History UsefulNotes / The90s

* Unlike in, say, The50s, there was a ''huge'' stigma around dropping out of school. Not having a high school diploma essentially doomed one to a life of [[BurgerFool flipping burgers]], pushing shopping carts, and other menial, low-paying jobs with few prospects. Skipping class was also a no-no and carried some heavy penalties. Going to college was more or less expected and was considered the rule, not the exception. While not going to college wasn't terrible for you, if you didn't instead get a good job or enter the military right out of high school you were seen as slacking off. This may have had something to do with a lot of fathers in the era being Vietnam veterans, whose schooling was either interrupted or impossible due to being drafted. They wanted their children to have the education they never got.

* Cable (and, in the US, it was just cable; satellite TV didn't become a thing until very late in the decade like it did in the UK) was still largely a wasteland of reruns, [[UsefulNotes/{{Syndication}} syndicated shows]], cooking shows, infomercials, movies, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and]] [[PoorMansPorn scrambled softcore porn]]. The common joke about cable, as told in a famous Music/BruceSpringsteen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAlDbP4tdqc song]], was that it was "57 channels and nothin' on." Creator/USANetwork, for instance, was mainly known in those days for their game show reruns and the ''USA Cartoon Express''. The few channels that did become popular did so by carving out their own niches instead of trying to compete with broadcast television; Creator/{{MTV}} targeted teenage and young adult music fans, Creator/{{ESPN}} targeted sports fans, Creator/{{HBO}} targeted movie buffs, Creator/CartoonNetwork and Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} dueled for children's viewership, and the Creator/DiscoveryChannel, Creator/TheHistoryChannel, and Creator/{{TLC}} competed for people who wanted to feel smart. It was only at the end of the decade when HBO started debuting shows like ''Series/TheSopranos'' and ''Series/SexAndTheCity'' proved that cable was a viable outlet for popular original programming; before then, the Big Four networks stood dominant.

* WesternAnimation started [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation coming into its own]] after [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation decades of stagnation]].

*** More accurately, ''Toy Story'' was the film that proved ''to the public'' that CGI was a valid animation format. As far as the animation industry at large is concerned, the title of "Trend Starter" belongs to ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast''. The ballroom dance scene from that film, which was rendered completely by computer, was specifically pointed out as one of the reasons ''Beauty and the Beast'' was the first animated film to be nominated for an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best picture, something previously considered impossible.

* 1995 saw the beginning of UsefulNotes/Dogme95 by Danish filmmakers Creator/LarsVonTrier and Creator/ThomasVinterberg who, in an attempt bring power back to the directors from the studios while restricting special effects and gimmicks, created a manifesto referred to as the "Vow of Chasity" containing 10 rules (such as no genre films and all films must be shot on location) filmmakers should follow. Vinterberg's ''Film/TheCelebration'', released in 1998, was the first film to follow the rules of the manifesto (for the most part), and 34 other films have since been considered part of the movement.

The later part of the decade, meanwhile, saw the appearance of numerous games that would go on to influence the industry for the next decade. This includes ''VideoGame/HalfLife'', ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', the first three ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', both ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' games, the first two installments in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' franchise, and ''VideoGame/{{Silent Hill|1}}'', among many others. 1998 in particular may go down as the single "best" year in gaming history, much like how 1939 is remembered by film buffs as the high point of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood.\\\

* The 90s era is referred to as the main time period of UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks, in which comic books took an increasingly DarkerAndEdgier turn, often featuring [[NinetiesAntiHero gritty, violent anti-heroes with large weaponry]]. In 1992, Creator/ImageComics was formed and would go on to create many popular comics of the era, such as ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'', ''ComicBook/TheSavageDragon'', and ''ComicBook/TheMaxx''. Other notable comics of the era include ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Cable}}'', ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', ''ComicBook/SinCity'', ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'', and ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman''. The era is often considered to have ended with 1996's release of ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', which served to deconstruct the tropes of the area. In hindsight, the era is a point of contention, with critical views of the era's excess.

* The DVD first came into the United States in 1997, with ''Film/{{Twister}}'' and ''Film/BladeRunner: The Director's Cut'' the first two movies to be released on the new format. However, it wouldn't be until the following decade that the DVD really shone in popularity and sales figures. Until then, we were stuck with the poorer-quality, and much bulkier, VHS. The UsefulNotes/{{Laserdisc}}, the DVD's older, bigger cousin, was still around for the first half of the decade, but once the DVD emerged, [=LaserDisc=] popularity began dropping (though in Europe and especially Asia, the format remained popular into the early 2000s). All sorts of offshoots of VHS, [=LaserDisc=], and even mutated forms of the by-now largely forgotten Betamax were invented throughout the decade, mainly for semi-pro and professional use, or for means other than movies (karaoke, for instance).

* UsefulNotes/MP3 and other audio file formats also came into existence in the decade, but the earliest dedicated [=MP3=] players would not be seen until 1998, had very small storage space and were hideously expensive. Downloading an [=MP3=] file on dial-up internet could take ages; nevertheless, early [=MP3=] downloading sites and file-sharing emerged in the decade (see below). Those with less money and patience were stuck with ripping [=CDs=] to their computers or simply playing them straight off the disc.

* Kids book series really began to turn themselves into franchises, mainly thanks to their shared publisher, Scholastic. ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' was an anthology of horror books by R.L. Stine which had kids confronting lots of creepy stuff -- it spawned a [[Series/{{Goosebumps}} TV show]] on Creator/FoxKids. ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' revolved around a group of kids forced to save the Earth from an invasion of [[PuppeteerParasite Puppeteer Parasites]] with the power to change into different animals, and the horrors of war were taking their toll on the group. It also spawned a [[Series/{{Animorphs}} TV show]] on Nickelodeon, albeit a mediocre one. On the educational side of things, ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus'' took off on PBS (although the books began first), and was so popular it even aired on Fox Kids alongside ''Goosebumps'' (though it aired on weekday afternoons)! And ''Literature/HarryPotter'' also arrived on the scene, but didn't really take off until the next decade. ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' also appeared late in the decade, challenging adults who thought the series was "vulgar" and helping kids to get into reading. It hasn't really spawned much, although it has grown a dedicated fandom and got [[WesternAnimation/CaptainUnderpantsTheFirstEpicMovie a film adaptation in 2017]] (with an animated series soon to follow).

