Thirty years ago, AT&T launched its “You Will” ad campaign, which predicted future technological developments that seemed pretty far-fetched at the time. But, in hindsight, the ad was surprisingly accurate in anticipating technology that’s commonplace today.
"Have you ever borrowed a book from thousands of miles away?" the first ad asks. "Crossed the country without stopping for directions? Or sent someone a fax from the beach? You will. And the company that will bring it to you is AT&T."
OK, the fax prediction was a bit off because that technology fell by the wayside after email was developed. But the sentiment was correct.
The series of ads predicted grocery checkout machines that process an entire cart at a time, telemedicine, distance learning, smartwatches ("[Have you ever] gotten a phone call, on your wrist?") and video on demand, to name a few.
The ads were voiced by actor Tom Selleck, who was an A-list movie actor at the time. They were made by director David Fincher, who wasn’t a household name in ’93, but would go on to direct “Fight Club,” “The Social Network” and "Mank."
The “You Will” campaign did an incredible job of predicting the future but, as Vox points out, it wasn’t necessarily AT&T that made the advancements possible. “AT&T does provide some of the infrastructure on which the world's communications flow,” Timothy B. Lee wrote for Vox. “But the gadgets and software that brought these futuristic capabilities to consumers were created by a new generation of Silicon Valley companies that mostly didn't exist when these ads were made.”
Let’s hear it for the lost generation—the slackers and middle children who brought us apathy personified and grunge music. Sure, Gen Xers might not be as loud as the boomers, millennials or even the Gen Zers of this world, but that’s only because, if we’re honest, they’re too busy taking care of things themselves to have time to complain.
And you know, for being the forgotten generation, the world can’t seem to stop talking about it. From Gen X pop culture classics re-emerging into the mainstream, to making headline-worthy spikes in wealth over the past couple of years, this group is (finally) in the spotlight.
Recently u/Ruffffian asked the Reddit community to share what they consider to be “THE most Gen X” thing. As a certified millennial, I have absolutely no idea what half of them are (seriously, what is a “Garbage Pail Kid” and why are they terrifying?). But I guess that’s why only you latchkey kids can proudly claim them.
Much of what people shared harkens back to an experience, rather than an actual object. But one thing’s for sure—only Gen Xers can fully understand, let alone appreciate, this list. Dare I say, no other generation has this flavor combination of edgy and wholesome.
1. “Columbia House collect notices.”
– @additional-Olive-405
Not gonna lie, I had to look up what this meant. Fellow millennials, think old Netflix, but for music. There, translated.
2. "Never getting mentioned in the news. It always goes from gen z to millennials to boomers.”
– @My_eternals
3. “Video arcade. Before Gen-X, graphics weren’t good enough, and after Gen-X, you’d play the games on your own home console. No other generation claimed them like we did.”
6. "Sun-In for hair. Feathered bangs. Blue eyeliner. Love's Baby Soft. Jellies."
– @star-67
7. “Hair crimper, riding bikes with no helmets, buying smokes for my dad at the shop. Putting baby oil on and sunbaking (cause we were literally baking ourselves haha) doing whatever I wanted for one to two hours after school by myself cause parents were still working. Being allowed to roam the streets until almost dark.”
8. “I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie To the hip hip hop-a you don't stop the rock it to the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat…”
– @labretirementhome
9. “Being the last unreachable generation. There were hours where no one knew where we were and our parents had zero way to contact us.”
– @Nakedreader_ga
10. “Calling your out-of-town friend collect from a payphone to another payphone to avoid long distance charges.“
– @Advancedbullshit (who "successfully did this with a boyfriend too")
11. "Always having a pencil in the car for cassettes."
– @sillyputtygizmo
12. "Being the last generation to have to walk across the room to change the TV channel. Being able to fix the TV by pounding on it the right way. Getting the brown box for the TV and there only being three stations."
– @ok_micologist_5569
13. "Watching MTV's Headbangers Ball on Saturday morning, ready to record on the VHS when my favorite bands came on."
14. "What defined Gen X growing up was living under the constant threat of nuclear war. If you wonder why Gen X is defined as 'whatever,' it's because we believed that at some point in our future, we'd end up living, or dying, in a nuclear winter."
