What’s one thing that made the 90s the best decade ever for you?
Posted by CrossFitForCake@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 83 comments
90s cinema was one of the things that made the 90s the best decade ever for me. So many great movies in the 90s. An era when teen movies were shaping culture… from Kids and Dazed and Confused, to Clueless, Cruel Intentions, and I Know What You Did Last Summer, 90s cinema was everything for me.
formercotsachick@reddit
Graduated from college (first in my family to do so), got married, started my career, had a baby and bought my first house!
higglesworth@reddit
Being able to be unavailable, and also the hopefulness for the future.
concerts85701@reddit
Going on Grateful Dead tour and phish tour. It was the last american adventure and I saw a lot. Made me the person I am today - somehow I am successful in my career, family, kids all that stuff.
And can still party my kid’s friends under the table. Suckers don’t know they are playing with a pro.
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
did you sell me a grilled cheese at Soldier Field in '95?
lissam3@reddit
The 90's were a busy decade for me. Had a baby (91), got a divorce (92), got married (92), had a baby (93). With 2 babies, the rest of the decade was busy as well.
rochvegas5@reddit
outside of meeting the woman that would become my wife, the 90s were meh for me.....just spinning in a circle going nowhere fast. no direction, no goals, nothing
Fab1e@reddit
Grunge.
The music was amazing.
nigevellie@reddit
My youth and innocence
F-Cloud@reddit
It's that had a persistent social circle during that decade. Spending a weekend alone was a rare thing. It was pretty much expected that friends would get together. At the turn of the century my peers were entering their 30s. Couples paired off, lives got busy, people settled down or moved away and life has never been the same since.
HiredGoon_40@reddit
Abso-fricken-lutely. I never married so I felt the brunt of ppl siloing off into their families. It's been a struggle at times.
F-Cloud@reddit
Same, never married. Being the third wheel in social situations didn't last. Married couple or those in long-term relationships mostly wanted to do things with other couples.
HiredGoon_40@reddit
In my case it was the divorces that really fractured the group. People moved away, combined with everyone else's kids getting older. And just the attrition of age itself. I text with friends all the time, but am lucky to see them once a month. And so it goes!
ZebraBorgata@reddit
The 80s was the best decade for me, not the 1990s.
Viva_La_Revolucion-@reddit
Came here to say basically the same thing
what made the 90s the best decade was the 80s...
adaminoregon@reddit
Affordable concerts by many many bands.
Thirty_Helens_Agree@reddit
I saw Green Day for something like $16. Oasis for about the same at the same little theater.
savorie@reddit
I saw Jewel for five fucking dollars, front row
DeadManAle@reddit
I turned 16 in 1990. I was never a fan of that decade.
postprandialrepose@reddit
I started high school in 1990. I ended 1999 engaged to my one n' only. Lots of fun and interesting stuff happened in between.
egret_society@reddit
Making music, performing in front of big crowd, weird sex with groupies. Regular stuff.
Spot_in_the_Sky@reddit
This is going to sound corny, but hope.
There was so much hope for the future. The new-ness of the Internet came with so many possibilities. We thought we were on the cusp of true enlightenment - actual information and data sharing that would help all of us. We were looking at the new millennium with hope of a new world.
The pain now comes from knowing that we botched it. The Internet just created more space for hatred to fester and grow. We ran to our ideological corners to bask in confirmation bias instead of seeking new information. We accepted a state of surveillance by corporations, governments, and each other. We raised a generation of kids who don't know how to problem solve or engage with each other in a physical space.
It's just depressing.
No-Temperature-5944@reddit
Once the greed bags took charge of social media it became hopeless
Due-Blackberry8056@reddit
Kurt Cobain and Chris Farley.
DirkDaring93@reddit
A sense of freedom and hope for the future. Internet was still pure and surprising, buying music was fun, and my body didn’t complain!
Neither-Dentist3019@reddit
In 1994 had my first real job doing something I enjoyed, I made $6 an hour (which put me through college albeit living at home still) I felt like I had it made. I was on top of the world. Anything was still possible!
