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Why Are the 90s So Hot Right Now?

There’s no denying that the 1990s is in. Grunge fashion was one of 2022’s biggest fall trends. I’m even hearing the occasional 90s alternative rock song when I walk into a store now. And I’m pleasantly surprised to hear about so many Gen Zs watching shows like Friends and Sex and the City, despite these shows pre-dating their existence.

This sudden interest in the 90s should come as no surprise. Trends recycle every 20-30 years like clockwork. Remember back in the 2010s when the 80s were hot?

However, there’s another reason some people think today’s youth are nostalgic for a decade they didn’t exist in. The 90s represent a simpler, more laid back time before social media, before smart phones, before pandemics, before mass shootings, before doom scrolling, and before a 24/7 connection to all that is wrong with the world. In the 90s, the Cold War had just ended and there was a new peace in the world. It was an optimistic time when the “World Wide Web” was brand new. The future seemed full of possibility. According to Business Insider, young people troubled by today’s economy are escaping into 90s and early 2000s nostalgia. And for many Millennials and Gen X’s, there’s also a satisfaction with seeing the trends of our youth making a comeback.

So you want to capitalize on this current plaid and flannel coated wave of nostalgia? You want to write a story set in 90s? Here’s a guide of some essential things I put together for your research, dear writer.

Disclaimers:

Don’t write toward trends for the sake of following a trend alone because trends can always change. But rather, it may just be a fun and nostalgic exercise for you to write something that takes place during this time.

For those in the 35-55 age group, some of this may seem like it was written by Captain Obvious. But for the younger Millennials, Gen Z’s, and Gen Alphas reading this, they may not know what life was like growing up without internet or cell phones. And for the older generations, it may be a good education about the trends they missed out on during the 90s when they were busy being parents or going to work, you know, “adulting.” Also, even for people like myself who did grow up during this period, it could be a good reminder of what life was like.

In the interest of keeping this as an article rather than a book, there’s only so much I can cover. I tried to cover the basics, but I’m sure there’s a lot I missed out on. It’s an entire decade after all. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

(Above Image Source)

Major Events in the World and the U.S., 1989-1999:

(The Berlin Wall Coming Down – Image Source)

Below I’m going to include a timeline of key events from the 1990s. This is not to say that these are the only events that mattered. There is also a bias toward the U.S. in this timeline as a reflection of my own lived experience. However, these are just a few events that I think were influential to life at the time and were widely discussed.

End of the Cold War, 1989-1991: The end of the Cold War was one of the most history making events of the 20th century. The world went from having two major geopolitical superpowers to one.

November 9, 1989 – the Berlin Wall came crashing down, a powerful symbol of the fall of the communist world.

December 26, 1991 – the Soviet Union collapsed and a struggle between two major geopolitical super powers was ended. American political scientist Francis Fukuyama even argued that we had reached “the end of history” and that Western liberal democracy was the final form of government.

Birth of the World Wide Web, 1991:

The internet did exist before the 90s. 1983 is considered the official birth of the internet. But 1991 is the year that the internet became available to the public via the World Wide Web. I have a whole section on the internet below which will have more detail.

The Persian Gulf War, 1990-1991:

August 2, 1990 – The Persian Gulf War began as Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait.

February 28, 1991 – An international force, led by the U.S., defeated Iraq. This was the most popular U.S. war since World War II because it restored confidence in America’s position as a global super power, and helped exorcise the ghost of America’s failures in Vietnam.

Apartheid Was Repealed, 1991:

South Africa existed under a system of racial oppression from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterized by an authoritarian system in which the country was politically, socially, and economically dominated by a white minority.

June 17, 1991 – Apartheid legislation was officially repealed.

1994 – Multiracial elections occur as a result of the end of apartheid.

The AIDS Epidemic Peaks in the U.S., but Keeps Growing World Wide:

(This hard to read graph is from the CDC. It shows that AIDS deaths and prevalence peaked in the U.S. in the early 90s, and then began to wane by the mid 90s)

The AIDS crisis, as we generally think of it, began in the 1980s, though people were dying of this virus before the 1980s. AIDS was first named in 1982 in the New York Times.

1991 – AIDS became the number one cause of death for U.S. men 25-44 years old.

1994 – AIDS became the leading cause of death for all Americans ages 25-44 years old.

1999 – The World Health Organization announced that HIV/AIDS had become the 4th biggest killer worldwide. Global AIDS deaths peaked around 2005 and then began to decline. (Statista)

The Bosnian War, 1992-1995:

1991 – the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ceased to exist, having dissolved into its constituent states.

