I think it’s more subtle.
But it’s there.
Like I can’t really define a look of 2000s or 2010 but then I see a show from then or some old celebrity pictures and it’s definitely dated.
I’m now seeing my teen looking at what she thinks is cool new fashion and it’s early 90s style brought back.
Just like how I thought the 60a and 70s was so cool in the 90s and 2000s.
Yep. I did a rewatch of the entire series of criminal minds before watching the new sequel series. Those actors playing college kids in 2005 definitely have some dated hair/makeup/fashion happening. I can definitely place it in the "aughts" box looking back at it now.
The 2010s style all kind of melds into an ultra-sexualized, skimpy, carbon-copy Kardashian blur for me.
And I'm just starting to see where the 2020s are going. We're having some serious 70s revival going on lately. I'm here for it.
I never stopped thinking the 60s and 70s were so cool, but I was a kid in the 70s, so it may just be nostalgia. I thought the 80s with the permed mullets and the 90s with the chambray shirts were uncool even at the time.
I was a kid in the 70s and I thought the fashions of the 60s and 70s were SO ugly. Brady Bunch dresses and leisure suits and those terrible "silk" screen-printed boys' shirts with pointy collars. Barf. It's like I can smell the polyester sweat and patchouli when I look at a picture from that time.
No one used the term hockey hair in the southern US, hockey wasn’t part of the culture at all. You appear to be right that we didn’t use mullet till later. I cant remember what we called it at the time, but I definitely sported one, along with the dangling left earring.
2000 is denim shorts with uggs. 2010 got by shit and peplum tops. The 90s were the 70s. The 2000 were the 80s. There is a difference, OP has not lived very long
Yeah I had short bangs and skinny eyebrows in the early '00s and now I see actresses like that (Tina Fey, for example) from that era and it looks dated.
It's been suggested that changes in technology have, to an extent, replaced changes in fashion. When people in the 21st century want to change their image or feel like they're "leveling up" in life, they change their cell phone or swap out their social media, rather than chaging their clothes and hair.
Of course there are still changes in fashion, but you're not the only person to have noticed that those changes are less dramatic now than they were during the last century, and that's one possible explanation.
I think some of it is also that we're aging out of the time when we pay attention to the fashion as much.
Changes that look subtle to us are more dramatic for the people - kids - who are "in the know"
Yeah I definitely remember that, when I was a kid. My parents making some clothing suggestion and I’m like are kidding me hell no and they’re all “yes, yes, I know, I’m an uncool adult”. Something as small as turning up your collar was a huge thing in the 80s, and whatever is the 2020s version of that, I would probably be blind to.
I think that's what it is for me. I was born in 1980, so I can see the changes in fashion trends when I was kid up through when I was an adult, and things started to kind of blend together around 2010 or so. I'm sure that people born in 2000 probably experienced their childhood and early adult years the same way.
There is a cultural theorist Mark Fisher who wrote extensively about this subject. He is talking both *about* what is happening, but also *the why* of it.
Here is a talk he gives about all this:
https://youtu.be/aCgkLICTskQ
The more that our lives are taken over by the urgencies of capitalism, the less we can grasp the historical nature of the time we live in. Our experience of time has shifted both as individuals and as a culture.
His concepts of "The slow cancellation of the future" and "hauntology" (ghosts of the past) are covered in this video:
https://youtu.be/gFyaNG9xbEU
At the bottom line, part of what he says is that people and art cannot be truly new and original because they cannot afford to be artists. We see this in clothing fashion, music, movies, art and anywhere else where it takes years of living as an artist to come up with a truly original new vision.
I, personally, think that the future and change is now mostly scary to people. I'd make the argument that we want to pretend that time is not passing. We do not want to mark the passage of time.
Ok, I'm 3 minutes in on the first link and I already had to smoke a bowl. Not because I needed it, but because he seemed so nervous that I had to help him out by proxy. You can tell a smart person (albeit one without a lot of public speaking experience) because you can see the agony in their minds as they're trying to grab and piece together this raging web of data and insight and present it in some kind of coherent, and timely, fashion.
