Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by saltyoldman | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

saltyoldman

The 90s were incredible. The Matrix had it right when it mentioned in 1999 "peak of human civilization".

* Music was incredible

* Movies were amazing, enough to go to the theater 12 times a year at least

* Homelessness was pretty much non-existent

* People were friendly and had time for strangers

* Employment was 10x better than today, and not by today's way of counting (which don't count group x y and z)

* Jobs actually made people feel needed and going to work was an incredible feeling for your soul.

* Very few people were on drugs 24/7 like they are today

Our biggest problem was probably Alcohol, which has actually dipped today (but probably because people are on pot instead)

If I had $200 Billion I would literally give all of it to be a teen again for ten years from 1990 to 2000 again.

View on HN

Homelessness was a giant issue in 1991, there were pop songs about it: Gypsy Woman (La da dee la da da) by Crystal Waters, and Walking Down Madison by Kirsty MacColl. We don't seem to have pop stars singing about issues any more. Unsure whether that's a plus or minus.

In the US, homelessness per capita peaked in the 90s. It remained relatively high afterwards compared to the pre 1980 numbers, and has recently spiked higher in the wake of 2020 and following, but in the 1990s there were a lot of homeless people in the US.

My country had a complete economic collapse in the 90s and people could barely afford food, so mileage varies.

As an oil exporter country we were saved in the 00s by oil prices ballooning to the moon, so that was the golden decade for us instead (relatively speaking, and mostly in the big cities).

> * Employment was 10x better than today, and not by today's way of counting (which don't count group x y and z)

I'm pretty sure we count unemployment the same way. Those groups are just larger now because of age, education and economic malaise.

There were a lot of millennials at the time. Still are, it's just that they're pushing 40 instead of 14.

Groups that are excluded from unemployment statistics aren't a specific generation. They are retirees, students, people who gave up on seeking a job, etc.

I have a lot of nostalgia for the pre-9/11 world too but be careful with the rose tint.

It wasn't so wonderful if you were gay, for example. AIDS was still new and scary in 1990, and society was not so accepting of that lifestyle.

I remember when I was a teen it wasn't uncommon to go to a Boston Pizza-tier restaurant and have the waiter make a quip about "not wanting to look like a fag" by ordering the same thing as the guy next to you. This was a thing into my 20s, as late as 2007 probably.

It's interesting to me that many of the comments about not romanticizing the 80's and 90's across all forums reference 'it wasn't that good if you were gay' which would be like 3-5% of the population at the time? We had a society that 95% of people would say was ideal and the only knock is that it wasn't great for a small minority versus now we have a lifestyle that is universally panned...

Different strokes and all that but I'm pretty happy it's much less socially acceptable to beat the shit out of 5-10% of the population for no reason.

> versus now we have a lifestyle that is universally panned

I don't agree with this premise at all.

As long as you didn't have any gay friends or family, or just cared how other people get treated.

It's not like being straight was perfect protection. You'd get abuse just for acting in ways that had been arbitrarily decided to be gay-coded.

There was plenty of other bigotry to deal with as well. For example, support for interracial marriage was under 50% at the beginning of the decade (in the US), and was still under 2/3rds by the end. Bigotry is still plentiful, of course, but it was quite a bit worse then.

Its true that it wasnt as good if you were gay, and im glad that its better now.

But, its also true that it was better in many ways that affect both gay & straight people!

> If I had $200 Billion I would literally give all of it to be a teen again for ten years from 1990 to 2000 again.

I so so wish I could go back as well. Its such a magical time in my memories. I was 6 in 1990 and I was 16 in 2000. God, what a world that was!

Ah, a fellow 1984 release.

I'm pretty nostalgic for the 90s. Maybe everyone who had at least a halfway-decent childhood feels that way about their kid years, though.

for 200 billion you better throw in knowing what you know now in to the mix, then it would pay for itself

I am not sure where you experienced the 90s or at what age, but your experience is the opposite of mine.

They mention being a teenager then, so a lot of their feelings might come down to "it was fun being a teenager" sprinkled with some effects of late stage capitalism.

I agree with a lot of that person wrote. I'm a healthy white guy born in 1970 into a very supportive family in a middle-class town in Canada. I basically won the lottery.

I was a kid in the 1970s, a teenager through the 80's and turned 20 in 1990. I had everything I needed and most things I wanted (eventually). High school was easy and actually fun. University was cheap (compared to now) and I had a blast. Graduating with a degree in comp. sci. in 1995 was bonkers. Opportunities were everywhere.

There have been some ups and downs, but I really don't think I would have wanted to be born any other time or place.

> The 90s were incredible

I was born in 1974 and I remember being vaguely annoyed in my 20's at how the 90's "ruined" the 80's - I remember things being way better in the 80's and society starting to go downhill around 1991.

