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"Only 90's Kids will recognize this!!!" Is a mental virus

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They're going to have a hell of a time.

The 2000s gave us 9/11, Katrina, color-coded terror warnings, sub-prime mortgages, auto-tune, moe anime, endless Nick/Disney tweencoms.

The iPhone and Youtube were pretty cool, though.

"Polly don't like that cracker."

The T-Pain Era
 
You're kinda overstating it. The 80s really was when this normal human behavior got promoted into the nostalgia monster it currently is. Its no mistake that such a thing happened when marketing got way more sophisticated than it had ever been.

Up until that point, the idea that childhood was something to be revered above most every other experience was not a widely considered notion. It just wasn't.

You have to be TOLD that childhood is some sort of apex of innocence. Because when that isn't being sold to you, it's easier to recognize that childhood is pretty fucking shitty. You recognized it when you were a child. It's why you wanted to grow up as fast as you did. You didn't need to live through a WAR to feel like maybe childhood wasn't that great. Childhood ISN'T that great. You're a dumb thing fumbling towards understanding and fucking up in front of people all the time. It's not a fun time, even IF you spent a lot of it watching shitty television and playing video games.

Romanticizing your childhood might have happened throughout history, yeah. It became a legitimate form of marketing in the 80s, and an industry by the end of the 90s. Such an industry that there's a bunch of 20-30 year olds in here now who swear that it's ALWAYS been this way. It hasn't. It just seems like that's the case because we grew up under it.

But the 80s romance wasn't really in high gear during the 90s. If anything the 90s was all about Rejecting the 80s high gloss plasticism - the explosion of grunge, indie films, rap, and everything XTREME and edgy was a big FU to The MAN of 80s business. OF course, all that rebellion was merely appropriated and commodified by marketing forces. Kids who grew up in the 70s-80s went through a "fuck nostalgia" period in the 90s. If anything Gen Xers disdained 60s nostalgia with all the Travelling Wilburys, The Tokens, Tom Petty and Adult Contemporary shit like Yanni, Michael Bolton and other yuppie crap (who were now "successful" post-60s people in the 90s) on the radio.
 
The viability of it was built in the 70s through things like MASH, Happy Days, American Grafitti, etc. Hell, it's built into the name of Happy Days - literally telling you things used to be better given the generally grim world outlook there was during the time frame.

Great point.

heh - I guess like everything, most annoying things in pop-culture can be traced back in one form or another to George Lucas ;)

But yeah, American Graffiti was a big step forward in the creation of the nostalgia monster.
 
The viability of it was built in the 70s through things like MASH, Happy Days, American Grafitti, etc. Hell, it's built into the name of Happy Days - literally telling you things used to be better given the generally grim world outlook there was during the time frame.

What also really helped propel it in the 80s was the deaths of Elvis and Lennon. Those got a lot of people to start going wanting to go back to their music of the 50s/60s. The growth of media options was what really helped propel the nostalgia market than anything, it just so happened to come to a head in the 80s.
What's interesting about stuff like MASH and Happy Days, at least to me though, is that its nostalgia very centered on behavior, music, fashion and a perception of culture. The 80s feel like when the nostalgia for things really took off, for specific cartoons or specific toys or hell, even commercials (only 80s kids will remember this commercial!). Nostalgia for consumer goods and mass media feels relatively recent.
 
I can see how it would be annoying listening to people reminiscing about the 90s when they actually grew up in the new millennium.
 
Stories of fun = fun! Lighten up, OP :)

In his defense, it can be difficult to lighten up when dealing with the intense pressure of being the sole arbiter on matters of his stupid friends' creative output, evolution and improvement as human beings. Lot of grind there.
 
What's interesting about stuff like MASH and Happy Days, at least to me though, is that its nostalgia very centered on behavior, music, fashion and a perception of culture. The 80s feel like when the nostalgia for things really took off, for specific cartoons or specific toys or hell, even commercials (only 80s kids will remember this commercial!). Nostalgia for consumer goods and mass media feels relatively recent.

Ohh, that's not true. There's a great deal of nostalgia for pre-80's commercials. The only problem is, not too many of them still exist from the pre-VCR era.
 
But the 80s romance wasn't really in high gear during the 90s. If anything the 90s was all about Rejecting the 80s high gloss plasticism - the explosion of grunge, indie films, rap, and everything XTREME and edgy was a big FU to The MAN of 80s business. OF course, all that rebellion was merely appropriated and commodified by marketing forces. Kids who grew up in the 70s-80s went through a "fuck nostalgia" period in the 90s. If anything Gen Xers disdained 60s nostalgia with all the Travelling Wilburys, The Tokens, Tom Petty and Adult Contemporary shit like Yanni, Michael Bolton and other yuppie crap (who were now "successful" post-60s people in the 90s) on the radio.