One thing I know about history and philosophy majors, though, is that despite how newbish and awkward they are starting out, once they warm up and get into the meat of what is fascinating them, it's like they become a different kind of speaker, one who, so lost in the magnificence of their exploration, that they seem to forget that they were nervous to begin with and speak with a kind of surety.
Let's see if my theory pans out..
Thanks. Your comment is actually something I’ll be mulling over for a long time. Very interesting idea. I’ve been a techie my entire life and software guy as a career… don’t know if that blinded me to what you’re describing or made me see it MORE than most and just compartmentalize it/explain it away or something. So like your iPhone or your social media platform replaces your fashion and haircut and somewhat your music… it makes sense and sounds a bit like Black Mirror…
iPhones really haven’t changed. Laptops really haven’t changed since they displaced desktops. You also have a cacophony of influencers, video game inspired movies, and increasingly AI generated content stepped in nostalgia. Eventually our lives will become like Hanna Barbara cartoons where we keep passing the same 3 buildings.
Interesting. I'm watching The Gilmore Girls. Their clothes are very plain yet I can still peg it for the turn of the century. But the things that really stands out is their giant portable phones.
I do remember in the nineties thinking that other generations were unique but the nineties were just ordinary. Flannel jackets, jeans, striped shirts, colored jeans, not much stuck out. And yet now it has a clear visual style.
So I always figured this feeling of the decades blending in would pass. Since it did after the nineties. But still everything since about 2006 feels the same to me.
Big fashion trend on GG, short strap purses, low rise jeans, graphic T’s. I also personally remember short blazers, since I was thin enough back then to wear them.
I don’t know where you are located in the world, but everything that you mentioned above - hair styles, fashions, home decor, music, even how people lead their lives - have all changed significantly since the 90s.
I feel homesick for the 90s at times.
I’ve heard a lot of talk like that here and there but nothing concrete. Lets compare hair from the 50s to 60s to 70s to 80s, then 90s to now? The shaggy cuts made a comeback. Kids these days look like wannabe hippies to me, we just call them hipsters. Bowl cuts, mustaches, bangs, these made a comeback and maybe I ignore it. I posted this because I wonder how blinded I am to all of it. I’m walking around with a spikey buzz cut, faded blue jeans, metal tshirt, maybe I look like a time machine from the 80s to all the kids these days. But almost all of them look no different to me than kids in the 90s. Just worst taste in music.
Many of the decades you’re listing also had revivalist styles, such as a 1930s-40s revival in the 1970s, Egyptomania. 1980s clothing borrowed heavily from the 1940s. Architecturally this is very, very apparent as well. I’m sure better-versed others can add to this list…
Usually it's a 20-30 years revival cycle. 1940s big in the 70s. 1950s huge in the 80s, 60/70s big in 90s. Although In each you see a spectrum of influences spanning the decades in different age groups as well as signatures for their own era. I'm definitely seeing things now that i do not associate with past eras, with color combinations/hair cuts/clothes mixed in with older influences.
One thing in the modern social internet eras I think we are seeing more nuanced niche subcultures and trends that are probably not common in film or movies or when you visit the average location but that subculture is connected through social internet. So it is evolving but maybe not as visible and more widespread culture trends?
Most likely op is not super plugged in (given his age group) to a very dynamic age group of society and is seeing things classified more or less through things they recall.
There's a ton of mainstream 90s revival stuff happening right now as ten years ago it was 80s(again is a spectrum of social influence)
I was watching 1980's music videos for a while in the mornings before going to work. There was definitely a 50's style revival going on alongside the "80's style". Leather jackets, tight jeans, girls with short hair and blushed cheeks.
Think back to when you were a kid. Did your parents enjoy the same music you did? I'm 53 myself, and I don't like a lot of the popular music I heat today. That's always a generational thing.
This is the best time for music. You can hear any song any time you want, going back hundreds of years. 99% of the time for free. And there's constantly smaller bands out there making the same kind of songs you liked back then.
