Living in the 90s - Lifestyle & Culture
Ah, the 90s.
A time of tie-dyed shirts, slap bracelets, and clear lip gloss.
A time when Lisa Frank stickers were the height of fashion, and everyone wore a choker at one point or another (even if it was just for Halloween).
A time when you could only get your favorite cartoon characters on t-shirts with iron-on decals and glittery backpacks! The 90s were full of unforgettable moments.
A time when people who weren't even born yet are now older than most of us were at that time.
But what exactly was life like back then? Was there really a lot of angst and grunge, or were we all just too busy playing with Barbies and running in place to notice?
1. Disney's Renaissance
The 90s were a time of great change, and Disney's Renaissance was no exception. In fact, it was one of the most notable moments in the company's history—and not just because it marked the return of Disney to its roots as an animation studio.
The Renaissance also marked the beginning of some of Disney's most iconic characters, from Ariel to Simba to Pocahontas to Mulan.
Disney's Renaissance began with The Little Mermaid in 1989, when a young animator named Glen Keane joined the studio and convinced management that hand-drawn animation could be used to create realistic-looking humans.
The film brought in over $235 million at the box office and won Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Song ("Under the Sea"). It established Disney as an animation powerhouse once again.
2. Beauty Trends
In the '90s, beauty was all about the butterfly clip.
This trend was so pervasive that it's still a common name for this style of hair accessory. You can find these clips in all different colors and patterns, and they're still used today—it's just that now they're more likely to be called "flowers" or "leaves."
Another important beauty trend of the '90s was Hard Candy nail polishes.
The brand has been around since 1994, but it really took off in 1996 when Christina Aguilera wore a shade called "Poppin' Bottles" on her nails in an MTV music video.
Milky Gel pens were also a big deal in the 1990s culture. These pens had a gel ink formula that allowed you to write on almost any surface without smudging or leaving behind an ink stain.
They're still around today but don't have quite as much popularity as they did back then.
3. Primetime TV
If you were a kid in the 90s, you probably remember a lot of your favorite TV shows. But the decade marked an important shift in the types of shows that were being produced and how they were consumed.
Before the 90s, TV was mostly watched live. Shows were recorded on VHS or Betamax tapes, which you could watch at any time—but you had to be home at the right time to see them.
By the end of the decade, however, cable providers had begun offering "on-demand" viewing options like HBO and Showtime, allowing viewers to watch their favorite shows whenever they wanted—and more importantly, whenever they felt like it!
That means you could catch your favorite actors and actresses like Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman, and Julia Roberts whenever you'd like - 'on demand.'
It wasn't just about convenience, though; this new way of watching television also let people discover new kinds of programming that simply weren't available on traditional broadcast networks.
The most notable example of this is probably Seinfeld; it's hard to imagine it finding its audience today if it hadn't been for cable's ability to reach people who never would have watched it otherwise (like those who didn't want to tune into NBC every Thursday at 9 pm).
4. MTV was a Big Deal
In the 90s, MTV was the king of music videos.
Like all good things in life, it started with a dream: to put "videos that played like movies" on television. In 1981, MTV launched as a 24-hour music video channel and quickly became the most important thing happening in music.
MTV's influence on pop culture cannot be overstated.
It was where you watched your favorite artists perform live, found out about new bands, and watched shows like Total Request Live and Yo! MTV Raps (which featured rap videos).
It helped launch the careers of musicians like Madonna and Michael Jackson, who used their videos to make a name for themselves. And it gave us some of our favorite moments: The time they showed Janet Jackson's nipple? Yeah, that happened on MTV.
The channel is still around today—but it doesn't have quite the same cultural impact as it once did.
5. The Internet - World Wide Web
The internet was just getting its start in the 1990s. It wasn't nearly as widespread, and it was a lot slower than it is today. But if you were lucky enough to have an internet connection, there were some great things to be found.
There were bulletin boards and social feeds where you could leave messages for others to read or post them on a forum for people to discuss.
There were also chat rooms where you could talk with other people around the world who shared your interests.
Some of these early websites are still around today: Craigslist, for example, was founded in 1995, and has been going strong ever since!
You could research and deep dive on your favorite movie stars, like Brad Pitt, Sharon Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, and Julia Roberts.
AOL, MSN Messenger were also popular at that time. The easy access to information and the ability to communicate with people all over the world was exciting. It wasn't until the early 2000s that things really started taking off.
6. Boy Bands & Girl Groups
The 90s were the golden age of pop music, and boy bands and girl groups were the stars of the show.
The Spice Girls, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees—all of these groups had such a lasting impact on pop culture that they are still talked about today.
These boy bands and girl groups were everywhere on the radio and in the mall. In fact, if you didn't know what a boy band was before 1999, you probably weren't allowed to drive yet.
But boy bands weren't just music—they were also style icons. Their wardrobes were usually comprised of tight jeans, baggy jeans (sorry), baggy shirts (also sorry), t-shirts with logos on them (sooo sorry), and lots of leather jackets.
They wore their hair in different styles depending on their group's theme: *NSYNC went with long hair parted down the middle; 98 Degrees went with short hairstyles; Backstreet Boys went with short side parts; New Kids on the Block went with long curly hair parted down the middle… you get it!
Solo stars like Britney Spears and Mandy Moore still killed it, though!
The 1990s - The Best Decade
The 90s lifestyle was great.
We had good music, bad fashion, and horrible hair (just kidding).
We had a lot of fun, but it was also a time that we didn't take ourselves too seriously. We weren't worried about what other people thought about us because we knew who we were and our place in the world.
We just wanted to have fun!