1992 – Croat and Muslim nationalists, who were formerly part of Yugoslavia, formed an alliance and outvoted Serbs in the independence referendum for the international recognition of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign state. War broke out and Serbs quickly assumed control of over half the republic. Killings and deportations became rampant in the newly-proclaimed Serb Republic, but also widespread in Muslim and Croat-controlled areas.

1995 December – The Bosnian War ended. The Dayton Peace Accord created two entities, one for Serbs and one for Bosnian Muslims and Croats. This conflict is significant because it shows the violence that continued in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse as countries struggled to chart a new future for themselves beyond the paradigms established in the Cold War.

The Rwandan Genocide, 1994:

April 7, 1994 – The Rwandan Genocide started. During this period of about 100 days, anywhere from 500,000-800,000 members of the Tutsi ethnic minority group, and some moderate Hutus, were murdered. 2 Million people fled the country. The genocide finally ended on July 15, 1994. This was an event that shocked and horrified the world, since so many people were killed in such a short amount of time.

The OJ Simpson Trial, 1994-1995:

September 26, 1994 – The OJ Simpson trial began. This was a major event in the U.S. that dominated the news cycle. A famous celebrity, O.J. Simpson, was accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. The trial spanned eleven months, ending on October 3, 1995. The verdict came out as, Not Guilty.

The trial is often characterized as the trial of the century because of its international publicity, and has been described as the “most publicized” criminal trial in human history. The trial took place shortly after the historic 1992 Los Angeles riots. Many commentators believe that the defense capitalized on anger among the city’s African American community toward the LAPD, which had a history of racial bias, to convince the majority-Black jury to acquit Simpson, despite the fact that OJ was implicated by significant amounts of forensic evidence.

The Death of Princess Diana, 1997:

The death of Diana, Princess of Wales, caused international shock and was a very prominent news story at the time. Diana was just 36 years old when she died. Her death sparked an outpouring of public grief in the United Kingdom and worldwide, and her televised funeral was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people. The royal family were criticized in the press for their reaction to Diana’s death. Public interest in Diana has remained high and she continues to retain regular press coverage in the decades since her death.

End of Conflict in Northern Ireland, 1998:

1998 – The Good Friday Agreement Referendum is held, ending decades of conflict between Protestant and Roman Catholic forces in Northern Ireland. The 90s was a time of many bombings and acts of politically motivated violence in both the UK and Ireland centered around the issue of Northern Irish independence.

U.S. President Bill Clinton is Impeached, 1998-1999:

Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial lasted from December 19, 1998 – February 12, 1999. The cause was Clinton’s testimony denying that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Clinton by Paula Jones. There were details in the Starr Report showing a sexual relationship between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. It was pretty crude, but images of a dress Lewinsky had with Clinton’s…ahem…”genetic material” on it made it all over the news, and was on the news all the time for a year. It seemed like all anyone on TV could talk about. Clinton ended up being the second president to be impeached in U.S. history.

The Y2K Scare, 1999:

Y2K refers to potential computer errors related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after the year 2000. Many programs represented four-digit years with only the final two digits, making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. There were fears of mass technological failure at the turn of the century. Many people even started storing food, water, firearms and withdrawing mass sums of money in anticipation of a computer-induced apocalypse. However, the year 2000 happened, and there was no apocalypse.

Technology of the 90s:

The Internet:

(Graph Source)

1990 – Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, develops HyperText Markup Language (HTML). This technology continues to have a large impact on how we navigate and view the internet today.

1991- CERN introduces the World Wide Web to the public.

1992 – The first audio and video are distributed over the internet. The phrase “surfing the internet” is popularized.

1992 – AOL went public and started mailing people compact discs that would let them use the internet in 1993.

1995 – The first online dating site, Match.com, launches.

1995 – Ebay is founded.

1997 – The search engine, Ask Jeeves, is released.

1997 – AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is released.

1999 – AOL buys Netscape. Peer-to-peer file sharing becomes a reality as Napster arrives on the internet, much to the displeasure of the music industry.

The development of the internet had a major impact upon society in the 1990s. Back then the internet was commonly called, “The World Wide Web,” or even sometimes referred to as, “The Information Super Highway” (usually by politicians). I myself first used the internet in the mid 90s when I was around 8 years old. My family would get AOL CDs sent to us in the mail. The internet was far slower, clunkier and more inefficient than it is today. It could take a webpage several minutes to load. You couldn’t be online and on the home phone at the same time. If you picked up the home phone while someone was using the internet, the phone would make a very unpleasant screeching JRRRRN EEEEEEEE sound. One time my parents had to call the police, but had to sign off the internet first just to make the call.