– @ruatrollorruserious
15. "Beepers. It felt so important to have one, even cooler if you paid extra for the voicemail service."
– @nousername56789
And finally...
16. "Being old enough to remember (and appreciate) life before the internet and cellphones but being young enough to transition into that world without a hitch."
Everyone's childhood is different. But there are common objects, sights, sounds, smells, and memories from elementary school that most Gen Xers and Millenials share.
Personally, when i think back to being in elementary school in the '80s, I remember the taste of the chocolate ship cookie we got on Fridays (with the pizza). The humiliation of getting nailed in the back during nation ball. And the grumbling, grinding sound that happened when you slipped a disk into the drive on an Apple IIe computer.
Nowadays, in a world where most kids would have no idea how to even turn on an Apple IIe or have never felt the sting of a rubber nation ball hitting them square between the shoulders, I get a bittersweet feeling when I think back to my elementary school days.
Mel Madara stirred the nostalgia pot on Twitter this week when she posted a series of photos of things she remembers from elementary school that anyone from 50 to 25 probably recollect, too.
The stool that helped you grab that Judy Blume book just out of reach. It aw also a rgeat place to sit and read if the tables were filled up or you just wanted some privacy.
... or if you're older, you got "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" or some other Disney nature film on 16mm film in the school cafeteria.
You were lucky. For the older folks on here, you'll remember these. When they worked they were awesome; but if something jammed up, and the film in front of the bulb melted, school movie time was over. Well, unless you had a nerdy AV kid in your class.... pic.twitter.com/XI31FKgpz7 — Big Daddy 🅿️1️⃣ (@bryaninbigd) March 4, 2020
Whether you think the internet has been a net positive or negative for the world, there’s no debating that it has changed nearly everything. The change has been so rapid and abrupt that humanity hasn’t really come to grips with this new reality. It’s like we’re constantly playing catch-up.
There was the first wave of the internet that completely wiped out physical media such as record stores and magazines. Then there was a revolution with social media that changed the way people interact and gave everyone a voice online.
Some point to Facebook’s addition of the “like” button in 2010 as the moment when social media became an addiction, with people chasing approval and dopamine hits. While others say that the addition of the “share” button the same year completely changed reality because it allowed bad ideas to take wing.
Now, nearly 30 years after the internet became available to the average person, there is a generation growing up that never knew what life was like before the ’net. But for the rest of us, there are still memories of a time when people went to Blockbuster video to get a movie, dialed people on rotary phones and found an intersection on a Thomas Guide map.
I’m not saying those times were better, just different.
A Reddit user by the name of Jenn was feeling nostalgic for the pre-internet days so they asked the online forum, “Video killed the radio star. What did the internet kill?" The question was a reference to The Buggles' 1979 hit “Video Killed the Radio Star,” which was the first video ever played on MTV.
The post quickly went viral with more than 7,000 people chiming in with things that the internet relegated to the dustbin of history.
Here are 19 of the best responses to the question, “What did the internet kill?”
1.
"Newspapers. Magazines." — Cuttlery
2.
"Blockbuster." — sparkchaser
3.
"Encyclopedias." — New_Television_9125
4.
"Not being able to remember that guy from that thing." — Meffrey_Dewlocks
Volcano-ngh added:
"Not having to listen to my mom and my uncle list off names trying to remember the name of some actor in a 100-year-old movie for an hour with no resolution is pretty great."
5.
"Maps. I have never used a tangible map since internet and phones." — TheMaskedAdvice
6.
"Realistic expectations of success." — NelsonsBuddy
Cerker added:
"With your former limited peer group, your were bound to be 'the expert' or 'the best' in at least something. And could provide valuable contributions due to this. Now? You can always compare yourself to the whole world. You always find tens of people so far above your level that you have no realistic means to come even close to it. It was always that way, but they weren't that prominent in your life, always pointing out your mediocrity. I still struggle with it and it used to suck up all my motivation. Now I start to stop caring and just doing what provides my joy."
7.
"The mail order catalogue. This was a huge means of buying goods, especially in rural areas or ordering niche items that normally aren't stocked in stores." — TheSeaMonkey
8.
"Attention span." — LegacyRW
"I’ve actually just started working on this. Limiting my phone time and forcing myself back to reading, puzzles, projects that require concentration etc." — catsinlittlehats
9.