* This is the decade where international interest in ''[[SoapOpera telenovelas]]'' truly exploded, expanding even further that it was in the previous decade. The decade was practically dominated by Mexican shows, with Venezuelan ones following its steps, at least during the first half. Thalia became a household name on three continents, thanks to the three "María" soaps she starred, up to ''Series/MariaLaDelBarrio''. On the latter half, interest for productions from Brazil and Colombia's soaps increased, due to the comparatively "grittier" and "realistic" feeling they had compared with the most classical Mexican exports, without putting the romance on the backseat. Among the Brazilian soaps, series like ''Pantanal'' and ''Xica da Silva'' generated intercontinental interest, while Colombia grabbed some on its own with ''Café con aroma de Mujer'', ''Las Aguas Mansas'', and ''Series/YoSoyBettyLaFea''.

* The 90s era is referred to as the main time period of UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks, in which comic books took an increasingly DarkerAndEdgier turn, often featuring [[NinetiesAntiHero gritty, violent anti-heroes with large weaponry]]. In 1992, Creator/ImageComics was formed and would go on to create many popular comics of the era, such as ''Franchise/{{Spawn}}'', ''ComicBook/TheSavageDragon'', and ''ComicBook/TheMaxx''. Other notable comics of the era include ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Cable}}'', ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', ''ComicBook/SinCity'', ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'', and ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman''. The era is often considered to have ended with 1996's release of ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', which served to deconstruct the tropes of the area. In hindsight, the era is a point of contention, with critical views of the era's excess.

* Video gaming really started taking off with kids. The early '90s saw the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem and the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis (a.k.a Mega Drive outside of North America), which is seen by some as the first great UsefulNotes/{{console war|s}} -- to this day, it's truly difficult to tell who was the clear-cut winner. Gaming started improving from a technological standpoint, and by the late '90s we had both a 64-bit system and the birth of the compact disc as a gaming medium. Creator/{{Nintendo}} briefly owned the market again after Sega started imploding thanks to [[RightHandVersusLeftHand infighting between the American and Japanese divisions]] and [[ExecutiveMeddling general mismanagement]] resulting in the flop of the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, but [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation Sony]] would take over with the Playstation (one) starting in 1995 (as Nintendo began having issues with their UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 platform), and held a choke-hold until the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} came along in the mid '00s. The decade was also littered with various other console attempts that failed for myriad reasons, but have since gone on to be cult classics, including the aforementioned Saturn, the UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 and the UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer. With video games going 3D, side-scrolling platformers [[PopularityPolynomial fell out of favor]] (until nostalgia revived them in the next decade), and by 1997 you could expect to be ostracized for still having a 16-bit system. Ironically, 16-bit platformers have aged much better than most early 3D efforts.\\

A number of noteworthy trends took place in early-mid '90s gaming. Creator/{{Sega}}'s ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' pioneered the MascotWithAttitude in 1991, bringing a TotallyRadical flair into gaming and spawning a legion of [[FollowTheLeader copycats]] who would often take digs at [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]]. This trend went out of fashion by the end of the decade, as the Sonic franchise went through its [[UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn Saturn]]-era AudienceAlienatingEra and many of its copycats poorly handled their {{Video Game 3D Leap}}s, with 2001's ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'', a ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''-esque parody of the genre, providing the denouement. PreRenderedGraphics and virtual reality were also hyped up, with many people predicting that the future of gaming was in interactive movies and the ability to actually be ''in'' the game, man. After a few years of grainy, sub-VHS-quality video with [[DullSurprise production]] [[SpecialEffectFailure values]] [[NoBudget to match]], [[SensoryAbuse eye strain]], and bombs like the UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy and ''VideoGame/NightTrap'', gamers realized that, no, this was not the future.\\\

* UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} became a major cultural center for the country during the early '90s, as the home of {{grunge}}, ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' and UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows.

** Nevertheless, computers tended to be much more expensive and a comparative luxury by modern standards. Like televisions in the '50s, most homes had only one computer for the whole family to use (if they had one at all), and in the early part of the decade, it might not have been the latest and greatest model (indeed, a small number of 8-bit machines like the UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}} and the UsefulNotes/AppleII were still being made in the very early '90s). It would have almost certainly been a desktop, as laptops were bulky, expensive and underpowered compared to similarly-priced desktops, and didn't have the advantage of then non-existent wi-fi. Laptops were like cell phones in the early '90s: a status symbol for high-powered executives. For many young people, the only time when they had access to a reasonably modern computer was in school, and even then, it was usually only in the computer lab (if the school even had one). And even then, the odd old machine might be still lingering around for certain specific applications. As the decade wore on, [=PCs=] eventually declined in price, and it became a running joke that if you bought a new PC, chances are it would be out of date within 6 months!
** Another trend was the rise of the now industry standard PC, still sometimes referred to as "IBM compatibles" or "PC clones" due to compatibility with the original UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer. Already the de facto standard in the business world, it was with the rise of [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows 95]] and falling hardware prices that the standard really became ubiquitous. Windows 95 incorporated a much-improved user interface to the [[TechnologyMarchesOn once-innovative]] Windows 3.1, and integrated both Windows and nasty old DOS, the command-line now no longer being default. It also made something of the emerging multimedia boom. That said, Windows 95 and its sequels were, to greater or lesser extent, notoriously [[ObviousBeta buggy and error-prone]], so many businesses preferred the more stable Windows NT which also provided better support for things like networking, but wasn't really suitable for gaming.
** Prior to that, alternative, proprietary standards (most notably the Apple Mac, as well as, at least outside the US, the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} and that stalwart of British schools post-UsefulNotes/BBCMicro, the Platform/AcornArchimedes), were still modestly successful, and to their supporters, vastly superior to your average "PC clone". As IBM-clones rose in popularity, Apple went through an AudienceAlienatingEra and struggled to keep up until Steve Jobs returned and the iMac was launched, ending the preconception of computers as boring beige boxes with its iconic case design, as well as having such revolutionary things as built in USB ports and the CDR-R/RW drive replacing the floppy drive altogether. The fate of Commodore and Acorn was not so rosy: they both went out of business, although the Amiga and RISCOS platforms were still kept alive by enthusiasts, and the ARM processors found in the Platform/AcornArchimedes evolved into that which power our mobile phones, tablets and Raspberry Pis today. Scientists and engineers used UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} RISC workstations from companies like Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, HP, and DEC, until they started to be displaced by Windows NT and free Linux distributions running on Intel hardware; more on that below.