I will say, though, the poster's lament that he's nostalgic for a time he never knew is one I've heard a _lot_. My kids watch "Stranger Things" and ask if it was really like that when I was a kid ("did you really just get on your bike and go over to your friends houses?") and wish they had experienced the 80's (and even the inferior 90's). I _never_ felt that way about my parents generation - the 60's were interesting from a historical perspective but I never wanted to be there.

> the poster's lament that he's nostalgic for a time he never knew is one I've heard a _lot_

For sure; the 2011 film Midnight in Paris is a great comedic exploration of this feeling as its central theme. (well, if you can set aside any well-justified reservations about writer/director Woody Allen.)

Eh, the anti-gay sentiment was really bad in the 90s. A couple of my college buddies came out and instantly lost half their friends.

> Very few people were on drugs 24/7 like they are today

Kinda like the opposite man, kinda like the opposite.

>Music was incredible

Ehhh, the post-grunge world was a bit of a musical wasteland. Rock died as a culturally relevant force with Cobain, but hip-hop hadn't ascended yet, so we were stuck in this weird doldrum that gave us things like the swing revival, ska, nu metal, and boybands. I mean Counting Crows were the big megastars at the time. Really hard to name a timeless album from '96-'99 the way you easily could on either side of that range. Just see the set-list for Woodstock '99 to further illustrate the point.

Tool, Weezer, Sublime, RATM, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Blink-182 all put out amazing albums from 96-99.

Rose coloured glasses though - I was a teenager at the time.

I was in my 20's at the time. I saw all of those guys as being inferior GnR, Motley Crue or Metallica wannabes.

Metallica's St. Anger it's a grunge wannabe disc.

The 80's died but not with Cobain, but with The Pixies and R.E.M.

And in late 90's the industrial rock/metal basically made 80's glam rock cringey and obsolete.

Wow I've never disagreed harder with an HN comment in my entire life. Counting Crows were a single band that got some radio time in the early 90s. Calling them the big megastars during '96-'99 makes you sound like you weren't alive then. That statement just sounds so utterly ridiculous to me. It's like a narrow-minded European claiming that everyone in the US just eats nothing but hot dogs. Timeless albums from that era:

- Odeley (Beck '96)

- Aenima (Tool '96)

- OK Computer (Radiohead '97)

- Homogenic (Bjork '97)

- This is a long drive for someone with nothing to think about (Modest Mouse '96)

- Stankonia (Outkast '99)

- Kid A (Radiohead '00; began recording in Jan '99)

You were just rage baiting, right? The late 90s were an absolutely legendary time in popular music history.

Edit: Yes, agree with commenter who mentioned Underworld. Didn't mention it because it seemed more niche. But I adore Underworld.

Endtroducing.... (1996)

Second Toughest in the Infants (1996)

In Sides (1996)

Homework (1997)

To name a few. The 90s were great for electronic music.

OK Computer (1997). Mezzanine (1998). New Forms (1997). Peak trip hop and drum and bass. I remember it being pretty great. But yeah, I was like 17, so …

Edit: commenter below with Underworld - 100%.

Here’s a list of albums just from 1998.

Mezzanine from Massive Attack, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Big Pun’s Capital Punishment, You’ve Come a Long Way Baby from Fatboy Slim, and Hello Nasty from the Beastie Boys. The K&D Sessions from Kruder and Dorfmeister. Stunt by Barenaked Ladies. Then there’s one of my personal favorites, Mermaid Avenue from Billy Bragg and Wilco.

You mentioned rock. How about Hellbilly Deluxe from Rob Zombie? Follow the Leader by Korn. The New Radicals released Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too. Garbage’s Version 2.0, and Lenny Kravitz 5, and Van Halen III. What’s more rock than Walking into Clarksville by Page & Plant?

All those albums are hilariously overrated and not representative of the truly good music coming out at the time.

Go win five Grammys with one album and then you can talk smack about Lauryn Hill.

You're making his point for him.

Yeah I'm not sure if that was a troll actually

Also Mechanical Animals (Marilyn Manson).

Underworld / Second toughest in the infants

NIN / The Fragile

Radiohead / OK Computer

Daft Punk / Homewerk

All of these are generation defining albums.

I would like to add, all the jungle/dnb of the 1990’s and Rhythm & Sound.

The R&S / Maurizio / Burial Mix records are absolutely timeless.

It was such a great time for fringe musical subcultures.

Black metal was a 1992-1998 thing. It was dead (and many of the genre's leading lights were looking to move beyond it, mostly without success,) by the end of 1999.

Those six years also produced an explosion of experimentation in industrial, ambient, darkwave, and many other niche genres. In some cases, musical and aesthetic boundaries were pushed as far as they can possibly go.

From where I'm standing, the 26 year period from 2000-2026 absolutely pales in comparison to just those few years 1992-1998.

Radiohead put out OK computer then which is iconic.

Not to forget cheap housing !

Reply on news.ycombinator.com