That 90s Blog

PDAs

Less functional than a cell phone or a laptop, grayscale, and without a digital camera - but man, we went nuts for 'em!

There was a weird in-between time in the 1990s when what everyone really wanted was a PDA. For kids today, the PDA stood for Personal Digital Assistant, which is pretty much the dorkiest and most earnest phrase ever. The Palm Pilot was your quintessential PDA, and I bet it's what most 90s survivors think of when they hear the phrase.

PDAs were an oddball evolutionary branch on the technology ladder. It wasn't until late in their evolution that they could make phone calls. And they existed along with laptop computers. Although laptops were relatively small and bulky then, they were still pretty ubiquitous, especially in the business world.

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MST3K's Turkey Day

A shared geek experience that shall be forever enshrined in the 90s Geek Hall of Fame!

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is another hallmark of the 1990s. Either you have never heard of it, or you have seen pretty much every episode, and just the thought of "Manos, Hands of Fate" makes you smile. MST3K was a touchstone of geek culture in the 90s, before the internet exploded and global snark levels reached epic proportions. Back then it was just you - maybe some friends - watching TV late at night, bad movies with a man and his robot pals.

For five years, from 1991 to 1995, every year on Thanksgiving Comedy Central aired the "Turkey Day" marathon. This was clearly just a cynical attempt to exploit the otherwise gaping hole in their programming. Because who watches television on Thanksgiving? Losers and geeks, that's who. And what do losers and geeks want to watch? Meh, why not just give them 15 or 16 episodes of MSt3K?

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Backpacks

Later in the 90s, the backpack sifted through pop culture and came up on the other side, in the form of tiny leather backpacks worn by fashionable you

As with so many things about the 1990s, backpacks are something I hadn't even thought about until I saw someone mention them as a quintessentially 90s item. Oh hey, that's right! Everyone wore backpacks of one kind or another. And in the 2000s we all mysteriously stopped wearing them. (And started wearing messenger bags instead, but I digress.)

Backpacks tied in well with the early 90s grunge aesthetic. They were old school in the literal sense. The hippest backpack was the beat-up old model that you had in high school, perhaps repurposed for college textbooks. Perhaps repurposed to carry your poetry notebooks, your spare pair of Doc Martens, or your Pearl Jam tablature books.

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Worst Song of the 90s?

If there was a problem, yo I solve it / Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

Today on Buzzfeed the kids are trying to figure out which was the worst song of the 90s. In any discussion of this sort, you have to start with Rolling Stone. They pretty much locked this up last September with a reader poll list that covers all the hits that everyone loves to hate:

Aqua, "Barbie Girl"
Los Del Rio,"Macarena"
Billy Ray Cyrus, "Achy Breaky Heart"
Vanilla Ice, "Ice Ice Baby"
Chumbawumba, "Tubthumping"
Hanson, "MMMBop"
Celine Dion, "My Heart Will Go On"
Baha Men, "Who Let The Dogs Out?"
Right Said Fred, "I'm Too Sexy"
4 Non Blondes, "What's Up?"

Billy Idol's "Cyberpunk" Album

Maybe not the world's greatest album, but did it really deserve all the hate?

I had forgotten all about Billy Idol's concept album "Cyberpunk" until I ran across a mention of it this morning. Boy was I scathing about that album at the time. In hindsight, I really should have just chilled out. I tend to be a lot more forgiving of other people's foibles these days, now that - not to put too fine a point on it - I'm not 20 anymore.

There were two basic criticisms of the "Cyberpunk" album at the time: First, that it co-opted a culture (to wit, cyberpunk) that aggressively punished anyone who postured incorrectly. And second, that it was completely out of the loop, being a sort of advanced/future-pop album that was released well after the entire music scene seemed to have gone ape over the kids with their grunge movement. Utterly out of touch, in other words.

'90s Plush Dolls

Which ones do you remember?

This Christmas season, a singing, talking and dancing plastic doll with a light-up face was the toy that kids wanted the most. Back in the '90s, we kicked our stuffed toys old-school. We didn't need the toy to do all the work; we had our imaginations. Or at least I like to hope so, although I think I discarded many of my stuffed animals not too many months after receiving them for Christmas. Ah, how nostalgia blinds. Let's take a look at some the raddest plush toys from the '90s: Read more about '90s Plush Dolls

"Teen Spirit" 20th Anniversary

A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido

I just read that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Nirvana world-crushing hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit." And my first thought was, "Is that right? That can't be right." Then I counted back the decades - 2001, 1991 - and realized that yep, it was true. 20 years.

In late 1991 when the song became a hit, I was in my second year at college in Washington, in a town not too far from where Kurt Cobain grew up. We wore jeans and flannel because it was appropriate clothing for our climate. If you got more than a few states away, you encountered people who had never heard of Seattle. Washington was Nowheresville, in other words. But before long, MTV made "grunge rock" the next new thing, and suddenly we were, like, a thing.

And a lot of that happened because of "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" Music Video

Be careful what you wish for…

In 1994, Minneapolis band Soul Asylum had an innovative idea for their new single. The song "Runaway Train" deals with the alienation and hopelessness of a runaway teen. Why not use the music video as a pop culture Public Service Announcement? This earnest idea came at a time of great earnestness in the music industry, a very "crunchy granola" version of social awareness. It seemed like a match made in Heaven, a "win/win" situation.

The music video intercut dramatized scenes of domestic horror (a man beats his wife; an elderly woman steals an unattended baby from a stroller) with "have you seen this child" photographs and information about missing teens. The specific teens highlighted in the music video were changed to spotlight local runaways for the video's biggest markets, like the U.S., U.K., and Germany.

'90s movies that are often played on television

You know you have to watch.

There’s no better time to re-watch all of the movies from the ‘90s than when you’re at your parents’ houses over the holidays. All you have to occupy your time is baking cookies, wrapping gifts and writing cards, so you might as well put a movie on to entertain yourself. Thank god there are so many movies on television to help you while away the empty hours. Let’s take a look at some of my favorite movies from the ‘90s that are still good today: Read more about '90s movies that are often played on television

90's Celebrities who didn't translate in the '00s

What happened to these guys?

Some of our favorite celebrities from the ‘90s graced our television screens at least once a week. They had girl-next-door qualities, wore baggy t-shirts or coined catchphrases that you couldn’t get out of your head; in other words, their appeal was confined to the ‘90s. Let’s take a look at some huge ‘90s celebrities who haven’t held on to their fame as the years have progressed: Read more about 90's Celebrities who didn't translate in the '00s