** A failed attempt to make a market for the new technology was the UsefulNotes/PhilipsCDi, which perhaps because people didn't know what it was supposed to be--the controls weren't really suitable for games, which were better served by traditional game consoles, Laserdisc offered better quality movies, whilst [=PCs=] did everything else and more--never took off. Nevertheless as an all-in-one home entertainment system, it was arguably slightly ahead of its time.

And it was always the phone line -- broadband was an option only found in a few areas and at a very high price at the very end of the decade, which meant that its use was reserved for the rich and for specialized fields (research, business, programming, servers). [[https://youtu.be/svmYyeRY11o&feature=related This sound]] came on every time you turned on your dial-up modem to hook up to the internet. If you wanted to, say, [[TheInternetIsForPorn look for sexy pictures online]], you would have to wait at least a minute for a grainy, 360x240 image of Cindy Margolis (one of the first sex symbols to become famous primarily through the internet) to slowly load on your screen. In the earlier part of the decade, the only way for home computers to access it was through a terminal emulator, meaning the internet was text-only. You also had to know UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} to use it. Basically, unless you had used the internet, you probably didn't even know it existed, especially early in the decade.\\

Some useful notes regarding the Real Life [[TheNineties 1990s]], from tropers who remember the decade.

* For the first time in U.S. history, more Americans lived in affluent suburban neighborhoods rather than in cities or towns or on farms. Fueled by this millions-strong middle class, the American "consumer culture" that had been burgeoning since TheFifties reached its [[ConspicuousConsumption apotheosis]]. There were more creature comforts and general amusements than ever before (including some that were relatively new for the decade, such as cellular phones and hand-held video game consoles), as well as more people to enjoy them and more dollars with which to buy them. The factor most responsible for setting the stage for this fabulous prosperity remains controversial among social scientists and political pundits, but the general consensus is that the country was reaping a generation's worth of benefits from a dramatic economic shift (dubbed the "New Economy") that had phased out the old industrial labor market (which, had allegedly subordinated the material interests of laborers to those of management) and reoriented American workers toward businesses that capitalized more on individual ingenuity and creativity (such as computer technology).

* MoralGuardians were at their most hot-and-bothered since TheFifties, as a result of shows like ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', [[MurderSimulators violent video games]] (more on that below) and musicians like Music/MarilynManson and most GangstaRap artists. The guardianship was thought to have [[JumpTheShark jumped the shark]] in 1994 when a Jerry Falwell-produced video claimed that President UsefulNotes/BillClinton was a SerialKiller [[ConspiracyTheorist who had ordered hits on political enemies]], but it came back with a vengeance after UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} provided them with a holy grail of things to panic about -- [[TeensAreMonsters two teenagers]] who [[MurderSimulators played]] ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and listened to [[TheNewRockAndRoll "violent" rock music]] shooting up their school while dressed in black.

* School busing had become very unwieldy in some parts of the country, with very few kids going to their local school unless they had no other choice. So how did kids get to school? More often than not, your parents drove you. Unlike in TheFifties, there was no stigma against it -- that was just how you got there. Since this was the era of "[[PaedoHunt Stranger Danger]]", it would only be under the rarest circumstances that a kid would walk to school -- usually, only if you could see the school from your front yard, and maybe not even then. If you couldn't walk, and your parents couldn't drive you, only then did you take the bus. If you didn't have parents ''or'' a bus as an option (a possibility, if your school had enough students within walking distance that it didn't run buses), you walked in a group.

* Unlike in, say, TheFifties, there was a ''huge'' stigma around dropping out of school. Not having a high school diploma essentially doomed one to a life of [[BurgerFool flipping burgers]], pushing shopping carts, and other menial, low-paying jobs with few prospects. Skipping class was also a no-no and carried some heavy penalties. Going to college was more or less expected and was considered the rule, not the exception. While not going to college wasn't terrible for you, if you didn't instead get a good job or enter the military right out of high school you were seen as slacking off. This may have had something to do with a lot of fathers in the era being Vietnam veterans, whose schooling was either interrupted or impossible due to being drafted. They wanted their children to have the education they never got.

* This being in the days before Academies and Free Schools, most of the time secondary school kids would still be attending [[TheGoodOldBritishComp their local comprehensive]] (only a few areas still having grammar schools) and (except in Scotland) studying according to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Curriculum_(England,_Wales_and_Northern_Ireland) National Curriculum]], introduced by the Government at the end of TheEighties.

* In the UK, it was this decade that finished Creator/TheBBC and [[Creator/{{ITV}} ITV]] duopoly once and for all, thanks in part to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasting_Act_1990 the deregulation of the Thatcher government]] and the emergence of satellite TV (and to a lesser extent cable). In terms of satellite TV, there was a short-lived rivalry between the government-backed British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB), offering a 5-channel lineup of varied, mostly British-oriented fare, and UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch's Creator/{{Sky}}, broadcasting on the pan-European Astra satellite along with a number of other early satellite/cable ventures, and relying much more on entertainment and US imports. This ended with the two services eventually "[[Main/InNameOnly merging]]" (read: BSB was taken over by Sky) in late 1990. On the terrestrial front, Creator/Channel4 stopped being funded by ITV, and took a more commercial direction with sometimes raunchy live entertainment shows, as opposed to the more dry, intellectual fare it presented in TheEighties; whilst the launch of Creator/Channel5 (with accompanying Music/SpiceGirls video) promised a new, fresh approach to over-the-air broadcasting (but ultimately being notorious for its mildly sordid late night fare).

** Disney fans frequently cherish the decade as the studio's second Golden Age, an era known as the "Disney Renaissance". After a brief AudienceAlienatingEra in TheEighties, the Mouse Factory came roaring back with a string of hits in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1''. As a child growing up in TheNineties, you were ostracized if you had not seen ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' yet.
** On that note, ''Toy Story'' started the trend towards [[AllCGICartoon using CGI in animated movies]]. While 2D and 3D animation lived side-by-side for TheNineties, ever-improving CGI and the runaway success of Creator/{{Pixar}} meant that the handwriting was increasingly on the wall for traditional 2D cel animation.

