Is anyone an expert on early 90s fashion and media?

First, before I ask the question, look at these videos, because it's easier to just show what I'm talking about than to attempt to describe it:

Note the partygoers, particularly. Stone washed jeans, somewhat faggy haircuts on the guys, really bad haircuts on the ladies, baggy shirts. One of the women remind me of that androgynous mulatto guy from The Crying Game:

Sensory overload in this TV show's graphic arts, everywhere. You know those collages you made in middle school of magazine clippings? It's like that, only animated. No shortage of house music in the background either. This approach was common on television.

Burger King commercial... once again look at the graphic arts, the effects, the fonts, the flashes. Part grunge, part U2's Zooropa, sharing a lot in common with the videogame show above. And I want to punch the camera man in the balls for not holding the damn thing still, like he's flying it on a kite and can't control it. Another example of what I saw a lot of in early 90s television.

And this probably needs no introduction... hopefully not here. Hopefully. Don't disappoint me, WATMM. Hip-hop music sounded different; it was too new to be "old school" but it wasn't "bitches money niggaz pimps hos drive bys" yet either. I still didn't like it then, but I didn't outright hate it like most hip-hop music made now. Note also the hair styles, colorful clothing, etc.

Okay, so for you sociologist types... I want an explanation. I've always just accepted that fashions come and go, but I'm seriously questioning why? How? We know these fashions and styles were bad, tacky as shit, and all the colors on clothes clashed with one another and so did the sizes. And television reflected that approach too. So why did we as a society do it back then?

What factors in society and shit tend to bring in these fashions, these looks, these sounds, these media arts practices into existence in the first place? And what factors cause society to basically drop them several years later, if it isn't arbitrarily? I think even Disco in the 70s lasted longer than this 90s-era zeitgeist did, you know? It was at most from 1990-1993, maybe 1989-1993. 1994 wasn't quite as flashy and colorful. I'd coin this style the word "Clintonian" but Bush Sr. was in office throughout most of this.

As for current ridiculous fashions, what's taking this emo shit so long to go away? Early 90s fashions and styles were nowhere near as up-your-own-ass-like as what we see today. At least Early 90s styles seemed to, even if subtly, celebrate the concept of having fun, at least somewhat...

I think MTV has a lot to do with it. I'm assuming you're in your mid to late 20's like I am. In that case we were in our teens at the time and just copying what we thought was popular. Most likely a lot of people in advertising at the time were people born in the late 60's or early 70's. Maybe they were reinterpreting the aesthetics of their childhoods (the same way kids born in the mid 80's to early 90's are doing now) in a modern way.

I think television also had a hand in shortening the life span of "fads", combined with the fact that advertisers were realizing that young people were demographic with large amounts of spare income. In the 70's it may have taken longer for youth culture to spread, you might have to go to a major city to see your favorite band, while in the 90's you could turn on the tv and see them almost every day.

But, I don't know that's just my two cents.

Also, this thread reminded me of this:

A lot of what you're looking at with the TV shows and commercials is the widespread overuse of fancy new digital effects technology, which was available to producers cheaply and easily for the first time... so naturally in the 80's and early 90's everyone went mental with it. It's the same way people used/continue to use terrible 3D modelled CG in news broadcasts and so on, and all those terrible CG films you get...

As for the fashion/subcultural aspect, I think that's an entirely different question really, and you're getting the two things tied up together because they do reflect each other in certain respects. I think you're looking at it too narrowly by comparing fun-loving 90's ravers with today's emo kids. It's not like those are the only two subcultures. There were miserable goth fuckers and grunge fans back then, and there are neon-decked party-goers today.

I'm really stoned.

  takeshi said:

I think television also had a hand in shortening the life span of "fads", combined with the fact that advertisers were realizing that young people were demographic with large amounts of spare income. In the 70's it may have taken longer for youth culture to spread, you might have to go to a major city to see your favorite band, while in the 90's you could turn on the tv and see them almost every day.

This makes a lot of sense as well

Also, are there actually still emo kids?

To be honest I just ignore people who aren't old enough to drink.

from an early age i was fully immersed in the rave scene, on our bathroom mirror there was a Radical Audio Visual Experience sticker from Just 17

going to school or going near schools in rural towns is probably the only way to find emos

From a purely UK perspective, you'd just had the two summers of love, at which point drug culture really did enter the mainstream. For all the rhetoric about the 60's, it was the contraceptive pill that had a profound lasting effect. Drug use may have influenced fashion, art etc., but it was still restricted to certain social groups. This changed in the UK in the late 80's, and in the following decades drug culture permeated every level of society. You also had the recession after the 80's boom years. I'm not necessarily suggesting you can draw a direct link between this and awful haircuts, but it's interesting to look at the wider socio-econonmic context. Actually I am suggesting something like that.

Last excesses of the 80's + aspects of black culture + dug use + recession = bad hair.

Trends is whack, holla!

growing up this aesthetic seemed perfectly natural to me. then when people started wearing earth tones, I was like, "what the hell is this 70s crap?"

A lot of that has to do with feldenchrist. The rest of it has to do with the fact that most fashion designers are gay.

man,,,, i wish that BK still had those dinner baskets and that Dan Cortese was still relevant!! but that is just me,, my stupid Hyper-Color t-shirt just gave out of it radioactive glow last week too!!! FML.

1969

1989

2009

This is a pretty wonderful DJ mix by Machine Drum with a ton of edited footage from the early 90s. Funny to see some stuff in here for nostalgia's sake.

i love the 90s

  countchocula said:

Happy birthday! You have the same birthday as me.

let's all do as de la does and bring back early 90s fashion.

Nah, skintight jeans and non-prescription lenses are NEVER going to look stupid.

  my usernames always really suck said:

this is great. i played and can name almost every game they flash on the screen.