"Broadcast television." — katomka
10.
"My faith in humanity." — cucake_bliss
Uhh_JustADude added:
"Before, you knew most people were kinda stupid. It’s just that back then, they never amounted to much and certainly weren’t as enabled or encouraged. People used to have shame and self-awareness and to publish some bullshit for the whole world to see, one had to get it past editors who actually worked for their jobs and had degrees in journalism, English, and literature."
11.
"Record stores. Not all, but lots. We used to have 10 in my city in the 1990s, now we have 2." — boxoffingernails
12.
"Movie phone.
You haven't lived until you tried to spell the title of a movie on your keypad while declining the suggestions of the robot. 'Did you mean..?'
'_____ is also playing at…'" — brutcookie5
13.
"Mail, not E-mail but good old fashion letter mail. The only kinds of letters i get now are bills and other shit i don't want." — Lekenthereal
14.
"The Internet killed shame. Nothing is shameful anymore, it's all just monetized and fed to people from TikTok and YouTube videos, to 4chan and Reddit subs, to the very incel-laden dark alleys of the web. Nothing killed personal shame like the internet. We get to see the worst of humanity at our fingertips 24/7." — XmerianMonk
15.
"Teens’ self-esteem." — inflewants
Interesseret added:
"This is pretty much the #1 on the list isn't it. Man, the internet has done terrible things to young people's self-image."
16.
"4-1-1." — AllFuzzedOut
Nihlism4U added:
"Omg yes! Also just lots of random phone numbers you could call to get pre-recorded info...time, temperature, there was one I used to call a lot for like...daily science facts or something? Don't remember exactly, but I certainly used the phone as a lifeline to information as a kid in the '80s and early '90s."
17.
"Democracy." — ChopEee
"This is sadly very true. The Internet has allowed the dissemination of fringe ideology to a huge audience. YouTube and Facebook algorithms help push more of that content in front of people. Those who had a predilection to buy into conspiracy theories and other sorts of fringe thinking previously never had easy access to this kind of content. Sure, we would still have Fox News and the like, but that’s pretty mild compared to what’s available online." — Pray44Mojo
18.
"The mall." — dumberthenhelooks
19.
"The experience of actually going out and doing things yourself." — Evening-Ad-9976
The video for "Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)."
On June 1, 1997, the Chicago Tribune published columnist Mary Schmich's fantasy commencement speech entitled, "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young." In the piece, she lamented that "Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker dying to get out," but most of us, "will never be invited to sow our words of wisdom among an audience of caps and gowns."
Next came her attempt to share the knowledge she's learned with the graduating "Class of '97." In the column she shares one piece of advice she is sure about—“wear sunscreen”—and a litany of wisdom that she admits “has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.”
Among Schmich’s observations is that we should remain close to our siblings, appreciate our youth and never be reckless with other people’s hearts.
The title of her piece suggests it would never be embraced by her target audience. But in a strange twist of fate, it would become a pop culture phenomenon that in the late ’90s was an inescapable part of youth culture.
Soon after the column’s publication, Australian film director Baz Luhrmann was working alongside Anton Monsted and Josh Abrahams on a remix to the 1991 song “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)," by Rozalla. The song had appeared in Luhrmann’s film “William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet.” During the sessions, Monsted received an email with Schmich's column, but it was attributed to writer Kurt Vonnegut.
Back in 1997, there was no social media so things went viral through a new technology called email.
The team thought a spoken-word version of the speech would go great over the song and reached out to Vonnegut for his approval. But after doing some early-era internet sleuthing, they discovered it was written by Schmich. Australian voiceover artist Lee Perry was given the task of doing the spoken-word vocals and his deadpan delivery would become iconic.
The original release opened with the line, "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Class of '97" but it was changed to “'99” on subsequent releases. The song would go on to be a major worldwide hit and imbue a generation with simple, but profound advice on how to live their lives.
Twenty-five years later, many of the lines in the song are still etched in the minds of countless people.
While Schmich's words are powerful, when set to music and played continuously on MTV, VH1 and the radio, they were hard to forget. The song also has an emotional heft and a wary sincerity to it that's mesmerizing. Some of the song’s greatest lines, “Do one thing every day that scares you,” “Don't be reckless with other people's hearts” and “The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself,” have come to be embedded in the culture.