* This was a tough decade for musical theater. With the "megamusical" trend Creator/AndrewLloydWebber spearheaded in TheEighties quietly fading away, the only stage musicals that attracted mainstream media attention were ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'' and two shows adapted from then-recent Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon successes (''Beauty and the Beast'' and ''The Lion King'').

* Nowadays, '90s fashion is often remembered as being indistinguishable from either TheEighties or the TurnOfTheMillennium, depending on whether or not the focus is before 1996. While there were some stylistic similarities due to the proximity of time (urban wear, in particular, has seen little change since the days of Music/{{NWA}}), in some respects the styles were ''vastly'' different. More noticeably different are the styles earlier in the decade; fashion in the mid-90's[[note]]roughly 1992 to about 1998[[/note]] had a definite "grunge" look to it, and early '90s fashion[[note]]1990 until about early-mid 1992[[/note]] included many features held over from the late '80s. Bright "pop" colors were very much ''au courant'', with aquamarine sported by many boys and hot pink a favorite of girls (and, to a lesser degree, [[RealMenWearPink boys too]]).

* In glaring contrast to the arch accessorizing by young middle-class fashion plates in TheEighties, kids in this decade (or at least during the early and middle parts of it) seemed to scorn looking like your clothes had actually been ironed. Fashions for young men became rumpled and rather clownish, with unbuttoned pendleton shirts, baggy shorts or jeans with ridiculously wide legs, and sloppy caps sported atop mops of unkempt, occasionally dangling strands of hair. Not all boys dressed like this of course, but the ridiculously casual aesthetic caught on to some degree everywhere. And if we are to believe Cher in ''Film/{{Clueless}}'', girls did not find this look attractive ''at all''.
* From approximately the middle of the decade onward there was a revival of [[TheSixties '60s]] and [[TheSeventies '70s]] Hippie-style clothes and jewelry -- the Peace symbol, Yin-Yang, and Smiley Face in particular -- and then Rave culture surfaced, which had an "infantilizing" effect (girls dressed as fairies and Muppets, guys looking like Creator/DrSeuss characters with giant hats, and neon pony beads EVERYWHERE).

* UsefulNotes/LasVegas, after spending TheEighties in rundown shape, was gradually transformed into a luxury casino resort hotbed in the wake of the 1989 opening of Steve Wynn's Mirage Hotel and Casino. The city also tried to cultivate a "family-friendly" image in order to attract more affluent baby boomers and their tweener children, but this proved a dud and ended when Wynn's lavish Bellagio Hotel and Casino opened in 1998.

* What was rock music like in the '90s? Well, HairMetal hung on for the first couple of years in bold defiance of changing tides, but was soon acid-washed from history by {{grunge}}. Grunge, in turn, suffered a backlash as Music/KurtCobain [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]] and increasingly derivative bands partook in a lyrical style that Creator/NathanRabin dubbed "Hunger-Dunger-Dang." However, even though grunge itself was out, the musical style influenced many bands in what is now known as "PostGrunge", which became prevalent late in the decade and remained so until Main/TheNewTwenties. NuMetal arose and peaked around the same time as post-grunge, and Music/{{emo}} was first starting to get mainstream attention thanks to Music/{{Weezer}}.

** Many college students across America followed Lo-Fi, the UsefulNotes/LosAngeles[=/=]UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}-based indie rock genre spearheaded by Music/{{Pavement}}, Music/NeutralMilkHotel, and Music/{{Beck}}.

* The 1990s was the decade in which the popularity of VisualKei in Japan became almost as widespread as it would ever be. The various subgenres formed out of and split off from Visual Shock, several of the original Visual Shock bands were at the apex of their fame for the time being (and some for their entire careers), and the era is considered one of the most creative and innovative within Visual. More can be found on the Useful Notes page for Visual Kei, but the scene and its subgenres that existed at the time were doing ''very'' well for a while. The combined onslaught of the years of the Lost Decade economy finally wearing down economic input and interest in the scene, a series of major break-ups and hiatuses (Music/XJapan, Music/{{Kuroyume}}, Music/MaliceMizer, Music/LunaSea, Music/{{SEIKIMAII}} and many others would all be disbanded by 2000, with most reuniting around late in TheNoughties or early in TheNewTens), a series of public scandals and deaths (including that of one of the founders of the scene, Hideto "hide" Matsumoto, and Malice Mizer's drummer, Kami), and general interest in rock and metal dying out for a while made this drop off as the 2000s began, until international interest and renewed interest locally, the advent of Website/YouTube showing off old bands to new fans, and an infusion of new talent in the forms of acts such as Music/{{Miyavi}}, Music/DirEnGrey and the advent of adapted styles such as the LighterAndSofter Oshare Kei and Digital Kei would revive the scene in the late 2000s.
* The '90s were the decade in which HipHop and rap music first began to receive widespread attention from white listeners, and began to expand beyond its [[BigApplesauce New York]] base. The Music/BeastieBoys, Music/RunDMC, Music/MCHammer, Music/CypressHill, Music/HouseOfPain and Music/VanillaIce helped bring it to mainstream attention early in the decade (and late in [[TheEighties the preceding one]]), but the defining trend in '90s rap music was undoubtedly GangstaRap. The influence of gangsta rap was such that, to this day, many people (particularly those who didn't grow up with hip-hop) [[SmallReferencePools associate all rap music]] with the thug life stories popularized by Music/{{NWA}}, Music/SnoopDogg, [[Music/TupacShakur 2pac]] and [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Biggie]]. These thug life stories were also the cause of a another major moral panic, with [[MoralGuardians cultural critics]] on both sides deriding the music for its perceived violence, obscenity, misogyny, homophobia and black militancy. Gangsta rap peaked in the mid-'90s with the East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry, and while it declined in influence from there, it had given rap music enough cultural clout to survive on its own. For much of the '90s, [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy white kids who listened to rap music]] were mocked, and were frequently hit with TotallyRadical jokes.