There were plenty of people in the 90s who were fondly looking back at the 70s. It may not have been outwardly apparent, but the influences were there - i.e. the use of classic soul/funk in 90s west coast gangsta rap.

And us kids who grew up in the 70s/80s really wouldn't have been the target of nostalgia marketing in the 90s. We weren't old enough. We're the target demo for current nostalgia marketing now.
 
What's interesting about stuff like MASH and Happy Days, at least to me though, is that its nostalgia very centered on behavior, music, fashion and a perception of culture. The 80s feel like when the nostalgia for things really took off, for specific cartoons or specific toys or hell, even commercials (only 80s kids will remember this commercial!). Nostalgia for consumer goods and mass media feels relatively recent.

I agree with you when it comes to toys. The toy industry went bananas in the 90s and completely took control of children's minds.

There were plenty of people in the 90s who were fondly looking back at the 70s. It may not have been outwardly apparent, but the influences were there - i.e. the use of classic soul/funk in 90s west coast gangsta rap.

And us kids who grew up in the 70s/80s really wouldn't have been the target of nostalgia marketing in the 90s. We weren't old enough. We're the target demo for current nostalgia marketing now.

Oh I agree. I guess I meant the 60s were huge in the 90s.
 
But the 80s romance wasn't really in high gear during the 90s.

Of course it wasn't. It was less than 10 years removed. The 80s romance just happened/is still happening. Look at the fashions of the last 5 years.

But that's muddling my point anyway: The idea that "remember when you were a kid and things were great" line of bullshit wasn't really ACTIVELY SOLD TO PEOPLE until the 80s. There were hints of it in the 70s as Xia pointed out, but the 80s is when Nostalgia as a marketing conceit really took hold (Hell, Alan Moore took time to stop down and satirize it a little in Watchmen), and once it proved to be successful, not only was nostalgia promoted, the timetable sped up.

It's kinda why 90s kids are so obnoxious with their nostalgia. There's entitlement issues. "How come YOU GUYS get to be all nostalgic for Mork and Mindy but we don't get to be nostalgic for Full House? FUCK YOU GUYS."

The 80s feel like when the nostalgia for things really took off, for specific cartoons or specific toys or hell, even commercials (only 80s kids will remember this commercial!). Nostalgia for consumer goods and mass media feels relatively recent.

This is another really good distinction.
 
Ehh, nothing wrong with nostalgia.

As was said a jillion times in this thread already, it's been around forever - and entire industries revolve around timing the crest of that nostalgia and repackaging it (as retro-themed paraphenalia, as retro clothing, as retro-styled gear, as retro reboot game/movie/tv show/comic book IPs, and so on).

I gotta wonder what kids are going to be nostalgic for if you were born/growing up in the late 90s/early 2000s...a lot of the stuff they were watching/consuming is reboots of stuff that already came out and was retroed already.
 
I'm honestly not sure what your point is... You seem to think that everything newer is automatically better but at the same time it seems like you're only talking about entertainment? Are books and movies not produced in the last 5 years worthless? Obviously there's better out there now so why bother? It seems like you think things have to be objectively better and there's no room for opinions in peoples' minds. There's plenty of things from the 90s I enjoy more because they are actually better in my mind. This isn't everything but I don't think everything now is inherently better like you seem to be suggesting.
 
I gotta wonder what kids are going to be nostalgic for if you were born/growing up in the late 90s/early 2000s...a lot of the stuff they were watching/consuming is reboots of stuff that already came out and was retroed already.

50 Cent, Limp Bizket, Backstreet Boys... ;)
 
Nostalgia pandering is a force to be reckoned with if Facebook is any indication. Out of context pictures with bullshit BOLDTEXT stories on them are also the bane of my Facebook wall.
 
Of course it wasn't. It was less than 10 years removed. The 80s romance just happened/is still happening. Look at the fashions of the last 5 years.

But that's muddling my point anyway: The idea that "remember when you were a kid and things were great" line of bullshit wasn't really ACTIVELY SOLD TO PEOPLE until the 80s. There were hints of it in the 70s as Xia pointed out, but the 80s is when Nostalgia as a marketing conceit really took hold (Hell, Alan Moore took time to stop down and satirize it a little in Watchmen), and once it proved to be successful, not only was nostalgia promoted, the timetable sped up.

It's kinda why 90s kids are so obnoxious with their nostalgia. There's entitlement issues. "How come YOU GUYS get to be all nostalgic for Mork and Mindy but we don't get to be nostalgic for Full House? FUCK YOU GUYS."