Towards the end of the 90s, I moved out with a friend and my rent was $400 (not to brag but I got a raise at the job) and I felt so independent and together and again like anything was possible... I miss that feeling. The apartment I don't miss but the feeling of possibilities, yeah I miss that.
Standard-Cockroach64@reddit
I turned 20 in 1990, graduated college in 92. Had my own place, got involved with and worked for numerous bands, was part of our local cast for the RHPS, and got to start traveling the world.
I don't remember being home for most nights, there always seemed like there was something going on.
Culture was changing, the decade of Reagan and Bush were finally behind us. The Cold War seemed to have ended. Everything seemed to be getting better. The future was limitless...
bluealien78@reddit
BritPop.
Being a teenager when Suede, Blur, Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, Cast, Supergrass, Sleeper, Menswear, etc., were ruling the charts was fucking awesome. I’d go back and live through the nineties again in a heartbeat.
angelaelle@reddit
Love Suede! Saw them about 2 or so years ago at Brooklyn Kings theater. Great show. Still had it.
FzzyCatz@reddit
Exciting times for Britpop!!! Loved reading NME and Melody Maker every week to discover new bands and read about current ones. So much fun going to concerts that were crazily priced.
bluealien78@reddit
Suede making the front cover of NME before they’d even released anything was monumental. Absolutely LOVED the BritPop years!
Dillenger69@reddit
I started in my chosen career, bought a house, and my first son was born. All happened within a few years
Historical_Bath_9854@reddit
I got married! Everything changed after that, literally.
JenniferJuniper6@reddit
Well, I’m on the older end of Gen X. I’d bee out of college for two years when the nineties rolled around. So in the nineties I started grad school, got married, had a baby, finished grad school, started a new career, and bought a house—more or less in that order. It was a very good decade for me, actually, but there wasn’t much pop culture involved.
Ray_The_Engineer@reddit
Being a GenX Ver. 1 (1966), the 80's are the center of my fun and formative years.
The '90's were about earning my place in the workplace, backpacking a thousand miles of Appalachian Trail, riding motorcycles, and meeting my wife/starting my family. Not a bad decade!
CrossFitForCake@reddit (OP)
Love that! What made the 80s the best decade for you?
Ray_The_Engineer@reddit
The music (studio and epic concerts), my college days, getting into mischief (I went through a phase where I was quite the vandal with my best friend...not proud of what we did, but we have some fun and crazy stories), the cars I owned, the girls I dated, the positivity of the '80's compared to a lot of what followed, my parents being younger and able to do things, the movies, my days playing music in ensembles...it's a singular time for me that I'll never really get back.
littleliongirless@reddit
We pushed back into he 90's from 80's excess, but we were still hopeful. Job market was good. Straight out of a good college meant a good job. Y2K panic was overblown but didn't feel nearly as real as current WW panic. Fashion was amazing on both spectrums (the grunge and the super tailored pieces). Tech was still something to look forward to.
Stephvick1@reddit
My daughter was born, the music.
canuckEnoch@reddit
I see your opening bid, and raise you the Star Wars OT and the Indiana Jones trilogy.
The 90s had nothing on the 80s in any genre of pop culture.
noseleaptilbklyn@reddit
80s were the era of summer blockbusters but 90s were the peak of indie cinema!
CrossFitForCake@reddit (OP)
Was referring specifically to teen angst movies. As a teen growing up in the 90s.
the_Snowmannn@reddit
The price of gas.
SXTY82@reddit
Because it was my 20s and 30s. The best ages to be alive.
And we didn't have cell phones or internet to chain us to chairs. We got out. Went dancing. Met new people and fucked them. Life was electric and dynamic. It was fun and difficult. I was more alive in the 90s.
omegamun@reddit
I could list many things, but mostly it was simply the act of jumping in my car and seeing friends and family. I remember being together a lot more in those days and it was comforting.
CrossFitForCake@reddit (OP)
I spent so much time with friends and loved ojes in those days. These days even when I spend time with friends, it feels like being alone together.
