late seventies, but it wasn't until the nineties that they became affordable for the masses. The first phones were ginormous by today's standards. Here's an early 90s brick phone from Nokia: And here's the Nokia 2110, a sleeker model (pictured at left).

Nokia phones dominated the cell phone market in the mid and late 1990s. http://imgur.com/gallery/MjyyY
Nokia's candybar-styled phones were both sturdy and omnipresent.

Via: imgur

I love this scene from Clueless in which Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and Dee (Stacey Dash) chat in the school hallway.

The best selling Nokias of the 90s were the very similar 5160 and 6160 styles. Their 5.2 inch tall frames featured monochrome displays AND antennae. Another bonus of Nokia phones was an actual video game. You could, like, play a game on your phone. Crazy! Check this link to play some snake online.

Having trouble remembering just what the original Nokia ringtone was? Thinking maybe it's lost to your memory forever?

Don't worry – if you were around at all in the 90s, you definitely know this sound:

I love this Nokia ad from the 90s that elegantly incorporates the ring tone into pleasant classical music:

I also love this violinist in Slovakia who riffs on the sound of a rudely interrupting Nokia:

Old school Nokias have a lot to be proud of: nice, large buttons, super-sturdy case, and decreased likelihood of theft. However, it's hard to compete with the coolness of touch-screen technology, thirty bazillion apps, and the entire internet at your very fingertips. Some people still feel the love for their vintage Nokias, but, sadly, they'll all eventually end up in a drawer or landfill.

You don't have to forget your affection for your nineties Nokia, though, and that ever-present ringtone. It's a big part of your cell phone history, which makes it a big part of your LIFE. Larry Gallagher had clearly heard his fill of the Nokia ringtone when he composed "Ode to the Nokia Ringtone":

Jacob Vendt, however, is totally feeling the love for his Nokia. Check out his slammin' cell phone waltz:

You go, Jacob Vendt! BOO-YAH!

Whooping It Up in the 90s

While not quite as ubiquitous asflannel, Birkenstocks, and boy bands, the whoop had its own day in the early 90s sun just the same. Responsibility for this trend lays squarely at the feet of Arsenio Hall. He whooped us into the 90s withThe Arsenio Hall Show (89 – 94), starting each show with a fist-pumping-whoop-fest.

We loved to whoop so much that it didn't matter that two songs with virtually the same title, released within a month of each other both managed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1993, we had both "Whoomp! (There It Is)" by Tag Team (hitting #2 in the charts) and "Whoot There It is" by 95 South (topping out at #11). While the spelling differs a little, I think we can all agree that a whoop is a whoomp is a whoot. Don't be confused by their obvious similarities, these are two very different songs. For Tag Team, it's a straight up party anthem, with only secondary undertones of sex. In the case of 95 South, their contribution to the genre sought only to answer the burning question, "Where that bootie at?" Can y'all dig it?

Rounding out (get what I did there – it's about booties) the early 90s whoop extravaganza is the 1994 hit "Tootsee Roll" by 69 Boyz, which topped out at #8 on the charts in January of 1995. In their words, "I feel a whoop coming on . . ." This song merges the two themes (partying and booties) set forth by Tag Team and 95 South the year before. It offers an infectious party song with a lyrical how-to do the eponymous tootsee roll dance, which is all about the bootie.

Is the woot woot craze of the aughts the natural evolution of all the whooping it up that went down in the 90s? The Urban Dictionary defines "woot woot" as 'an expression one may utter in complete approval or joy.' Well, if that's not a big whoop, I don't know what is.

Once again, Anheuser-Busch brought us memorable TV ads in the 1990s with the likes of "I Love You Man," the Budweiser Frogs, and the "Wassup?" guys.  Everywhere you went people were ribbiting "Bud - Weis - Er" and greeting friends with a "Wazzzz Upppp?" My high school graduating class even used the Budweiser frogs for the theme of our Senior Shirts.  Only it read, "Much - Wise - Er." Relieve your own 90s memories with these classic Budweiser commercials. BUD WISER COMMERCIALS

   

I Love You Man		I Love You Man - Featuring Charlton Heston
Budweiser Frogs & Lizards - Compilation		Budweiser Frogs & Crocodile
Wassup?		Wassup? with Girlfriend

Pepsi hit us up with musicians and supermodels in their 1990s ad campaigns. There was the Van Halen "Right Now" Crystal Pepsi commercial, Ray Charles telling us Diet Pepsi was the "Right One Baby," and who could forget Cindy Crawford snapping open the ice-cold can of Diet Pepsi on a hot summers day in the middle of nowhere? Did anyone (other than the two boys in the commercial) notice that the ad's purpose was to promoted the Diet Pepsi can's new look? Or was everyone just starring at Cindy the whole time? Crystal Pepsi - Van Halen "Right Now"   Diet Pepsi - Ray Charles, "You Got the Right One Baby"               Pepsi's New Look - Cindy Crawford   Pepsi Deprivation Experiment - Cindy Crawford               Drink Pepsi, Collect Points, Get Cool Stuff All the girls look like Cindy Crawford at this college   Norman Pheeny: Pepsi Drinker For Life (featuring Cindy Crawford, Tyra Banks and Bridget Hall)