* The mid-1990s also heralded the "rebirth" of Rhythm & Blues, though the result was much mellower and slower than the R&B of TheSixties and TheSeventies with artists like Music/{{Babyface}}, Music/RKelly, Gerald Levert, Music/BoyzIIMen and En Vogue.

* The mid '90s also saw the rebirth of swing music/dance, as well as some clothing styles (mostly bowling shirts) from TheFifties. Within a few years, the fad had faded, but the music, dance, and to a lesser degree the clothing, was at a higher baseline than before the boom. This is probably best showcased in the movie ''Film/{{Swingers}}''.
* For a small, brief moment, sometime around 1990-93, groups looking for a looser, more organic break from TheEighties who did not want to join {{Grunge}}mania donned bellbottoms, lacy (or striped) shirts, Dr. Seuss hats, platform shoes and vintage music gear (Wurlitzer electric pianos to the fore!), played [[TheSeventies 1970's-inspired rock, Power Pop and funk]] and formed the "retro" movement. Music/LennyKravitz, Spin Doctors, Music/{{Jellyfish}}, Blind Melon and Music/{{The Black Crowes}} were the most famous artists from this movement, although it also provided its share of OneHitWonder alternative radio-to-pop radio crossover bands like 4 Non Blondes and School of Fish.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurodance Eurodance]] was extremely popular throughout TheNineties and [[TurnOfTheMillennium the early oughts]] in much of the whole western world ([[AmericansHateTingle except for the United States]]). Some of the most recognized bands of the genre include artists such as the Dutch-Belgian/Dutch group [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Unlimited 2 Unlimited]], Italian group [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_65 Eiffel 65]] (best known in the States for their OneHitWonder "I'm Blue (Da Ba Dee)"), Danish group Music/{{Aqua}} (best known in the States for their OneHitWonder "Barbie Girl") and group [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modjo Modjo]].

** While electronic music was massively popular in Europe and was growing fanbases all over the globe, especially in Australia and parts of Asia and South America, the US music market was [[AmericansHateTingle a much tougher nut to crack]]. Dubbed as "electronica", the music felt perpetually on the cusp of breaking through to the pop mainstream, but despite high hopes from fans, dread from conservative music listeners, and a lot of hype in the press, electronic music remained a largely niche phenomenon in the US. It wouldn't be until TheNewTens that it would finally make a big splash.

* The biggest celebrity of TheEighties, Music/MichaelJackson, started the decade off well with the album ''Dangerous''. But in 1993, accusations of child molestation and his choice to settle out of court with the alleged victim's family, as well as with the son of one of his maids over similar claims, soiled his FriendToAllChildren reputation and started a downward trajectory for his career. By decade's end, he was better known (particularly in the U.S.) for his tabloid-friendly antics than his music, and this would not change until [[PosthumousPopularityPotential his death in 2009]].

* As stated above, TheNineties was the era in which the MoralGuardians were always in a tizzy. While it was brewing in the '80s and early '90s (UsefulNotes/DanQuayle's complaints about ''Series/MurphyBrown'', the [[MediaScaremongering moral panics]] over [[RockMeAsmodeus heavy metal]] and Satanic cults), the presence of conservative Presidents UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush meant that the Christian Right felt itself to have a friend in the White House (regardless of how Reagan and Bush felt), and never felt truly pressured. However, the rise of UsefulNotes/BillClinton (the sax-playing, Creator/{{MTV}}-loving horndog who "[[LoopholeAbuse smoked but didn't inhale]]") in 1992 and the high profile of [[UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton his wife Hillary]] (who, during the election, gave off the image of a textbook StrawFeminist thanks to her [[DeadpanSnarker snarky quotes]] about baking cookies and "standing by my man like Tammy Wynette") set off many religious conservatives. The first real shot was fired by Patrick Buchanan in his infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_war "culture war"]] speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention, which became a rallying point for millions on the Christian Right who made "public morality" a major issue throughout the '90s.

* Even with all the MoralGuardians running around, the '90s saw something of a reversal of opinion on homosexuality, and the rebirth of the gay rights movement. While acceptance of gay people was a ways behind what it is today, and gay marriage was never on the table, views of homosexuality were still miles ahead of the blatant homophobia that ran in TheEighties. This was helped, in part, by an increasingly large number of celebrities coming out as gay, some less than willingly. In the '90s, there was something of a drive by various media outlets to "out" as many people as they could.

* Another, and possibly greater, factor in the rise of gay rights was the breaking of the taboo surrounding AIDS. Throughout TheEighties, AIDS was perceived as "[[TheScourgeOfGod God's punishment]] against gays and junkies", which killed cruelly and almost immediately, and was transmitted through means not yet entirely understood. [[note]]Scientists suspected from fairly early on that AIDS was spread through bodily fluids only, but the public took some convincing. There was an idea going around in the Eighties that you could catch it from toilet seats.[[/note]] But a couple of high-profile deaths -- along with much-loved (and straight) basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson announcing that he was HIV-positive in 1991 -- changed the public's opinion:

* From our perch in TheNewTwenties, the '90s can seem hopelessly primitive. In fact, dramatic change was the norm throughout the decade: it began with a handful of people on Usenet or text-only [=BBSes=][[note]]Bulletin Board Systems, tiny message boards usually run by someone out of his basement and/or bedroom, to which you dialed in directly (as in "Come check out my kewl BBS! 555-1212, 8 bits, parity, no stop bit.")[[/note]], and ended with everyone and their dog having web pages and sharing music on Napster. We even had viral videos -- [[WesternAnimation/{{SouthPark}} "The Spirit of Christmas"]] came out in 1995, and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troops_%28film%29 "Troops"]] came out in 1997. (You had to download them in pieces, because they were too large to be downloaded all at once.)
* This was the decade when personal computers really transitioned from the hi-tech novelty of TheEighties to being an essential part of everyday life, in the home as well as workplaces and schools. Improving technology expanded the scope of what computers were for -- multimedia, desktop publishing, and of course the internet -- making them worthwhile for more people to get, whilst the rise of graphical user interfaces that had began in the mid-'80s made them more user-friendly than the old text-based/command line driven systems impenetrable to non-specialists and "whiz-kids".

