Trends Pushing The Envelope In The 90s

The focus finally lifted away from the baby boomers who were now the establishment. They had to deal with the fact that their children were now about to take over and dictate what was hip. This generation of kids which ranged from those born in 1965 to the 90s was known as Generation X. And with this label was an offensive stereotype, a group of shiftless, lazy kids who don't care about anything or want to make the world better. The retort of Generation X was to point out that the baby boomers did a lot of talk of saving the world while stoned out of their mind, but didn't change things and went back to a self-centered focus in the 70s.

Music was different. What used to be known as Rock and Roll didn't really exist. It had been broken and segmented into many different music forms. What had once been fringe rock called alternative music in the 70s and 80s was now mainstream and mellowed. Hip hop music was now permanently out of the inner city urban areas to mainstream radio and video. The new sound of music included grunge, an evolution of the punk sound. But that was all killed off by the studio produced bands and singers that were touted more for an image instead of real talent.

Speaking of music video, MTV which was the hot thing of the 80s which actually showed up and coming groups became a vast wasteland of sellout music. Unless you fit a mainstream criteria, your chances of showing up were next to nothing. Then towards the late 90s it became less about music videos and more about music related topics and grooming itself to reality shows. Yawn!

The music videos shown were less often on the creative side as the 80s. Mostly consisting of bands just playing, one could feel like they were part of a live concert instead of watching a cheesy act which was largely criticized in the 80s. One can't help but notice the difference of how bands dressed in the 90s versus the 60s. People used to have a degree of class and decorum. Even the Beatles and the Stones dressed up in a suit and tie. Bands of modern days look like they wore their clothes to bed.

Dress was extremely casual. It is a common item for people to have sweat suits, even if they were in fact couch potatoes. Actually, especially if you were a couch potato, these baggy garments were comfortable to wear as you continued to dine on Big Macs and do an occasional workout like our leader, Bill Clinton. Casual Fridays were commonplace in the corporate world. There was a definite lack of dignity in even what was supposed to be a professional atmosphere, so what else could you expect for the everyday person on the street?

Body art (a fancy modern term for a tatoo) and body piercing was to show you were not a part of the establishment. People would risk the possibility of HIV just to make a statement they don't follow the crowd, by following their buddies to get this sometimes painful work done. I have to laugh for a minute. In the 80s everyone rushed out to get a painted mohawk and thought that was cool, the kids of the 90s laughed at that. Give it another 10 years, people are going to laugh their heads off at the rebellious 90s kids.

If you were into the grunge scene, chances are you dressed in baggy pants, loose flannel shirts and Birkenstocks. If you were into the hip hop scene, it was usually pants so baggy your underwear was hanging out of the top and your shirt was so big it could be a dress with Nike shoes or any line of sports shoes.

The 90s brought a new trend of people who were tired of the rat race and wanted quick riches. There was the ever growing entrepreneur, corporate raiders, and day traders.

At least the entrepreneur was the least dangerous of the bunch. The mission was to have a business where they could work at home and not leave the family all day. Some were successful and others had to return to the workforce. This was usually a growing trend due to the many number of MLM companies who promised people the sky and failed to deliver.

Day traders were only a danger to themselves. With easy access to the Internet, many a novice thought they, too, could be stock traders and make big money overnight, after all, they heard stories of people who did. Unfortunately, most people were not as savvy as they thought and lost what should have been their nest egg by playing the market unwisely. Then there were those who had a streak of luck and got careless and lost huge sums of money in one day.

The most dangerous of this bunch was the corporate raider. These were companies or people whose job it was to buy companies that were failing or not thriving very well on paper. They promised upon buying the company they would inflate the value of the stock and company earnings. A few would make good on their word and did not hurt anyone. Many instead laid off many workers, including those who were 10-15 years away from retirement and replaced by young, inexperienced workers who got paid much less. By cutting down costs and replacing experienced people with underpaid inexperienced people, service went downhill. When it looked good on paper, the corporate raiders would claim they did their job and sell out their stock and the company would become virtually worthless overnight. This made those companies which had good, strong reputations into struggling companies or out of business. The people left behind were hurt, but the raiders were often millions of dollars richer.

If you were the suburban "soccer mom" you were spared the tragedies of dealing with the corporate world and given a new toy - the SUV. These all-terrain vehicles which were meant for rugged lands was now being overused on smooth-paved highways and suburban roads. Drivers believing they had such a powerful vehicle tended to be overly aggressive drivers with a tendency to engage in road rage which was a growing trend. Dangerous drivers were cluttering the streets and no one was safe. Those who thought the SUV was safe were in for a shock to realize they were driving the most dangerous vehicles on the road, not just to the other drivers, but to themselves. At least the airbag was now being seen in most vehicles, but it wasn't until the mid-90s that is was realized the airbags were killing children and small adults.

If you were driving around town, you probably noticed a coffee shop that was new and different. Then you drive a little further and you swore you just passed that place. Thinking you were suffering deja vu, you continue driving and realize you just passed another 5 of those Starbuck Coffee places. You pull in and decide to get a cup of coffee only to be confused with a menu of new terms of lattes, espresso, cappuccino and so forth. Perhaps in the back of your mind you were hoping to catch the group from "Friends", but instead it was a group of women with the Jennifer Aniston look.

Work outs have always had their place over the past few decades. The most popular was Tae Bo which was pushed by Billy Blanks. It was a mixture of movements he learned while studying martial arts.

If you wanted to dance, there was the most overplayed dance number of the 90s I thought would never go away, the Macarena. If you were living in a cave without electricity, you were spared the horror. The dance went along with the song of the same title by the Boca Rio Boys. The dance went like this:

1. Put your right arm out with your palm down.
2. Put your left arm out with your palm down.
3. Put your right arm out with your palm up.
4. Put your left arm out with your palm up.
5. Take your right hand and grab the inside of your left arm.
6. Take your left hand and grab the inside of your right arm.
7. Take your right hand and grab behind the right side of your neck.
8. Take your left hand and grab behind the left side of your neck.
9. Put your right hand on left front upper leg.
10. Put your left hand on right front front upper leg.
11. Put your right hand on right back butt cheek.
12. Put your left hand on left back butt cheek.
13. Move your butt to the left.
14. Move your butt to the right.
15. Move your butt to the left.
16. Clap and turn to the right.
17. Repeat until the end of the song.

Perhaps you were among a growing trend of people who started to listen to talk radio featuring a wide array of viewpoints and many in your face personalities. Shockjock Howard Stern was loved and hated by millions. His racy, highly sexually suggestive show offended audience members as much as Rush Limbaugh offended those who hated his condescending, know-it-all political manner. Talk radio has produced a crop of irresponsible advice givers who would listen to half a side of a problem and dictate the only correct solution in 30-60 seconds. Of course the wise person would only take it with a grain of salt, but the people who called those lines very rarely had common sense to begin with. Dr Laura was highly criticized for her know-it-all, prudish attitude who refused to acknowledge homosexuals as a viable lifestyle and religions outside of the Judeo-Christian realm as evil. It was also thrown back in her face when her personal scandals from years earlier came to light and she brushed them off as youthful indiscretion from which she has grown.

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