Have you sensed that as well?? I can see a big 90s influence in current dance songs. Stl mainly 80s, but 90s sounds are in 'em as well. Also some colors and clothes...
I mean, it's only consequent. After the 80s will come the 90s. It's always that way.

So, imagine the 90s are coming back, teh way the 80s rule music and fashion now, are you afraid? would you be glad?

What comes in mind when you hear 90s??

Musically in Europe it was sometimes horrible. Semi-techno pop songs, always a rapper and then a woman singing the chorus...

On the other hand I like some house music, Soul II Soul, Prince's early 90s stuff...

No. I don't really see it myself.

The music made 9-15 years ago was somewhat similar to what is being made today. At least there are still a lot of records where the difference is sometimes nothing else than the amount of reverb and the extent of using embarrassing quasi-lingo to substitue for song lyrics. But on the overall there have been far less changes happening between 2008 and 1998, than during any other 10-year period. It is true that very early 90s material was different to what we have now, but personally I'd see that era rather as a contiuation of the 80s - and not quite yet the 90s as they were. Thus, my own argument is that retro in pop music - and as an attitude - ends with the very early 90s.

I would say it is due to several reasons: cultural changes, globalization, and the end of certain kind of naivety - people are still naive in their life choices, but each individual is expected to have a more critical attitude towards everything ("awareness"). This translates over to a sort of wide-spread paralysis, as a certain childishness is required to provide a change. What I'm saying is that this very same period started more or less 15 years ago, and that covers at least half of the 90s.

However, the reason for the relative stagnation of stylistic development is digital computers becoming what they became in the mid-90s. First, the internet fragmented people into taking their own part in their own, and not just becoming "michael jackson fans", "metallica fans" or "bobby brown fans". It's now entirely possible to access the worst kind of pornography and such in few seconds, nothing can shock people anymore as large groups which is required to make a pop audience. Marilyn Manson and Eminem were the last in that specific field, also you could at a push claim that those two were the last "superstars". At a push. Of course, making an impact via shock-tactics hasn't proven out to be the best strategy.

Secondly, it's the actual technolgy too where limits have been more or less met. The digital recording medium by the latter half of the 90s reached its current form (insofar as anyone's could judge the conditions).. Recordings these days sound quite the same as they did ten years ago if you are to judge them by their properties. Instead, synth music has moved back to 70s and 80s analog stuff, the 90s rompler based sounds are exciting hardly anyone. I can say this because you can get a 90s synth in the used market place for about 10%-20% of the price that a 70s or an 80s synth costs - nobody wants them, they're gear trash. Ultimately most of 90s technological innovations were just less CPU-powerful versions of what we have now, so they can be easily replicated. The reason why trying to make i.e. 70s retro music these days is seen as a desirable activity is because it's hard. It presents a form of lost trade, it's totally exotic.

The onslaught of digital is reality these days, but digital didn't manage to simulate analog that well afterall - despite of all the promised made in the 90s (those who do not know the vast majority of products sold for musicians these days are some sort of cheaper digital simulations of old gear). So one of the reasons why the 50s, 60s, 70s and the 80s are revisited in "electronic" music is because a lot of those sounds still cannot be done very well, and those older instruments are hard to acquire (the most expensive new instruments are in fact faithful analog replicas of the old models). Anybody can do the 90s patches on their computer in three seconds - furthermore it's not technology that's going to get outdated anytime soon. The 16 bit sample is going nowhere, my wavs that were recorded in the 90s sound exactly the same today as they did back then.

Why all of this mentioned? Because "retro"-attitude is a "structural" thing (as pretensions as it does sound).People seem to think retro trends are cyclical, but at least to me it seems rather that there is something about a specific era ("the 70s" and "the 88s") that contained easthetic elements that just counter-balanced the current mainstream and what has become tacky about it. Tackiness is usually fought back with another for of tackiness. One of the first forms of retro music in the pop music minstream was early-70s Glam Rock which took a lot of elements from 30s show music and 50s rock'n'roll - but those were employed to counter-balance the hippie culture at large still during that time. There's very little of the 90s that anybody wants - Grunge maybe, big festivals maybe. Eurotechno, Backstreet Boys, clumsy "interactive multimedia", 90s rompler synth sounds and terrible drum programming? No.

The reason why the 50s, 60s, 70s and the 80s can be recycled is because pop music as a cultural form was relatively new, and it had technological limitations that shaped up the overall sound of the decade as producers were trying to tackle those limits. In the 90s, the newness of the past decades was beginning to be over, and the technological limits were met. Nostalgia due to personal reasons is a different thing, and that can be marketable to a certain extent ("backstreet boys comeback"), but it's not going to influence the bands / artists that drive the undercurrent - and which is where the change happens. There's very little that can be changed anymore, pop has met most of its limits already years ago. Thus there is very little of retro-value in the 90s.
[Edited 7/19/08 8:20am]

this must have been the most eleoquent posting i've ever read and, well, it wa shard to read since i'm no native english speaker.
I still say, there are people in their early twenties that have sentimental feelings about their childhood and try to bring back typical 90s sounds...
I mean, every decade in pop-music had some typical chord-progressions. No one would use the chord change from I want To Hold Your Hand anymore... I can feel they ar coming... slowly...

dare I ask how old you are?? Probably it's an age thing. Like all the people who were kids love the 80s revival...