And yet despite its clunky beginnings, people were far more excited about the internet back then than they are now. As you can see from the graph above, few U.S. homes had the internet in the 90s. It was a luxury for the upper and middle class, as well as a novelty. Internet and computer usage didn’t start to become widespread in U.S. households until the late 90s/early 2000s. Until the late 90s, most homework was still handwritten and most research kids did for school was still done at the library. If someone needed directions somewhere, they would look at a map or get verbal directions. Even when I first learned how to drive in 2004, people were still primarily using maps and verbal directions.

Socializing on the Internet:

Socializing on the internet now is the norm due to the explosion of social networks in the 2010s. But back in the 90s, socializing on the internet was not the norm.

There began to be a growth of internet socializing toward the end of the 90s, as more people started using chat rooms, AIM, email chains, or sending each other weird chain letters promising curses if they didn’t send the letter to ten other people. For some people, their primary use of the internet was at the office or at school due to not having it in their home. I remember computers and internet use becoming more common in classrooms toward the end of the 90s.

Online dating was also new near the end of the 90s. Though it was uncommon. People would make fun of you or consider you nerdy if you found a partner on the internet. Also back in the 90s, it was not cool to be nerdy. The explosion of nerd culture into the mainstream happened later, in the 2010s.

Cell Phones:

(Image Source)

An important detail to remember in any story that you write in the 90s is that most people did not have cell phones. They would use their home phone if they needed to make a call. It was more common for people back then to remember people’s phone numbers or to have a book of written phone numbers. There were also more payphones around for people to use if they were outside of the house.

Thus, life was like an episode of Seinfeld. If you wanted to meet someone, you would pick a time and place, and people would be very mad if you didn’t show up at the specified time and place.

Given that home phones were the main method of phone conversation, you would sometimes have to talk to other people in the person’s household first before you could get them to find the person you wanted to talk to. People might also pick up another phone in the house and listen to your conversation if they wanted to ease drop, you could tell when you heard their breathing over the line.

CDs Dominate For Music:

(Image Source)

The CD-ROM as we know it was invented in the 80s, but it didn’t go into common use until the late 80s, when people started using it for gaming and music. In the year 1990, tape cassettes were more common for music. However, over time CDs became more common than cassettes, to the point that CDs were the main way to listen to music and play computer games by the late 90s. Also people commonly called it a “CD.” Not many people casually used the term, “CD-ROM.”

Cassette Tapes: While CDs eventually became more common, people definitely were still listening to cassette tapes in the 90s or using them to record on an 8-track recorder. The first car I purchased in the early 2000s even had a cassette player. And I remember in the early 2000s, most teens at my school still used cassette tapes for recording music if they were in a band. In the 90s it was still common for people to make a mixed tape of songs for their sweet hearts. Burning CDs didn’t become common until the early 2000s.

VHS Players/VCR:

(Image Source)

The 90s was the heyday of the VCR and VHS. Most U.S. homes had a VCR. A VHS tape was the most common way to watch movies. If people wanted to rent a movie, they would have to go to Blockbuster or some other video store. If someone wanted to record something on television to watch later, they could record it on a VHS tape with their VCR.

It was not until the early 2000s that DVDs began to surpass VHS in U.S. homes.

Floppy Disks:

Floppy disks were the main way that people transferred information on a computer. USBs were not introduced until 1996, and did not become commonly used until the 2000s. In the early 90s, a computer game would be on a floppy disk. But by the mid-late 90s, it was more common for a computer game to be on a CD.

Music

Grunge Music Becomes Popular in the Early 90s:

(Image Source)

September 24, 1991 – Nirvana’s Nevermind album was released. The Seattle-based rock band Nirvana unleashed an album which popularized grunge music, a musical style that emerged during the mid 1980s in the American state of Washington. Grunge music was influenced by punk rock and heavy metal, featuring the distorted electric guitar sound popular in both genres. Yet Grunge also incorporated influences from Indie rock. Grunge was slower than Punk and Heavy Metal, with a more sludgy, dissonant, ponderous, and grungy feel (hence the genre name).

The lyrical themes of grunge were typically nihilistic, angst-filled, introspective, and full of disillusionment over the state of relationships and the world. This came as a sharp contrast to the glam metal scene popular in the 80s, which celebrated life in the fast lane, partying, drug use, sex and hedonism. Grunge had a more low key energy, with lyrical themes similar to punk. There was a focus on mistrusting authority, hating the inauthentic, speaking out against corporations, and supporting women. Some say the grunge movement represented a hangover, or burnout from the 80s. Some say grunge music represented the malaise of Generation X.

