The Decade With No Name

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Pearl Jam formed in 1990. Nirvana technically started in the late 80s, but Dave Gohl didn't join until 1990 and they didn't become popular until Nevermind in 1991. So as a cultrual point, those two are without a doubt products of the 90s.

And your insistence that something must exist exclusively in a particular decade to be considered iconic of that decade doesn't wash with me. It's not about exclusivity, it's about cultural impact. The internet can be traced back to the late 50s, but it is without a doubt a defining phenomenon of the 90s.

The internet is without a doubt a defining phenomenon of the 90s, but a particular USE of the internet (social media) is a defining phenomenon of the Milleni-Os (the same way that a particular USE of cars as a social tool for teens is a defining phenomenon of the 50s).

Coffee has existed for centuries. Coffee shops have existed for decades. But with grunge came the Seattle influence, came the rise of Starbucks. An defining phenomenon of the decade.

I think we need Madz and Tori in here. Describe to them checking your email once per day because you only had a few hours left that month to log into AOL, having a cell phone only in the car for emergency purposes, renting VHS movies from a store instead of having DVDs show up in the mail. Then ask again if the Milleni-Os (yeah, I'm not giving up on that one) are indistinct from the 90s.

As I said before, you can always find ways to blur that line. That goes for every single decade. Time isn't actually broken up into distinct units of 10 years, it just happens to be a period that generally encompasses enough cultural change that artificially drawing those dividing lines highlights some important cultural touchstones.

Excellent post.

I got to thinking... I wonder if people in Madz and Tori's generation can imagine life without the internet, cell phones, or even VHS/DVDs. We've come such a long way since I was their age.

[katiesue]

Originally Posted by JWBear

Excellent post.

I got to thinking... I wonder if people in Madz and Tori's generation can imagine life without the internet, cell phones, or even VHS/DVDs. We've come such a long way since I was their age.

Speaking for Madz - no she can't. Her battery on her phone dies and she's lost for the two hours it takes to re-charge it. God forbid she not reply to her friends texts instantly. God forbid they actually dial the phone and speak to one another.

She still has VHS tapes although now that we have Blu Ray even the DVDs are old technology to her.

I'm not sure she's ever even seen an encyclopedia.