NotAnotherThing@reddit
It wasn't the best but.... I like how accessible everything felt.
Automatic-Nature6025@reddit
The bliss of being completely ignorant to how things would be today.
noseleaptilbklyn@reddit
All of my friends living just a few blocks apart. Seeing them several times a week. Now we have to plan 6 months out or for birthdays. Clubbing 3-5 nights/week. So much fun and laughter. Now people are scattered across the country.
1UpMonk@reddit
Youth
toiletcleaner999@reddit
Everything. Literally everything lol
Oxjrnine@reddit
It was the massive explosion of entirely new styles of music
Etc etc etc
This was made possible by the increase in record sales during the 1980s after a financial crisis in the music industry. Combined with the discovery that investing in smaller niche, music genres resulted in higher profits. It didn’t matter that 20 bands or DJs didn’t make it because it cost a fraction to invest in those musicians then it did to invest in a well-known brand.
Ranger197111@reddit
The 2000's
Pristine-Speaker-768@reddit
The music . I getting to see alot of bands before they blew up. I had so much fun in the 90's.
CrossFitForCake@reddit (OP)
💯. We’re in an interesting time for life music.
Superb-Training-1382@reddit
Senior year
Admirable-Cobbler319@reddit
My youth.
Everything seemed great because I was young and experiencing things for the first time.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the 90s, but everyone loves the decade when they came of age.
Hey-buuuddy@reddit
So true. I was 18 in 1994.
Admirable-Cobbler319@reddit
Me too.
And now we're FIFTY. How did that even happen???
peeshofwork@reddit
Music. The 90’s were our 60’s. So much great music.
W51976@reddit
Going to the pub and getting drunk for the first time, having just two or three days a week at my London college, while having two extra days to do nothing lol.
kermitsfrogbog@reddit
Movies, music, and much less internet, so we were much more present with each other and creative with our entertainment (for better or worse).
joeythemouse@reddit
I was young, dumb and full of cum.
CelestineSkies@reddit
Music and music scenes
ThePythiaofApollo@reddit
All my secrets remain shrouded in mystery and legend except one picture of my overplucked eyebrows, which have fully grown back. The gift of the 90’s is … they stay buried.
vinegar_strokes68@reddit
The internet
Elegant_Extreme@reddit
Movies and Music!
Dean-O_66@reddit
Smoking cigars at the table in between courses at really good steakhouses.
cjc4096@reddit
Wild west internet. Prenapster.
StJmagistra@reddit
I was 13-23 during the 90s, which was what made it great. Not that I haven’t enjoyed my life as an adult, but adolescence was way more carefree than parenting.
CrossFitForCake@reddit (OP)
I was 13-19 in the 90s. Parenting seems to have dimishing returns, that’s why I opted out. Just kidding lol. I mean, I did opt out. Joking about dininishing returns lol.
Joe-_-Momma-@reddit
I graduated high school, got married, became a dad and enlisted in the army. All of which took place in 1 year in the 90s
CrossFitForCake@reddit (OP)
You were busy!
Disastrous-Screen337@reddit
I'm the last of GenX. The 90s were my teenage years. Mom died in 90, other than that, it was a great time to be young. One mistake wasn't the end of the world like it is today.
Recent-Championship7@reddit
I had A LOT of sex.
OldDude1391@reddit
Met my wife and got married, started a family.
Old_Instrument_Guy@reddit
I met my wife. I traveled across Europe, twice. My daughter was born. The best 4 things ever
bearphoenix50@reddit
Music, friends, college, movies and phone free life
mikekarr@reddit
The economy was rough, but music shows were cheap. I went to shows several times a week for peanuts.
LesterMcGuire@reddit
We had peace for a minute. No more threat of global thermonuclear war
Ok_Initial373@reddit
My youth. Many firsts
dignan78@reddit
Kurt Cobain
Ceorl_Lounge@reddit
Literally nothing. I'm tired of the people overhyping the 90's, the good old days sucked for someone and sometimes that someone was me.
contructpm@reddit
Youth.