Grunge was a commercial success in the early to mid 90s (which was ironic given the anti-commercial themes of grunge music).

The following grunge bands were very popular: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Stone Temple Pilots.

Grunge waned by the mid-90s – Grunge’s popularity in America ended around the mid-to-late 1990s, when many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Kurt Cobain, the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of Nirvana, struggled with a heroin addiction and committed suicide in 1994.

The Rise of Hip Hop and Gangsta Rap:

(Flavor Flav of Public Enemy performing in 1991. Image Source)

Hip Hop originated in the early 1970s and existed for several years among young, inner-city African Americans in the Bronx before coming into the mainstream. Hip Hop culture contains the following elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti art. The themes of hip hop originally focused on life in the inner-city, anti-violence and anti-drug use. People in poor neighborhoods who lacked money for musical instruments, or an expensive DJ setup, could mimic the sounds of popular drum machines by beat boxing with their mouths.

It was sometime between 1988-1997 that Hip Hop had a golden age. Some popular hip hop artists of the 90s were: Tupac Shakur (2Pac), Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Nas and the Notorious BIG.

Gangsta rap or gangster rap, initially called “reality rap,” is a sub-genre of hip-hop. It also experienced its golden age in the 90s. In the sub-genre of gangsta rap, hip hop artists started wearing the clothes of gang members and using harsher lyrics to represent the struggles of poverty, racism, police brutality and drugs in their communities. The pioneers of gangsta rap include Schoolly D of Philadelphia and Ice-T of Los Angeles (originally New Jersey), later expanding with artists such as N.W.A, Tupac Shakur (2Pac), and the Notorious B.I.G.

1988 – N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton was released from Los Angeles, establishing the West Coast as a rival to hip hop’s long-time capital, New York City. This is the first gangsta rap album to become a blockbuster success. It also sparked controversy regarding their song, “Fuck the Police,” which earned a letter from FBI Assistant Director, Milt Ahlerich, condemning the song.

2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. are murdered, 1996-1997: The late 90s is considered the end of the golden era of Hip Hop and Gangster Rap. This era came to an end as two major Hip Hop icons were murdered.

1997 – The Bling Era Begins: While gangsta rap and hip hop became a huge-selling genre in the early 90s, hip hop was regarded as outside of the popular mainstream, committed to representing the experience of the inner-city and not “selling out.” This changed in 1997 with the beginning of the “Bling Era,” a name derived from Lil Wayne’s “Bling Bling.” Hip Hop and Gangsta Rap crossed over into the mainstream, blended with other genres, became more focused on materialistic themes, and achieved more commercial success. Artists like Puff Daddy, Jay-Z, Ja-Rule, DMX, Eminem, Lil Jon, and 50 Cent began to become successful during this period. Rappers wore shiny suits in their videos. The Bling Era eventually ended in 2006 when more people started downloading music.

90’s Style:

Fashion:

(Image Source. Don’t they look like Gen Zs!?)

While it’s hard to summarize all the styles that were popular in an entire decade, I’ll do my best to give a brief summary. According to Masterclass, fashion in the 90s was characterized by a wave of minimalist looks as a break away from the “anything worth doing is worth overdoing” culture of the 80s. Casual, chic outfits defined by baggy T-shirts, slip dresses, streetwear, and sportswear significantly shaped 1990s fashion trends. Fashion took on a disheveled look and emphasized casual comfort over materialism and polish.

Early 1990s style showcased bright colors and athletic wear reminiscent of the ‘80s, late 1990s fashion transitioned to sophisticated slip dresses and preppy prints. The music and film industry influenced popular trends that came out of the decade, styling grunge looks, denim overalls, mini skirts, and cropped cardigans. Trends from the 1990s continue to influence fashion today, as athleisure and streetwear remain popular.

In addition to the broad categories of women’s and men’s fashion, the 1990s also saw the popularity of numerous fashion accessories. Iconic footwear styles such as Doc Martens, platform shoes, and sneakers became synonymous with the era, while bags, backpacks, and jewellery also played a significant role in shaping the decade’s fashion landscape. These accessories often served to emphasize and enhance the various trends, providing an additional layer of personal expression and creativity (One Off Vintage).

Makeup:

The 90s were the decade of bold eyebrows, eyes and lips. Brown, purple, and burgundy lipstick became a huge trend, usually paired with a dark lip liner. At the time it was very trendy to line the lip with a darker color, then use a lighter lipstick and not blend the line, giving a very striking look.

