Then and now, pop culture has always been obsessed with throwbacks to retro classics, renewing interest in what was popular back in the day. But even if you’re a die-hard ‘90s kid obsessed with things only ‘90s kids will remember, you’re just taking part in the newest version of the classic nostalgic cycle. Nostalgia is all the rage these days, and former ‘90s kids all over the world are embracing the movies, cartoons, shows and music they grew up on. He co-hosts the podcast “Literary Disco.Dev Allen is taking a look at the current ‘90s revival, and whether it will be the last retro craze we ever see. To paraphrase a wise song from my youth: Sometimes you don’t want to chase a waterfall, but rather, stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to. It was banal, and banality was the point. To “win” that trivia contest by declaring which Spice Girl I would be (Baby, whatever that means). Instead, it was a time to experience the warm, irrelevant glow of escapist nostalgia. A serious reassessment of our optimism and pride for that period is long overdue … but not at ’90s Con. Or rather, a decade during which people my age, caught in the naïveté of youth and protected by baby boomer denial, could live as if nothing were happening. Lenin famously said, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” In many ways, the ’90s feels like a decade where nothing happened. There were a lot of neon colors, Tamagotchis and attempts to reproduce the exact sound of a dial-up modem. Over my weekend at ’90s Con, the frivolous certainly reigned supreme. I might remember 2021 as the year of “The Underground Railroad,” while you were busy watching “Loki.” But if I say “yada yada,” almost every American who had a television in 1997 (and the millions who caught “Seinfeld” in syndication in the years that followed) will probably smile. In today’s meme-a-minute world, it can be hard to find generational touchstones, to build a community beyond a niche.
While breaking up the monoculture is for the best - doing so makes room for more voices, more tastes and more representation - I admit that I miss the comfort in the connectivity it provided. It was also the last gasp of a time when we all seemed to watch the same shows, listen to same music and see the same people in magazines. I remember adults around me saying, “There’s no difference between Republicans and Democrats” and meaning it. Domestically, our country was reveling in tech optimism and economic expansion.
11, 2001, was a time of mostly war-free bliss for America. The period between the fall of the Berlin Wall at the end of 1989 and the terrorist attacks of Sept.
The word I heard over and over again at the convention was “comfort,” as in “comfort TV” and “comfort songs.” The ’90s are the “comfort decade” that people need right now, whether they lived through it the first time or not.Īttending this convention during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a reminder that the ’90s have a significance beyond Tickle Me Elmo and JNCO jeans. But I think there’s a simpler explanation. I’d love to say shows such as mine, and other ’90s staples from music to fashion, endure or find new popularity because of their intrinsic artistry. Thanks to the recurring playlist blasted over the speakers, I heard “Waterfalls” by TLC more than two dozen times, an experience mitigated by getting to meet actual members of TLC in person.īut the more time I spent there, the more I wondered why the ’90s hold a particular grip on us right now. New Kids on the Block team up with their MixTape Tour pals Salt-N-Pepa, Rick Astley and En Vogue for nostalgic bop in the video for ‘Bring Back the Time.’Īccording to its organizers, more than 10,000 people attended ’90s Con - there were snap bracelets and Trapper Keepers everywhere. Music New Kids on the Block, Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue are peak 1989 in ‘Bring Back the Time’
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