Yeah I essentially agree. I always think about the smiley face and peace sign stickers - things that were signs of youth rebellion that eventually became commodified and "safe". It has a long tradition, but you are right in that the 80s intensified marketing and blew it up more.
 
Ehh, nothing wrong with nostalgia.

As was said a jillion times in this thread already, it's been around forever - and entire industries revolve around timing the crest of that nostalgia and repackaging it (as retro-themed paraphenalia, as retro clothing, as retro-styled gear, as retro reboot game/movie/tv show/comic book IPs, and so on).

This is ultimately what I think is novel: the industry around nostalgia, which leads in turn to reflexive nostalgia for that very industry. Its very Debordian. As others have pointed out this kind of started in the 70s and really took off in the 80s and 90s
 
I don't agree with your premise. I can get on board on all accounts regarding the obnoxiousness and immaturity of those in the "the 90s were so much betteR!! LolOL" community; however, you lose me when you support your argument by claiming there is a wealth of complexity and "greater heights" in current media.

Regarding your problem with your friends being members of the aforementioned community: I suggest you just get better friends.
 
You're focusing on the nostalgia as the problem, when the fact is, you really just don't like hanging out with your friends anymore.

It's part of life to drift away from your friends as you get older, OP. Just move on and find some new people to hang out with. Otherwise you'll end up resenting these guys who don't deserve it.
 
They're going to have a hell of a time.

The 2000s gave us 9/11, Katrina, color-coded terror warnings, sub-prime mortgages, auto-tune, moe anime, endless Nick/Disney tweencoms.

The iPhone and Youtube were pretty cool, though.

"Polly don't like that cracker."

With the exception of 9/11, you could basically do this for every decade and era. The 1970s and 80s gave us the fucking HIV epidemic but people still choose to focus on David Hasselhoff singing on top of the Berlin Wall and Pet Rock.

Likewise, in 2024 when we look back at the 2000s, certainly 9/11 will be a big thing, but we'll focus on the stupid humor things like Nipplegate at the Super Bowl and other stupid memes and crap that popped up then. And we'll all talk about how life was so much simpler, and how in 2044, how can they talk about anything but the robot apocalypse and google mind control, etc etc
 
For someone with a Game Center CX avatar, you sure have a lot of anger towards nostalgia....

The nostalgia angle of the show does seem a bit condescending and commercial to me at times, but I am not angry about nostalgia at all, I only think it mustn't be permanent and preeminent in the state of mind of modern young adults. And I also watch GCCX mainly for the Arino and co. antics and the vidya, not for the retro.

I also dislike indie games that try to look and feel as if they were 8/16-bit generation games just to cheap out on design, as an example.
 
OP is clearly an antisocial ticking time bomb. Damn millennials get off my lawn! Entitled, no social security getting, sins of the father inviting, retro hipstering, guitar hero playing... Liminieslicket!
 
Spending one's time worrying about what others like, and speculating their reasons for liking said things, isn't productive.
 
So, am I understanding the OP right, in that it's trying to imply that the SNES isn't still the best system ever, and that Pokémon (especially the first couple sets of games) aren't awesome?

But then, if someone's 23 now, that would mean they were born the year the SNES came out, and were 7 when Pokémon came out, so, I think all of that can just be tossed out anyway.

Also,

is your life that dull now that you need to actually work to get shit instead of having mommy and daddy give you everything that you have to constantly ache about the olden days to try and ease the pain? Now that you have credit debts and are running victim to your biological clock to get married?

I bought my N64 with 2 games on launch day in 1996 with money I earned myself from working.
I also got married 6 years ago.

Credit card debts do suck though, I'd be more than happy to go back and get rid of that.
 
I do, and even if I do not have as much time for funnies as I did before, I try to make the time at times. I still don't think that I'd derive something very good from it if I went full-on-CartoonNetworkmonger as some do.
Yeah, I see. Good for you, sometimes people start being nostalgic just because they used to have zero real life pressure, maybe that's not your case.

However, don't hate. People need their memories, even people in their 20s. Even memories about shitty games.

(SNES was the shit, you're just wrong there ^^)
 
Everyone gets nostalgic, it's human nature. Granted, some people dwell on it a lot more than others. But point is, 90's Nostalgia is nothing new. Every generation will look back fondly on their time growing up. I guess my issue though, is that I don't think it's fair to write off praise for certain things, because it's only seen through a Nostalgic view. If that was the case, then nothing could ever be great. Surely some things are just liked because...they are good. You know?