Eyebrows were dark and well-defined, and usually thin. We also saw the start of the blue eye shadow trend and the use of glitter on the eyes. (See makeup trends by decade for more information)

Girl Power:

(Image Source)

Girl power and the rise of third wave feminism were a big deal in the 90s. Girls at my school liked singing, “Anything you can do I can do better.” More television shows and movies were showing women in intellectual or action roles that used to be reserved for men. Dana Scully in X-Files and Lisa in The Simpsons were both examples of female characters who were more intellectually competent than their male counterparts. Xena Warrior Princess became a very popular show featuring a bad ass, powerful warrior woman.

There was also an emphasis on increasing the number of women in the workplace. The first national observance of Take Our Daughters to Work Day took place on April 22, 1993, according to the Ms. Foundation for Women.

The Riot Grrrl underground Feminist punk subculture and musical movement began in the early 1990s. In addition to a unique music scene and genre, riot grrrl became a subculture involving a DIY ethic, zines, art, political action, and activism.

The average age of marriage for women jumped in the year 1990. For more than a century the average was 20 and 22, but in 1990 it jumped to 24. By 1997 it reached 25.

Toward the late 90s, there was also an emphasis on sex positivity in the third wave feminist movement. There was a growth in the idea of women embracing their sexuality and being empowered to make their own sexual choices. Indeed when Sex and the City was released in 1998, it became popular for showing a group of female friends who openly discussed and enjoyed sex. However, there are also arguments that by the end of the 90s, the sex positivity movement got twisted into women being exploited for the benefits of consumerism and male pleasure, as was visible in movies like “American Pie” (1999), or “Girls Gone Wild” (1997-2011).

Also, while girl power became popular in 90s culture, there was definitely still sexism in many avenues of day to day life. Growing up I remember that the girls in my neighborhood were expected to do household chores while their brothers got to relax and play video games.

Another important fact to keep in mind is that the girl power culture in the media was commonly displayed via white thin heterosexual women, but not so much through other women. Most of the characters on TV were overwhelmingly white and there was way less LGBTQ representation than there is now.

A shocking fact, however, is that women actually had higher employment rates at the end of the 90s than they do today (Statista). I’m not exactly sure why that is, but perhaps it’s because the economy for working class Americans was better back then than it is now.

90’s Slang:

The List Of 90’s Slang Words People Still Use
– Whatever
– Trippin’
– Yadda-yadda-yadda
– My bad
– You go, girl!
– Buzzkill
– Dibs

TOP 90’s Catch Phrases That Haven’t Come Back
– Talk to the hand
– So sue me!
– Da bomb / the bomb
– Sup?
– Crunk
– Eat My Shorts
– Who’s your daddy?
– Dip
– As if!

Source: Promova, Your Dictionary 90s Slang, 25 Excellent Slang Terms From the 1990s.

Top 25 Shows That Were Popular in the 90s

Modern Shows Set in The 90s

Books

Game of Grunge – A Song of Rock and Hip Hop (Fanfiction)

20 Bestsellers Published in the 1990s

Modern Books Set in the 90s

My Own Experience Growing up in the 90s:

(A dorky picture of me in 1996 with a melted snowman)

Of course this is anecdotal, but when writing about a time period, it’s good to interview people who lived in it. And lucky for you, you have me! A living breathing human being who had a Furby, talked to her friends on a home phone (while sometimes getting wrapped in the cord), got the internet from a CD, placed colorful Lisa Frank stickers on my text books, watched Care Bears and Ninja Turtles on Saturday morning, saw gangsta rap music videos on MTV, and heard Soundgarden on the Rock Station instead of the Oldies Station.

My perspective is limited since I was just a little kid in the 90s. But I still got to experience much of the popular culture and politics of the era through observing older family members.

I remember the 90s as a time of optimism and economic prosperity. Unlike today, people in the U.S. seemed hopeful about the future, especially in lieu of the “World Wide Web” and the end of the Cold War.

It was normal for kids to play outside until the sun set, racing around on their skateboards, roller blades, and bikes.

Another big difference is that people were less “plugged in” to their screens in the days before streaming and smart phones. There was more socializing in person (because there wasn’t much of an alternative). Payphones were ubiquitous. People were allowed to smoke in restaurants in the smoking section (though smoking was starting to wane in popularity). There was less obsessing over the news, because it ended on TV around 10 pm and then you couldn’t look at it anymore, unless you were reading a newspaper, or waiting around on your slow internet for a news article to load. I’m not sure if the world was actually a better place or if it was just more difficult to read about how bad things were.

But the plus is that if you want to go back to the 90s, you can relive it all through the information super highway on the World Wide Web!

I hope this guide was helpful. What do you remember about the 90s? Feel free to comment. Share this article if you liked it.

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