My 90s TV: Browse 90s Television
my90stv.com
my90stv.com
Several years back, perhaps even via an HN post or comment, I came across a blog, hosted on a university network (IIRC, perhaps related to media studies). The page consisted of a group of possibly graduate students contributing some of the weirdest and most obscure media I've ever seen online. Nothing obscene and nothing seemingly new/current, so it was rather hipster in that sense, but I kick myself for not having saved the URL.
Nothing says I need to use walled gardens or get my news from the big networks, but I often feel I'm being pointed that way. In the end, I just want something different than what's usually being served up.
(It doesn't escape me that this 90's TV site is full of walled garden/big network type content of the time)
Unfortunately our virtual world are built in a way to addict us with content we create ourselves giving a few monopolists total control of our virtual presence.
I'm boarded in a project to think in another approach, in a way the give us more power and freedom to shape our virtual collective consciousness..
Without us figuring out a way to get us all out of this trap, i don't see a very bright future for us, and the current political and social status-quo are a clear sign of what all this is making to us.
The power and control is too concentrated in the hands of a few, and its easier than ever to pull all the strings from a couple of places.
Eg. If we have a dozens of key people to agree into some plan to permanent power and control, it will be impossible for us to take our freedom back, of course it will not look like any sort of government that we have witnessed before.
I know this is a conspiracy theory and i dont like it myself, but its pretty possible and easier to happen with all the technological status-quo and tech monopolies we have nowadays.
How does this happen in the monoculture of the global internet, where local heterogenous subcultures (music, art, cuisine, traditions, languages) are eradicated?
The question is how much resilient we are to create and cultivate local stuff over the global noise.. I'm pretty sure that despite the difficulty of the task, we can handle it..
But we must have the proper tools to make it flourish.. but my fear is that while we are figuring out all this, some big players decide to replay the titanic wars devouring their children before they get too powerful..
Its not happening yet, because there are barely no threats, but once they start to show up and become trends, i don't expect them to play nice.
And with all the power and control "they" have, it will not be like any old industry vs. newcomers we have witnessed before.
(BTW the matrix app being kicked out of peoples cell phones might be a sign of what will come)
What was this?
Let's be precise here. The Element app was suspended from the Play Store (and restored in less than 24 hours) It was most certainly not removed from peoples' phones.
We have serious issues with the centralization of network services and we should scream loudly about it and look for ways to diminish the power that comes with that centralization.
However, making specious claims like that doesn't help. It just makes those who rail against the concentrated power of these big corporations seem deranged.
There are plenty of real issues to rail against without making shit up.
FAANG's are feeling that the antitrust guillotine is near their heads, so things will be a little quiet for now, but once the dust have settled they will probably keep doing what they were doing before, unless of course a proper legal framework come to rescue.
But as the political class have more urgent matters to take care of, i think this legal sophistication we urgently need will not be a priority.
Personally, streaming has now also ruined watching the TV/movies for me.
Since my TV burned itself I've had a non-smart TV and it's actually really refreshing to have such minimal choice and be walled in as such. I end up watching films and actually enjoying them, not dealing with FOMO and wondering if there's something better).
So far, I've come across MhZ Choice (for EU shows, with subtitles), FlixOlé (for Spanishf films, no subtitles), Wlext (foreign tv shows...pirated). Also, I recommend using a VPN for Netflix to access different shows and films, depending on the country you choose. The other day I found myself watching a Chinese action film that only had Italian subtitles (luckily my Italian is up to scratch).
With music, my tastes are boarderless and timeless. At any moment, I'll put on 13th century Iberian cantigas, Latin motets, folkloric Sardinian, 90's French indie, 1970s Congolese rumba, modern Ivory Coast reggae, South African Xhosa pop, Indian mantras, Peruvian ethno-techno, and the list goes on.
But yes, the plethora of options is, at the same time, wonderful and dreadful. I tried to sit down and start reading a semi-dense physical book the other day and it's like my mind was too fried to focus due to having just got off the internet.
The good old days of going down a Youtube rabbit hole :)
You can have that. All you need to do is make sure the developers who make those sites get rich. Find the sites and tell your friends about them. Subscribe to their work. Buy their merch. Click on the ads. Pay them. Then everyone else will see that sort of site making bank, and they'll follow along with similar things.
The only reason the web is what it is today is because the money went to the walled gardens and social media sites. To change that, change where the money goes.
Creative work is currently having its sources of income decimated, from all sides. We should get used to reminiscing.
This is just anecdotal but I see a lot of very niche creative people making money that they wouldn't have made before through YouTube, Discord, Patreon, Gumroad etc.
I think the opposite is true, while in the past it was maybe PayPal there's a lot of ways to make money online that's very approachable for everyone.
The former is still very much booming, and I don't see why the latter would go anywhere.
In the flesh live, people together experiencing something collectively.
"I don't see why the latter would go anywhere"
There's an ongoing pandemic and during it the vast majority of venues where people can experience performance or sport collectively are and remain closed. During this time the income normally generated has understandably ceased. Many places may remain permanently closed, including historical outdoor events.