In the beginning of her column, Schmich admits that her advice—besides the bit about the sunscreen—is purely anecdotal, but she was onto more than she knew. Research has backed up a lot of her advice and proves it's worth taking.
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
Research shows that the greatest opportunity for personal growth is to step outside of one’s comfort zone. Also, when exposed to our fears, we have the greatest chance of overcoming them.
“Exposure is hands down the most successful way to deal with phobias, anxiety disorders, and everyday fears of any sort,” says neuroscientist Philippe Goldin. “Simply repeatedly exposing ourselves to the thing we’re afraid of—ideally in a positive way—gradually brings down the physiologic fear response until it’s gone, or at least manageable.”
Further, when we stay in our comfort zone for too long we are prone to boredom and stagnation. According to Positive Psychology, what lies outside of our comfort zone is an amazing place called the growth zone.
“Don't waste your time on jealousy.”
Twenty-five years later, Schmich’s words mean more than ever. Because, as Moya Sarner wrote in The Guardian, we “live in the age of envy. Career envy, kitchen envy, children envy, food envy, upper arm envy, holiday envy.”
Ethan Kross, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, adds that we are constantly bombarded by “Photoshopped lives, and that exerts a toll on us the likes of which we have never experienced in the history of our species. And it is not particularly pleasant.”
Overcoming jealousy has less to do with ignoring what others have than appreciating what’s ours. Lindsay Holmes, Senior Wellness & Travel Editor at HuffPost, says that people who are free of jealousy “take stock of their blessings,” “don't seek approval from other people” or “compare themselves to others.”
They also probably spend a lot of time off Instagram.
“Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.”
Negativity bias is a real issue. We always remember insults more vividly than compliments because the human mind evolved to look for potential danger and to remember trauma to keep us safe. It's great in practice but terrible when reading the comment section on Facebook.
Schmich admits she has a problem with this because it’s hard-wired into human psychology. Hopefully, over the past 25 years, some of us have learned how to get it right and to ignore the haters.
“Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.”
Since Schmich’s column was first published there have been countless studies on how unrealistic beauty standards affect women and yes, they “make you feel ugly.”
Dr. Laura Choate wrote in Psychology Today that these impossible beauty standards make girls think they should be focused on having the “perfect physique” and “believe something is wrong with them if they are somehow unable to reach this goal.”
Problems with body image are related to a host of problems including low self-esteem, depression, excessive dieting and eating disorders.
“Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.”
A study published by NPR found that during middle age (Gen X, I’m looking at you) and older, indicators of well-being—mood, health, morale, stress, depression, loneliness, life satisfaction—are tied to how you feel about your brothers and sisters.
“You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.”
If you remember when “The Sunscreen Song” was a hit back in the late ’90s then you probably have warm feelings of nostalgia for those times. But as Schmich points out, we always look at the past through rose-colored glasses. Psychologists call this “rosy retrospection” and it’s the reason why some people think that America should be made “great again” or that the ’90s was the greatest decade ever.
The ’90s may or may not have been the greatest decade ever, but it must have been a pretty cool time if a massive pop hit was simply someone sharing practical life advice young people should pay attention to and, low and behold, they did.
Oh yeah, summer is coming up. Don’t forget to wear sunscreen.
In “Back to the Future,” teenager Marty McFly goes back in time 30 years, from 1985 to 1955. But what if the film were made today and he went back from 2021 to 1991? I think the culture shock of a modern teenager going from a post-to-pre internet world would be much greater than the one that Marty experienced in the original film.
Would a kid from today be able to dial a payphone? Read a clock with actual hands? Look up directions on a Thomas Guide map?
A lot has changed since the dawn of the new millennium so a group of Redditors marked the changes in a post entitled: “What is something that was used heavily in the year 2000, but it's almost never used today?”
GeoCities is definitely one of those things that was everywhere and then suddenly disappeared. At its peak, GeoCities hosted millions of websites, but its popularity declined after it was purchased by Yahoo and web hosting became cheaper.
2.
"If you had a big screen TV it was probably a ridiculously thick rear projection TV," — ParoxysmAttack
Before plasma TVs came around, if you had a big screen it was also a seriously deep-screen TV.
3.