* Meanwhile, in the music world, it was the domain of the CD, and to a lesser extent the cassette; vinyl had been pushed into obscurity and at most was only really used by [=DJs=], collectors, people who wanted to listen to albums unavailable on CD, audiophiles, and the hopelessly backward. Labels issued vinyl versions of albums as limited editions if they issued them at all. Cassettes were the main means of recording audio and listening to it on the move, although portable CD players existed and by the end of the decade, recordable CD formats (CD-R and CD-RW) had become affordable for consumers. A whole host of technologies had previously tried to replace the analogue audio cassette; besides a whole host of not-very-successful digital tape formats, by far the most well-known was probably Minidisc, though even that never really caught on and the players/recorders remained quite expensive compared to cheaper cassette machines. The CD had already been introduced in UsefulNotes/TheEighties, but was considered an expensive luxury for audiophiles. It was only around the turn of the decade that the format finally began to take off, thanks to dropping prices of players and discs.

* Banking was changed forever by digital technology. In 1990, [=ATMs=] were rare [[note]]and virtually always attached to, if not ''inside'', a bank[[/note]], by 1999, they were on every street corner. Ditto for in store debit, and the number of places that took credit cards. This was enabled by the growth of POS systems that used magnetic strips displacing the old "knuckle busters" and making processing payments faster. Many people made only minimum payments on their credit cards, as the Depression-era stigma against being in debt had almost completely faded away and banks were much more generous with cards and credit lines. Households were also highly leveraged with mortgages and car loans. No one anticipated that this level of debt would ever cause problems down the line. TheNineties became the decade where the only reason to actually talk to someone who worked at the bank was to get a loan or open an account. Until the very late 1990's it was unheard of to pay for fast food with a card. And you certainly wouldn't expect to be able to use your card at a vending machine. Credit cards were still mainly used for big-ticket items, in retail stores, for mail order, in gas stations, and in full-service restaurants. There were plenty of places to use them, with the peak of brick-and-mortar retail, the advent of e-commerce, and the general prosperity of the era.

** Prior to that, alternative, proprietary standards (most notably the Apple Mac, as well as, at least outside the US, the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} and that stalwart of British schools post-UsefulNotes/BBCMicro, the UsefulNotes/AcornArchimedes), were still modestly successful, and to their supporters, vastly superior to your average "PC clone". As IBM-clones rose in popularity, Apple went through an AudienceAlienatingEra and struggled to keep up until Steve Jobs returned and the iMac was launched, ending the preconception of computers as boring beige boxes with its iconic case design, as well as having such revolutionary things as built in USB ports and the CDR-R/RW drive replacing the floppy drive altogether. The fate of Commodore and Acorn was not so rosy: they both went out of business, although the Amiga and RISCOS platforms were still kept alive by enthusiasts, and the ARM processors found in the UsefulNotes/AcornArchimedes evolved into that which power our mobile phones, tablets and Raspberry Pis today. Scientists and engineers used UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} RISC workstations from companies like Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, HP, and DEC, until they started to be displaced by Windows NT and free Linux distributions running on Intel hardware; more on that below.

Due to this transition period, the 90s also saw some now nearly forgotten phone technologies, and strange juxtapositions. Rotary phones (the kind with an analog dial) were still a common sight when cell phones came into the market, so a single household might be using both early 20th century and cutting edge phone technology. There were also "car phones" which could not be used effectively outside the vehicle and were of questionable use inside the vehicle. At home, caller ID was first introduced, creating a minor revolution in how people used the phone, since calls could be screened without resorting to the hassle of an answering machine.

* Up in Canada, the decade was full of turmoil mostly relating to the lead commercial network Creator/{{CTV}}, as Baton Broadcasting, owners of flagship CFTO-9 in UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}, plotted their takeover of the entire network, and by the late 90s, had mostly succeeded. Creator/{{Global}} gradually expanded from a system into a full-fledged network over the decade, and caught in the middle was WIC, whose dominant CTV affiliate in UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}, CHAN (BCTV) had their already-rocky relationship with the network deteriorate as Baton gradually took over; ultimately Global's owner [=CanWest=] purchased WIC (after a legal tug-of-war between them and Shaw Communications, as both were WIC shareholders), resulting in a major DisasterDominoes situation (similar to the New World/Fox deal described above) by the beginning of the next decade.

* Combining the above two points, the pop princesses of the 90's were mostly R&B artists. Music/MariahCarey, Music/{{TLC}}, Music/{{Brandy}} (whose TV show ''Series/{{Moesha}}'' was ''the'' show for teen girls), Monica, and so on. The Music/SpiceGirls were the exception (Music/BritneySpears and Music/ChristinaAguilera didn't get big until '99 and are thus better associated with the 2000's).

** Some punk bands had incorporated melodic elements in their music for quite some time but this decade saw the PopPunk subgenre became mainstream, especially after a number of independent bands decided to sign to major labels. The success particularly set in with Music/GreenDay's major label debut Music/{{Dookie}}, which would reach Diamond certification by 1999. Music/Blink182 and Music/TheOffSpring were also among the groups who released multi-platinum albums while others would also find success with MTV and the annual Warped Tour (formed in 1995) becoming a big promoters of the genre. This success was controversial within the punk community with some feeling these bands were selling out and that punk was being co-opted by big industry. Regardless, the genre continued to enjoy popularity well into the next decade.

* Cell phones were in the transition period between the giant bricks of the '80s and the smaller, sleeker, multimedia-enabled devices of today. While prices were coming down, they were still most definitely a luxury item, even more so than a home computer, and were predominantly the domain of businessmen and people who worked on the go. For the rest of us, there were pagers. (Remember Series/{{Buffy|TheVampireSlayer}} saying "If the Apocalypse comes, beep me"? That's a pager she's talking about.) Cell phones started becoming smaller, cheaper and more common late in the decade, but even then, anything beyond the basics (sending and receiving calls and text messages) was reserved only for the most high-end models. Service was found only in more urban areas, and was still rather spotty. Text messaging was a lot more expensive than it is today, and was practically unheard of. It wasn't for nothing that most people still relied on land lines during this period, and things like pay phones and the Yellow Pages (massive {{doorstopper}} books that listed all phone numbers in a given area, which still exist today, but are notorious for being immediately thrown out due to their uselessness) were commonplace.