The '90's were so bad that if what you say is true, I might have consider removing my ears.

graecophilos said:

I'm 29, and I'm not a native either by the way.

I think you actually have a good point about the chord progressions. That's something I haven't even taken too much into consideration, altough I've actually given these things a lot of thought (I've studied cultural theory). My argument is that (modern, digital) computers changed more than we are able to tell now straighthand. Sorry for the long post, it's saturday.

I'd myself make a division between "nostalgia" and "retro". One can feel nostalgic over bands, fashion items, events (even smells) etc. And even if those are somewhat marketable as a lot of people have shared similar experiences it's hard to sustain a wide interest in them, for it's first and foremost tied to strong personal memories. But "retro" is something that can be applied to wider cultural movements in an order to create a sort of an overall aesthetic of the past and what we have now - one can be interested in decades they haven't even experienced themselves. I have a retro attitude towards the 70s, as I collect 70s effects boxes for example (I was born in 1979 but I've paid thousands for stuff that was manufactured years before my birth). I know fashion designers have tried flirting with some 90s style items recently, but I don't know if there's anything else there than trying to make horrible-looking stuff on intention. Except for the fads, a lot of 90s everyday consumer products are too similar to what we have now. Just in a sort of... underdeveloped form.
[Edited 7/19/08 9:38am]

I don't know what you've been smoking. The way the 80s rule music and fashion now? There's nothing 80s about music or fashion these days. In the 80s, we wore tight pants that actually fit and looked good, not baggy ass jeans that look slouchy and hanging off the ass. And musicwise, we got off with some ass shakin' jams in the 80s, not this stripped down slow to midtempo shit hop that rules today's music and has since the early 90s. The 90s never left. They are still here and unfortunately aren't going away.




Shit hop, thugs, balladeers, and horrible times.



OK, if you are referring to the 90s coming back as in house music, I would welcome that. House music was the only thing good about the 90s but most of it was underground in the gay clubs. As for the straight mainstream world in the 90s, they were dead as hell.
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[Edited 7/19/08 18:09pm]

I've been reading a lot about how the 90's are coming back, not so much house music, but more alterative rock/grunge styles.

Glindathegood said:

well leggings with dress tops have been back for the last year or so

I have a feeling new jack swing sounding stuff will be back, and so will neon.

I think the 80s are coming back harder. The fashion and sound, especially ElectroFunk/R&B and underground hip hop

bboy87 said:

I think that's been happening all decade actually, especially 2001/02 and since 2005 continuously
[Edited 7/19/08 18:36pm]

I'm honestly getting tired of some of the 80's music acts coming back. A lot of the times they come back and their new music just isn't that good and their voices and performances aren't what they used to be. Give the 90's band a chance. The 80's thing has been going on for so long and it's boring to me now.

For some reason, I would say (musically) I think we are going to get more of a 60s vibe. As for fashion, I see the 80s trying to come back though.

I think 2000's have overall been most influenced by the 70's then any other decade

funny how opinions can differ!!

i always thought the 90s were a bit 70s (house music, and the way Soul II Soul had those disco divas influence??), and this decade was totally 80s.
i'm not talking about baggies. hip-hoppers wear baggies but in real fashion the 80s rule, the same goes with the music.

as someone set it right: a lot of fashion crimes come back. Neon, certain colors. and trends always evolve from fashion and dance music!!

I swear to God, they'll come back. As said at the very top: after the 80s must come the 90s. it will always be that way.

it's pure nostalgia. the young, hip people, DJs, young fashion people were all teens are kids in the 90s. it's only naturell they will embrace them.

btw, not meaning 1998, i mean the really early 90s, say from 1990-1993

I totally get your point

errrtime I hear N*E*R*D's "Everyone Nose"
I think of Duice's "Dazzey Dukes"

I seriously hope the fashion
does NOT make its way back
although that was a decade I knew
everything about... and enjoyed it
I don't wanna see it again
I'm sure some of the 70's babies
feel the same way about the 80's

bboy87 said:

It is definitely going back. I think it's leaning towards the 70's/80's. We'll know for sure when Prince drops his next single or cd. I say that because musicans/artists tend to follow him. BET Awards 2008 is a good indication of a change coming with exception of Rap(it's slowly leaving). The Hip-Hop artists are doing more of a 80's sound....just my 2 cents.

4bjb, you mean, peopleare following PRINCE?? why do you think that? i know some younger stars love him, but they don't follow Prince...
And yeah, right now the 89s are still the thing, but they are in now for 8 years (probably since 1999 when people like Daft Punk and Stuart Price came up).

Arnotts said:

Most of the 90's were and some of the early 00's from 2000 through 2004, but the whole decade? Nah.

alphastreet said:

Nah, the change didn't get back until 2006. In 2001, we were still transitioning from the 90s We had Nelly, Britney, N Sync, Shaggy, Baha Men....