"Re-writable CDs. I used to burn so many mix cds after downloading from napster, bearshare, limewire, frostwire," — Shittinwithmykitten
Napster created a music revolution overnight, but where were we going to save all of that new, stolen music? Rewriteable CDs were all the rage before the iPod came along and put 'em in the palm of your hand.
4.
"Payphones. (Yes I know payphones still exist. Also, I am now very aware payphones are free in Australia, thank you for informing me.)" — Adreeisadyno
Kids these days have never had to walk five blocks to make a phone call.
5.
"Dial-Up.
weeeeeeeee WOOOOOO_OOOOOO_ E E E E E E E EEEEEeeeeee eee eee URRRRRRRRRBEDULUDOLEDULUDOLEEPEEPEEP R R R R R R R R R R R R RUMMMMMMMMMMMM," — Martini_Man_
Those of us who lived in the dial-up era will never, ever forget the whizzing, belching sound that we had to sit through to experience the World Wide Web.
Who had this dial up modem tone as their phone\u2019s ringtone at least once?\n\n\u201cYou\u2019ve got mail!\u201d Was heard 35 million times a day.\n\nElwood Edwards, the voice to the @AOL \nhttps://youtu.be/cv1B9sPPOXo\u00a0https://twitter.com/JonErlichman/status/1428141025986502665\u00a0\u2026
— \u261c Art (\ud83d\udcf1,\ud83d\udcf2) (@\u261c Art (\ud83d\udcf1,\ud83d\udcf2))
1629394603
7.
"Indoor smoking. My young-ish kids marvel at the fact that people used to sit in restaurants and smoke," — TurdFergDSF
People used to smoke on airplanes, in hospitals, at restaurants ... pretty much everywhere.
8.
"Blockbuster card," — larrythetarry
It wasn't Friday night in the '90s without a two-liter of Pepsi, a large pizza and a stack of VHS tapes from Blockbuster video.
9.
"VCRs," — Murtamatt
Want to feel old? In 2016, Funai, which manufacturers the VCRs in China for Sanyo, announced it would produce its final VHS player, making it the last one ever produced.
10.
"AOL," — PacMan8112
"Welcome!" "You've got mail!" AOL was the leading internet provider in the late '90s but soon lost its relevance after merging with Time Warner, Inc. in 2000.
11.
"Calculators; teachers kept saying 'you won’t have one with you all the time,' look who’s stupid now?! Both of us…" — elika007
A calculator was a luxury item in the '80s. In the '90s, a Texas Instruments graphing calculator could cost you $90. Now, it's all on your phone along with a million other apps.
12.
"A/S/L" — Smart_North_3374
Anyone who's a proud member of Gen X knows the "age/sex/location" question. It's the first thing you asked in an AOL chatroom when people used to try to hook up online. Of course, nobody answered it honestly, but that was half the fun.
13.
"JNCO jeans," — ccherry124
In the 2000s everyone wore skinny jeans. But in the 1990s, people wore the baggiest jeans possible. The award for baggiest jeans goes to JNCO, the manufacturers of raver pants that fit two legs and a few kilos worth of MDMA.
14.
"Pagers," — skaote
The pager was one of the most popular status symbols of the '90s. Nothing said "cool" like having a pager that was constantly blowing up. (Does anyone under the age of 40 know what it means for a pager to "blow up"?)
15.
"'Wanna Cyber?'" God . We were awful," — icanbeafrick
Back in the AOL days, the closest you could come to getting it on while online was through cyber sex. There were no pictures or video so you just exchanged dirty messages until the other person logged off. The typical cyber session began with, "What are you wearing?"
16.
"Limp Bizkit," — Timmah_1984
Unfortunately, they're back.
17.
"Travel agencies. Now I can do everything on my phone," — whatdoineedaname4
If you can belive it, before there was Priceline, there was a person sitting at a desk with a rotary phone who booked your seven-day trip to Europe.
The Gap brought swing to the mainstream with its "Khakis Swing" commercial.
Every Gen Xer remembers a small moment in time when swing music was extremely popular in the late '90s. Swing went from nonexistent to an alt-rock radio mainstay from 1996 to 1998 and then, it was gone in a flash.