I do eventually expect a move toward normality but it's going to take many years. In the meantime we can add online live & reminiscing in lieu of the 'real thing'.
Whatever the form, content by itself just doesn't pay a lot for most and never has. I just finished a new edition of a book of mine. It's valuable for "branding" (ugh term I know). But I'll directly make less money than from cranking out a blog post for some company.
There are a bunch of reputational benefits to certain types of book writing which (probably) lead to significant career/comp benefits. But the direct money can be less than what companies will pay for a ghostwritten content marketing-type blog. Or even whatever a lot of salaried people earn for doing that sort of work on company time. There's a reason a lot of "creatives" end up working for corporate product companies as their day job.
One of the biggest reasons I’m a proponent of Universal Basic Income is that I want creative people to be able to create without having to fall prey to things like cutting out their medium in order to make sure they can eat and have a place to live.
However: we are currently within a capitalist society, and because of that we have to think of how we can financially enable the art and culture that we want to see more of.
This is a deeply interwoven and complex topic, but at the end of the day I just want to see interesting stuff and know that the people creating it are better because of it.
Be the change you want to see in the world. Get creative. Tell your friends.
* to be fair, CSS is possibly where the rot started to set in... some poorly thought-out design choices from 20 years ago are still haunting us. But stick to the basics and focus on the content instead, it still gets the job done.
Maybe https://neave.tv/?
But unfortunately, no. The one I remember wasn't TV-based. It was more like a normal blog but hosted on a university domain, iirc.
I'm also running a web crawler to discover fresh music videos from various music blogs.
To make it successful, some kind of authority should be present in the sauce.
What a fantastic website.
The reason 90s were much simpler times were because all we had was the TV, mainstream news media outlets, which we know today as far removed from actual journalism. You could turn it off and read a book or play video games (which also suffer from the curse of connectivity today and makes multiplayer a lot more toxic experience).
What are you trying to say by mentioning that white people "were not offensive" about the oj simpson trial? That is not the same thing as a black person getting beat and mamed _on video_, then having the four people responsible get _acquitted_ of wrong doing.
> I'm hoping 2021 can be the year that empathy and unity starts making a comeback in America.
You might have to first realize why some people would feel there are massive systemic injustices. It might have felt simpler and happier when you didn't have to confront extreme imbalances of justice. If you want "empathy and unity" then be part of the solution.
The Rodney King verdict started the riots, I didn't say anything about anyone in the riots. Go back, read everything again and try to follow along this time so you don't hallucinate what people are saying.
And fwiw, people in the 90s looked back on the 50s and thought “oh what a simpler, happier time.”
It’s a filtered lens you’re using and you are deluding yourself if you think that any time before you had it simpler and happier simply because they did not have “X” or “Y” that you do today.
How about date rape epidemics in the 90s? And women’s right and outlook for careers and equal pay?
LGBTQ rights? Hahahahahah
I mean, I can go on if you want?
I’m guessing you were a kid in 90s so things were simpler and happier for YOU because you did not have to worry about adult problems?
The idea of time travel being a fun concept, especially in recent history has very real implications if you go anywhere in the world where you're a minority or not from a colonial power subjecting people to your will.
At any rate, it is broadly true that the 90s was a happier time than present.
Today, people can't let you enjoy reminiscing about a period in time without bringing up everything horrible or sub optimal about that time.
It's a pervasive cynicism that wasn't broadly shared then. I was a kid in the 90s exploring AOL chat rooms, forums, the web, etc. It was a very groovy time. Lots of discussions about politics, but it wasn't toxic like today. There are sharp lines today and if you are right of center you're either being deplatformed or shadow banned or called a neo-Nazi.
I mean, you mention gay rights. AOL, the most mainstream internet app had a prominent Gay & Lesbian section and a chat room for folks to meet or discuss commonalities. Nobody was canceling AOL over it. It was just another interest group next to Sports, Video Games, Politics, Religion, etc. You'd wind up meeting gay people through some discussions on the various chat rooms. And we'd honestly debate about whether homosexuality was a choice or not. And in my naivete I took one side of that issue and a gay boy that posted in that vg forum took the other side. It taught me how to understand them. Today, if someone says something outside of whatever the prevailing dogma is, they are treated like they're terrible people. Experiences like that are how you grow as a person. And we cut that off at the knees today trying to make sure no one's feelings are hurt. But all that does is create resentment and divide.
I do have some great memories from the 90s, but for a few years I lived in a town south of Chicago that was heavy in gangs where I would regularly hear semi-automatic gun fire, see the river getting trolled for bodies and lived next to a professional bike thief. My father's truck was robbed of tools, my bike was stolen, my friends were poor as dirt and I couldn't play in their yards because I am white and they were afraid their neighbors would beat the shit out of me or kill me, and one of those friends was in a gang (learned that 15 years later). I remember lots of good things, but my 90s experience wasn't all that pleasant.
For older people, the 50s and 60s were that. For others slightly older than you, the 80s were that.
For people younger than you, the 2000s were great!
“Oh pity us, we got it so bad and they didn’t!!!”