** Some punk bands had incorporated melodic elements in their music for quite some time but this decade saw the PopPunk subgenre became mainstream, especially after a number of independent bands decided to sign to major labels. The success particularly set in with Music/GreenDay's major label debut Music/Dookie, which would reach Diamond certification by 1999. Music/Blink182 and Music/TheOffSpring were also among the groups who released multi-platinum albums while others would also find success with MTV and the annual Warped Tour (formed in 1995) becoming a big promoters of the genre. This success was controversial within the punk community with some feeling these bands were selling out and that punk was being co-opted by big industry. Regardless, the genre continued to enjoy popularity well into the next decade.

* In 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first cloned mammal. Cloning had already entered public awareness as a powerful technology through the immense popularity of ''Jurassic Park'', and the fruition of a mammalian clone brought considerable public fear that humans would be cloned next (not uncommonly for reasons based purely on [[CloningBlues fictional portrayals]]).

* The '90s were the decade in which HipHop and rap music first began to receive widespread attention from white listeners, and began to expand beyond its [[BigApplesauce New York]] base. The Music/BeastieBoys, Music/RunDMC, Music/MCHammer, Music/CypressHill, Music/HouseOfPain and Music/VanillaIce helped bring it to mainstream attention early in the decade (and late in [[TheEighties the preceding one]]), but the defining trend in '90s rap music was undoubtedly GangstaRap. The influence of gangsta rap was such that, to this day, many people (particularly those who didn't grow up with hip-hop) [[SmallReferencePools associate all rap music]] with the thug life stories popularized by Music/{{NWA}}, Music/SnoopDogg, [[Music/TupacShakur 2pac]] and [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Biggie]]. These thug life stories were also the cause of a another major moral panic, with [[MoralGuardians cultural critics]] on both sides deriding the music for its perceived violence, obscenity, misogyny, homophobia and black militancy. Gangsta rap peaked in the mid-'90s with the East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry, and while it declined in influence from there, it had given rap music enough cultural clout to survive on its own. For much of the '90s, [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy white kids who listened to rap music]] were considered AcceptableTargets, and were frequently hit with TotallyRadical jokes.

* The [[TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks 24-hour cable news machine]] really got its motor running in the '90s, starting with Creator/{{CNN}}'s famous coverage of UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar. With national stories coming to a head (UsefulNotes/BillClinton's [[CaughtWithYourPantsDown involvement with Monica Lewinsky]]; [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome JonBenet Ramsey]]; UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}}; UsefulNotes/OJSimpson), a combination of the networks and the Internet made reporting what it is today (same info repeated ad nauseum, new info as needed). Sadly, this also started the trend of news networks latching onto and subsequently [[WorstNewsJudgementEver over-reporting on whatever they deemed to be the "next big thing"]].

* Partisan politics (in the US) were extremely volatile, though nowhere near as much as today. Until the 1990s, right-wing media was more or less restricted to print, but new elements like ''The Radio/RushLimbaugh Show'' (est. 1988) and Creator/FoxNewsChannel (est. 1996) helped bring political arguments into every day life. Left-wing media still had a few years to catch up.

** Disney fans frequently cherish the decade as the studio's second GoldenAge, an era known as the "Disney Renaissance". After a brief AudienceAlienatingEra in TheEighties, the Mouse Factory came roaring back with a string of hits in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1''. As a child growing up in TheNineties, you were ostracized if you had not seen ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' yet.

* A number of independent films managed to not only receive critical acclaim but varying degrees of success at the box office. ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'', released in 1990, grossed over 100 million at the box office and was the highest grossing independent film at the time. The Sundance Film Festival, owned by Creator/RobertRedford, helped gain momentum for an independent film movement. Mini-major Creator/MiramaxFilms helped launched the careers of many directors like Creator/StevenSoderbergh, Creator/QuentinTarantino, and Creator/KevinSmith; they also began an 11 year streak of having a film nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture (a feat no other studio was able to do while the number of films that could be nominated per year was 5). By the end of the decade though, a number of the major studios either made their own independent film divisions (Fox Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics and Paramount Classics) or bought a mini-major that specialized in independent films (Disney bought Miramax in 1993; UsefulNotes/TedTurner bought Creator/NewLineCinema in 1994 then merged with Time Warner in 1996). This helped make independent films more mainstream and institutionalized in the process.

A number of noteworthy trends took place in early-mid '90s gaming. Creator/{{Sega}}'s ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' pioneered the MascotWithAttitude in 1991, bringing a TotallyRadical flair into gaming and spawning a legion of [[FollowTheLeader copycats]] who would often take digs at [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]]. This trend went out of fashion by the end of the decade, as the Sonic franchise went through its [[UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn Saturn]]-era AudienceAlienatingEra and many of its copycats poorly handled their {{Video Game 3D Leap}}s, with 2001's ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'', a ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''-esque parody of the genre, providing the denouement. FullMotionVideo and virtual reality were also hyped up, with many people predicting that the future of gaming was in interactive movies and the ability to actually be ''in'' the game, man. After a few years of grainy, sub-VHS-quality video with [[DullSurprise production]] [[SpecialEffectFailure values]] [[NoBudget to match]], [[SensoryAbuse eye strain]], and bombs like the UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy and ''VideoGame/NightTrap'', gamers realized that, no, this was not the future.\\\

* What was rock music like in the '90s? Well, HairMetal hung on for the first couple of years in bold defiance of changing tides, but was soon acid-washed from history by {{grunge}}. Grunge, in turn, suffered a backlash as Music/KurtCobain [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]] and increasingly derivative bands partook in a lyrical style that Creator/NathanRabin dubbed "Hunger-Dunger-Dang." However, even though grunge itself was out, the musical style influenced many bands in what is now known as "PostGrunge", which became prevalent late in the decade and remained so until UsefulNotes/TheNewTwenties. NuMetal arose and peaked around the same time as post-grunge, and Music/{{emo}} was first starting to get mainstream attention thanks to Music/{{Weezer}}.

