Our End of the Eighties; is the start.

    Anyone that has lived through a transition from one decade to another, will agree on one thing: With the hindsight of having lived through a decade, there is usually some defining event(s) that serve as a historical marker; marking the end of one decade and the start of the next. Like a personal flag point, in our individual collective memory, that signals this: 'Something in the world has changed, and I am late in realized it.' Some cultural events that happen in a decade  would never have happened is the decade before.  For example: Could a bunch of dirty mop-tops, from Seattle, been as big as Nirvana was, had the setting been 83? Would we have watched Woodstock '89' burn to the ground, while quietly thinking to ourselves, "Yea, it makes sense..." Like we did during Woodstock 99?  

I rest my case.

  

   For many of us, the 90's may have started with the release of Nivana's Nevermind (1991). For others, it could have been when 2 Live Crew's As Nasty As They Want To Be was ruled obscene by a Florida federal judged (1990). Seinfeld (1990). Tyson's rape conviction (1992). Johnny Carson's retirement (1992). Superman's death (1992). Etc. Etc. Etc.
 
  I am under the suspicion it is something more: The closing or ending of the 80s happened before any of this. For me, looking back, the end of the eighties, and the start of something new, (this new would come to be defined as the 1990s), had been brewing long before Nivana. While Micheal Jackson was still semi-black, something had already began to change; both political and culturally.  Before  Lollapalooza was confirmed, the cultural platform for accepting this cultural mass change of the 90s was already brewing. This is the same cultural change in society that Perry Farrell, (the lead singer of Janes Addction, and the creator of Lollapalooza), states was the majority of inspiration for the creation and perpetuation of his career, his music, and his artistic vision.

 

So this we ask:

 Where does it start, for you? What is your defining moment when you realized the world of the 80s, you had been living in, was over? What do you remember as being the piviotal beginning folcum point of the decade that would end with the "burning down of woodstock?"

wHERE do I stART?

Most think of the 90's in terms of Britney Spears, Friends, and Titanic. I, on the other hand, was 10-20 years of age from 1990-2000. These three grand-slams of pop-culture were in no way important or relevant to me, in the 90’s. 90's to me is: Grunge, Korn, Pulp Fiction, Skater shoes, externally baggy shorts, and The Simpson’s; just to name a few. As you see, my take on the 90’s may be a little different then that of my elder contemporary academic scholars.

Most academic advisors of popular culture would toss me in the category as a "sub-culturist," claiming my views equate to nothing more then “fan mentality.” One of many scholars, John Covach, has written most eloquently on this matter.

All of us who enjoy music are fans to some degree-nobody is really excluded from this group…At the same time we do this, however, we also reject a lot of other music. As a fan there is nothing wrong with ignoring artists, groups or styles that do not interest us…We must strive to be as fair as we can as we study rock’s history and development, and this forces us to consider carefully music we probably wouldn’t have choose to listen to otherwise…You don’t have to suspend your judgment to study rock’s history, but you do have to work to keep the fan mentality at bay (6). [i]

I believe Covach’s statements, on fan mentality, could be applied to all modern forms of popular culture investigations. My thoughts are this: What is defined as 90's definitive popular culture to scholars? Brittney Spears, Titanic, Seinfeld, and Friends. These surface-scratchings of pop-culture are not the forms of media that shaped our current trends, proliferating over the music, fashion, and other forms of popular culture today. Fan mentality or not, I think most will agree that it is the below the surface underground sub-cultural underpinnings, of the 90’s, that lead to much of the pop-cultural treads of the 2000’s. And, we still see 1990’s underground subculture undertones in, what scholars consider, pop-culture of today.

I’ll admit it; I reek of sub-culturists mixed with some bias views based on fan mentality. With that I must give a disclaimer: What was important, paramount, or news worthy of 90's, is not what this blog with be focused on. This blog will focus more on what was popular between me, and my "sub-culture," in the generation of the 1990's. And I have to tell you, that it was not Brittney Spears we were talking about, (well, not until she went nuts and shaved her head). I think most will agree that while much of what I find to be defining of the 90's is underground subculture, (defined here as: not totally and completely viewable in the public sphere), much of what I write about will be the beginning roots of what became pop-culture in the 2000's and beyond. While these were not the most important public icons of the 90's, it was these things that truly shaped where we were headed, culturally, after the 90's.

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[i] Covach, John. What’s that Sound: An Introduction to Rock and its History 2^nd Edition.