It’s being removed enough to forget the painful parts, but being aware enough at the time of the good parts.
The painful parts decay faster than the good part memories, but schooling pain lasts forever! So the crossover seems to be in people’s early 20s
Being objective about your personal history is really hard - but it drives a lot of decisions today, so it’s good to at least revisit those “good times” to put them into the relevant context (too few people do this!)
To me, everything changed with the internet, and especially with smart phones + social media.
I was an adult for a period before all of this, and definitely still feel those were much “simpler times” vs. when all these things came about.
Information spreading literally at the speed of light has changed everything. And not all for the worse, but it’s definitely been a double-edged sword.
Probably a difference in human and emotional education. Times were slightly rougher in the 60-80s.. people may have had thicker skin and more social skills.
All in all it might just be a natural cycle of sclerosis, not help by the internet amplifier.
ps YouTube suggested some letterman shows with meg parsont (a random employee working in front of the studio building) I felt Dave was a bit intrusive if not bullish on her. Made me feel conflicted, as I hold the dude and show very high in mind.
Never followed Letterman's work as I never found him funny and it always felt like a used car salemen's type shtick, I was more likely to watch Jay Leno due to him being in LA and loving cars. Honestly Simpsons or Married with Children re-runs were more entertaining than both to me...
But, I watched that Comedy Store documentary from last year and heard from guys like Chris Rock in other interviews throughout the years that Letterman was generally known to be a total miserable grump when not on stage.
His persona and his real life demeanor were 180s of each other, which kind of makes sense the more you learn about how messed up psychologically and emotionally comedians often are and given how much time the spent on Freddy Prince's suicide, it really drove the point home that they are often just broken toys with a narrow focus on doing something to east their deep pain. And Letterman was from that era of comedians and was around the store back then.
I want an 80's television, 70's television....
EDIT: Oh, I see the links on the site now to a 70's and 80's channel. Awesome.
I am regularly watching historic news footage (1950s and 1960s) from the archives of my local TV station. While the people are indeed friendlier than today (and much more eloquent), they don't seem happier. They don't seem less stressed. The general problems are the same. I watched a bit from 1961 about the growing problem of extreme weather events (they discussed whether the atomic bomb was responsible). Another bit from 1962 reported youth crime at an all time high and blamed alcohol, sex and movies. They showed 15 years old tricking themselves into student clubs in Heidelberg to consume alcohol and drugs. A few weeks ago, I watched a bit about the Hong Kong flu pandemic in 1969 (40.000 deaths in Germany alone) where they discussed countermeasures like quarantine and closing schools.
Also, a national TV station here shows "News from 20 years ago", where they just show the entire evening news from exactly 20 years ago. I have been watching this for years now, often while I am walking around the room. Just from the audio, it is often very hard to decide whether the news is from today or from the 90ies. The topics are often the same: politicians accusing each other of X, party Y announcing they now do X, violent conflicts in X, latest election polls, fear of war in Y.
When I watch these bits, I often think of these lines from the Joan Baez song "Hello in There" [0]:
Me and Loretta, we don't talk much more
She sits and stares through the back door screen
All the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we've both seen
It’s so easy to lose the context of our place in history when there’s a constant stream of voices all pointing and screaming at the “now”.
I used to listen to car bombs near where I live.
Wow... the first channel I landed was CBS from 1992 with coverage of the recession with the day labor for manual workers in Los Angeles with white guys next to Mexican laborers, and then as if that wasn't absurd enough the next segment for the 'Michelangelo virus' with John Mcaffee (the guy who I saw said he'd eat his dick if BTC didn't reach $1 million [0]) was pumping his anti-virus software in Santa Clara like it was the pre-cursor to Y2k or something. And then wrapped up with the breaking up of the Soviet Union's Red Army military disbanding to serve as local counterprts for now independent soviet satellite nations.
I'm not sure why I felt I was watching all of this like it it was the first time, even though I lived all of through this and saw a lot of it in TV first hand back then... it was incredibly surreal.
0 https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/john-mcafee-dick-bitcoin-bet...
[1] https://hackaday.com/2020/02/07/raspberry-pi-serves-up-24-ho...
This is a pretty good facsimile of that! Wish they had 50s and 60s as well, but still.
Is it just me or did the mood of the times have a sense levity and optimism that just isn't present today in 2021? I think so and I see it in the older tv shows.
The cold war was over, but pre 9/11.
Coordinated global action can solve environmental problems (phasing out of CFCs). Turns out CO2 emissions not such an easy problem to solve.
Rave / House music culture based on euphoric togetherness rather than sex and violence.
The economically rising east asian nations giving the west ever more affordable consumer goods, but not yet threatening US domination of the world order (especially after the bubble in Japan burst).
The utopian promise of the `information super highway'.
Seems like something that I would have heard poorly described by some friend who had a giant sat dish in their yard and figured out how to reposition it when Dad wasn’t home.
When I was growing up this is what I imagined Cable TV must be like.
I was raised by YTV and The Zone.
The Internet Archive should really start archiving youtube videos too.
(And youtube should have an api to detect whether the video is available or not)