During that time, young people rushed to their nearest dance studios to learn the Lindy Hop and bought up old-school, retro suits and fedoras. Swing clubs started popping up all over the country and MTV played swing-inspired videos such as "Hell" by Squirrel Nut Zippers, "Jump Jive an' Wail" by Brian Setzer Orchestra and "You and Me (and the Bottle Makes Three)" by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
Film editor Simone Smith asked Gen X to explain what the hell was going on in the late '90s that led to swing music making a huge comeback.
Can a Gen X please explain why y\u2019all got really into swing music for like 2 years in the 90\u2019s?
It's always hard to figure out how specific trends crop up, but according to Kenneth Partridge from Billboard, it began with the formation of Royal Crown Revue in 1989 by two members of the seminal L.A. punk band Youth Brigade. Royal Crown Revue's old-school '40s tough-guy aesthetic was something punks could relate to while also bringing back the danceable '40s sound.
The band had a Wednesday night residency at L.A.'s The Derby before turning it over to Big bad Voodoo Daddy, who were featured in John Favreau's 1996 surprise hit "Swingers."
"Swingers" was probably the most important moment in the swing revival. The film centered around friends who roam L.A. like a modern-day Rat Pack to a soundtrack featuring Dean Martin, Count Basie and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
Definitely the movie “Swingers”. I bought the soundtrack and danced to it for months. The drunker I was, the better I seemed. pic.twitter.com/WFsSZiS3ZW
Others attribute swing's rise in popularity to "A League of their Own," (1992) "Swing Kids" (1993) and "The Mask" (1994).
In 1998, The Gap brought swing to the mainstream with its "Khakis Swing" commercial, featuring good-looking young people Lindy-hopping to the sounds of Louis Prima.
I remember this 90s GAP ad. The 90s had a little bit of everything. It was a good time. pic.twitter.com/JfDyG39qBu
It was a Gap ad that started it. I can’t explain it. It was like mass hysteria. We were sitting there minding our own business watching Reality Bites for the 47th time and suddenly a thing called The Squirrel Nut Zippers existed. And the guy from Stray Cats.
May have started in 1992 with this scene in A League of Their Own. Madonna was a pop icon at the time. Many of our parents listened to swing, so it was not unfamiliar to us. Full clip here: https://t.co/5nqFo5BB2tpic.twitter.com/CFFGEn5MMY
they played that movie "Swing kids" on TV a lot in the mid-90s and it was one of the only period movies about politics but also which featured bohemians rather than soldiers, it was completely formative for dudes my age, ask anyone they've seen it like 4 times pic.twitter.com/EZb5fTQFTX
I know people cite Swingers. But it also seemed to come on the heels of 3rd generation ska like Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Also, there was briefly a fetishization of all things Rat Pack.
On a psychological level, the swing craze seemed to be a pivot from the dreariness of grunge rock that began to fade from the public consciousness by around 1996. Some also think that the upbeat, fun music was a response to the return to the prosperity of Clinton-era America.
Once the Seattle grunge scene was over, we got into anything that wasn't "mainstream" for 15 minutes. Swing, sure. Celtic, give it a listen. Latin, por que no? Mambo, dig it. Scat, sure, why not. The late 90's were a directionless musical genre blender, and it was glorious
At the same time, rave culture, which was also centered around dancing and had an upbeat aesthetic, was becoming popular as well.
Some Gen Xers did their best to explain the phenomenon that felt like it came out of nowhere.
We were basically a generation that was raised by wolves. So, when we hit young adulthood, we looked WAY past the Boomers for models of correct adult behavior: swing dancing, cocktails, more formal clothes, etc. All processed through a punk rock lens.
It wasn't just the music. You kids wouldn't have your espresso martinis and craft cocktails without us picking this torch back up. pic.twitter.com/XPtZpGUA43
Two more things: 1. The 90s had a broader affection for 40s/late 30s fashion, kind of like the 80s had for the 50s, and 2. The boomers would never shut up about how the 60s were the one true youth culture, which made it extra appealing to embrace their parents’ music over theirs.
Smith may be confused that there was a big swing craze in the '90s, but she should also know that it wasn't the only strange musical comeback of the era. What in the world was the whole Gregorian chant craze about?
That's not even the strangest musical revival craze of the 90's.pic.twitter.com/URrQVU8f0B