And it was always the phone line -- broadband was an option only found in a few areas and at a very high price, which meant that its use was reserved for the rich and for specialized fields (research, business, programming, servers). [[https://youtu.be/svmYyeRY11o&feature=related This sound]] came on every time you turned on your dial-up modem to hook up to the internet. If you wanted to, say, [[TheInternetIsForPorn look for sexy pictures online]], you would have to wait at least a minute for a grainy, 360x240 image of Cindy Margolis (one of the first sex symbols to become famous primarily through the internet) to slowly load on your screen. In the earlier part of the decade, the only way for home computers to access it was through a terminal emulator, meaning the internet was text-only. You also had to know UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} to use it. Basically, unless you had used the internet, you probably didn't even know it existed, especially early in the decade.\\

** Outside of family friendly animated films, there were only a few American teen or adult oriented animated films, such as ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoAmerica'' and ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''. Based on popular TV programs, those two did manage to be quite successful at the box office, the latter being the highest grossing rated R animated film until 2016's ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty''.

*** Creator/DreamWorksAnimation also began its rivalry with Pixar with their debut feature, ''WesternAnimation/{{Antz}}''. Like Pixar's second feature film, ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'', it was [[DuelingWorks a cgi animated film centered around bugs that was released in 1998]]. [=DreamWorks=] still did 2D features as well during this time as well, such as ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', though they did not match the commercial success of their CGI films.

*** In general, with the exception ''Antz'', ''The Prince of Egypt'', and ''Anastasia'', very few non-Disney animated movies were successful. Many were produced during this time, but most were [[BoxOfficeBomb box-office failures]]. Many of these movies deliberately imitated the formula Disney had developed over the course of the 1990s, with Warner Bros.s' ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'' being one of the most notorious Disney copies.
** Outside of family friendly animated films, there were only a few American teen or adult oriented animated films WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoAmerica and WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut. Based on popular tv programs, those two did manage to be quite successful at the box office, the latter being the highest grossing rated R animated film until 2016's WesternAnimation/SausageParty.

* {{Anime}} was just starting to gain a following in the United States during the middle of the decade. Whilst ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' might have proved that the medium could be taken seriously as adult entertainment, much of it was still adapted for kids. The girls of the day had ''Anime/SailorMoon'', the boys had ''Anime/DragonBallZ''... and unless you wanted to do some really hardcore searching, that was pretty much it.[[note]]Said searching would turn up series like ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'', ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'', ''Manga/CaseClosed'', ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'', ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', ''Manga/InitialD'', ''Manga/OutlawStar'', ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'', ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Pokémon]]'' and ''Anime/YuGiOh''.[[/note]] Of course, these anime were {{Bowdlerise}}d out the wazoo. But most kids didn't know that, as they had nothing to compare it to. The only way to acquire {{manga}} was through specialty stores and importers, and it was expensive and often poorly translated (if it was translated at all). In 1998, ''[[Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries Pokémon]]'' showed up and really kick-started the anime boom, allowing it to take root in the West and become the industry it is today.

** Prior to that, alternative, proprietary standards (most notably the Apple Mac, as well as, at least outside the US, the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} and that stalwart of British schools post-UsefulNotes/BBCMicro, the UsefulNotes/AcornArchimedes), were still modestly successful, and to their supporters, vastly superior to your average "PC clone". As IBM-clones rose in popularity, Apple went through an AudienceAlienatingEra and struggled to keep up until Steve Jobs returned and the iMac was launched, ending the preconception of computers as boring beige boxes with its iconic case design, as well as having such revolutionary things as built in USB ports and the CDR-R/RW drive replacing the floppy drive altogether. The fate of Commodore and Acorn was not so rosy: they both went out of business, although the Amiga and RISCOS platforms were still kept alive by enthusiasts, and the ARM processors found in the UsefulNotes/AcornArchimedes evolved into that which power our mobile phones, tablets and Raspberry Pis today. Scientists and engineers used UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} RISC workstations from companies like Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, and HP, until they started to be displaced by Windows NT and free Linux distributions running on Intel hardware; more on that below.

* In the UK, it was this decade that finished Creator/TheBBC and [[Creator/{{ITV}} ITV]] duopoly once and for all, thanks in part to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasting_Act_1990 the deregulation of the Thatcher government]] and the emergence of satellite TV (and to a lesser extent cable). In terms of satellite TV, there was a short-lived rivalry between the government-backed British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB), offering a 5-channel lineup of varied, mostly British-oriented fare, and UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch's Creator/{{Sky}}, broadcasting on the pan-European Astra satellite along with a number of other early satellite/cable ventures, and relying much more on entertainment and US imports. This ended with the two services eventually "[[Main/InNameOnly merging]]" (read: BSB was taken over by Sky) in late 1990. On the terrestrial front, Creator/Channel4 stopped being funded by ITV, and took a more commercial direction with sometimes raunchy live entertainment shows, as opposed to the more dry, intellectual fare it presented in TheEighties; whilst the launch of Creator/ChannelFive (with accompanying Music/SpiceGirls video) promised a new, fresh approach to over-the-air broadcasting (but ultimately being notorious for its mildly sordid late night fare).

Outside the PC and console arenas, arcades were still popular in the first half of the '90s. Many big restaurants and other establishments had at least one or two machines, and many department stores of the day had a section (usually at the entrance) where the arcade games could be found. At the start of the decade, these machines only needed one quarter to play, just like in the '80s. Then ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 Mortal Kombat]]'' and other games came out which needed two quarters to play, and the prices would only go up from there. Around the mid '90s, arcades began a long decline in popularity, as home consoles started catching up to what the dedicated hardware of an arcade cabinet was capable of. While they were still somewhat popular by 2000, by then the writing was on the wall. Averted in Japan, however: In Japan, arcades are viewed as social hang-out spots for children and teenagers, particularly in urban areas. Any noticeable decline in arcade density in Japan would not occur until around 2014, and for entirely different reasons than in the west.\\\

* One of the key figures of '90s controversy was Joycelyn Elders, the Surgeon General under Bill Clinton. Everything that came out of her mouth pissed off her opponents: from the suggestion that schools distribute contraceptives and teach a more comprehensive sexual education program to the idea that drugs should be legalized. However, the one concept that will always follow her around was the suggestion that young people should [[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbate]] instead of engaging in potentially risky sexual activity. This was the final nail in her coffin, and she was out after that.