Interestingly enough, I read this article while in school a couple years back. I'll have to try to hunt it down. But it was about 90's nostalgia, and how it actually seemed wide spread to adults too. Mostly because the economy was good for a period of time, and pre-9/11 the public wasn't really connected to what was going on with our foreign policy (so many believed that we weren't even in any major conflicts). So compared to most decades, it was a pretty laid back time, compared to some of the past decades which were more chaotic. IT also kind of makes sense that 90's nostalgia seems more of a bigger thing because:

I. We have the internet. So people are more connected now, and things become more collective.

II. The 00's was a pretty chaotic decade. Bad economy, major wars. A lot of stress all around.

Of course, I'm speaking purely from a U.S. perspective. I don't mean to say this is true for other countries.
 
(SNES was the shit, you're just wrong there ^^)

I never said SNES wasn't the shit, it IS The Shit. I love SNES games, but that comes from playing them and comparing/contrasting them to other games and reflecting. Appreciating them critically, as a lot never seem to do. It's just "Mario World is epic cause it has teh Yoshi and you kill him to save yourself lol", for lost of people instead of judging its rights and wrongs as a platformer, a Mario game and a creative product itself. It's like saying that you "fucking love science" just because you liked that facebook page (that meme could be a whole another thread by itself, by the way).

But yeah, I love the SNES. (even though the Genesis has better shooters, and I play Genesis more lately).
 
I never said SNES wasn't the shit, it IS The Shit. I love SNES games, but that comes from playing them and comparing/contrasting them to other games in the medium. Appreciating them critically, as a lot never seem to do. It's just "Mario World is epic cause it has teh Yoshi and you kill him to save yourself lol", for lost of people instead of judging its rights and wrongs as a platformer and a Mario game.

But yeah, I love the SNES. (even though the Genesis has better shooters, and I play Genesis more lately)

No, Mario World is a great game because it is fun and enjoyable, with interesting level designs.
It's also far better than any Mario game that has come out since Mario 64
 
I also dislike indie games that try to look and feel as if they were 8/16-bit generation games just to cheap out on design, as an example.
Straying a bit from the topic into gaming side here, but I can really appreciate goodlooking 8/16-bit style games myself, not just for nostalgic reasons - when they're done right, and well. What do I hate when they just say "omg 8-bit!" and there's all kinds of smooth scaling, alpha blending, high/truecolor palettes etc.
 
I think there is a misunderstanding. When people say only 90s kids I think what they mean is people born in the 80s or earlier like its a cutoff point. Obviously people born in the 90s and after aren't going to know about the pre-pc revolution/internet world.
 
I can see how it would be annoying listening to people reminiscing about the 90s when they actually grew up in the new millennium.

I think there is a misunderstanding. When people say only 90s kids I think what they mean is people born in the 80s or earlier like its a cutoff point. Obviously people born in the 90s and after aren't going to know about the pre-pc revolution/internet world.

This. Usually the era you remember is the time when you 'come of age', I was born in 1980 and yes do have memories of the 80s, but the era I remember more is the 90s aka when I became a teen and actually listened to music and recorded information rather than just absorbed it as a kid.
 
It's kinda why 90s kids are so obnoxious with their nostalgia. There's entitlement issues. "How come YOU GUYS get to be all nostalgic for Mork and Mindy but we don't get to be nostalgic for Full House? FUCK YOU GUYS."
If it's wasn't part of their life, they hate it. That type of ageism is pretty common.

That's also part of maturing as an adult. As you get older you learn to appreciate things that were not part of just your life. Like older movies and music. Only wanting to live in the present is living in a bubble.
 
I was with you until you shit-talked pokemon. It hasn't actually been a part of any of the 90s nostalgia things I've seen. Considering I've played so many of the games, the franchise is a standalone thing in my mind. Saying it is a product of the 90s would be like me assigning Lord of the Rings or Star wars or something like that to a particular decade- it just doesn't make sense, I can't imagine a decade of entertainment without the given property.
 
I know it's been said a few times, but just to hammer it home.

Every generation does this. Every single one. "The __________ was way better!"

We're just suffering through it now because our generation is coming to prominence and has way more mediums to complain about any and everything. Where as old men used to have to yell off their porch at youths, we now can passive aggressively post on Twitter.
 
OP this is for you.

dx5an0z.png

Just got hit right in the feels
 
It's just how some people are. I'm in my mid thirties, and my wife and I rarely reminisce about things, but whenever we meet up with her old college friends all they ever talk about is their college days, telling the same stories over and over.

Our current friends aren't like that at all. 'Remember when' isn't really the jumping off point for a discussion. Sounds like you just need to find some people who live more in the present to hang around with.
 
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