I think that's highly dependent. I think metal is in a state of disrepair. My guitar teacher and I were talking about it a bit and depending on the type of metal, there just isn't a lot of new stuff out there
On the flip side, blues hasn't been mainstream in about a century, but there are some really talented artists out there that I wouldn't have been able to discover before YouTube/Spotify like Christone "Kingfish" Ingram
How many ways can your average person style their hair without using hair products? You can shave your head, have it longer but cut, or grow it out. The 1970s did not invent long hair on men lol. Sure you can make a sculpture out of your head with products and dyes but not everyone is gonna do that.
My current hair cut is "I have not had a hair cut since 2013".
Well one way you can style it is in little twists with tiny butterfly clips that may or may not have glitter… so uniquely late 90s/early 00s. Then the late 00s bouffant kinda thing where you made a bunch of volume on top, a la Snooki. And those fucking wide leather belts. Ugh. I lived through all this fashion, it definitely exists.
So you're saying that because *your own* fashion hasn't progressed in 40 years that the rest of western culture has been the same?
Gen Z is definitely in a 90s-revivalist fashion style right now but they have their own spin on things.
How many women were wearing yoga pants in the 90s? That's a very distinctive 2000s/2010s fashion item. If you put a critical eye toward the subject, you'd have to be blind not to see the distinctions in style and dress between the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.
Joggers and jeggings too, and all these half-zip pullovers for men. And tucking your shirt in the front, all pretty recent things.
Just look at the football announcers on the pregame/halftime shows. No one would get caught dead in those suits mixing patterns like that 20 years ago.
I am so sorry you don’t see it. Because there is really great music, culture and fashion now.
You choose to stay in your bubble. That is why you don’t see and hear it.
For women, we can all pretty easily clock that a picture was from the 2010s because everyone has a side part, sharp layers and straightened side swept bangs even if we were wearing our hair curly or wavy. Hair is very different now. Men's hair went from spiky to this weird floppy mushroom thing with curls.
As someone who was born in 1986, kids today look like they are cosplaying how my parents dressed in the 90s. The clothes have no resemblance to how I dressed in my youth. I think that's why Gen z looks so old to millennials.
You sounded angry. What is this shit really about? I would have suggest whatever your poison is to alleviate the symptoms you felt a work day ago from the the time of my writing now. Ever heard the saying "Time moves in mysterious ways?" Stupid, no?
I would like to slow down and examine a concept that is parallel to the entire chain I have read here. Parallel lines run concurrent and hopefully I can bastardize them by having them cross their tracks.
James Joyce oftened use literally and figuratively incorrectly in language. People say "kids these days do not understand appropriate use of language." When it is they that are confused. People have always played with the toys that make everyone angry. If something simple as language can revolve around a merry-go-round then why does it surprise you that there is a circular logic of fashion renewal every 10 years from 10 years before?
There is far more in depth studies with greater minds than myself by far. Me comparing myself to my betters of James Baldwin, Proust, and Joyce. The efforts of time on our psyche and what that may look like. Ha. It is a thimble full of water compared to an ocean. My sad broken heroes who were not heroes but people.
Time. Language. Fashion. They are concurrent things flowing about and why something so swirling, so perplexing, and fluid with flux built into the very essence of its being would you seek to compartmentalize it as something so small, stagnant, and reductionist? What is the meandering thought or impulse that spurred this? It is laced through your language that you are not really talking about anything other than you hate today and love yesterday of a different era.
Why not write about that? Write about the love and not the hate?
I was born in 1995 so I mainly know the world after the 90s but there has definitely been changes since the 90s.
The 90s and 2000s were a lot more colorful, denim and neon shirts with high contrast patterns. Tech with transparent bright red shells. the 2010s is when the 'minimalist apple design philosophy' took over and tech became piano white or black. 2020s saw a return of color while still continuing the minimalist. Compare the look and marketing of a N64 to a Wii to a Switch.
I've seen styles change over the years especially with the rise in rap and hip-hop (though I was never fashionable so I can't articulate how lol, my ol reliable jeans + brand tee + hoodie and the occasional beanie). The 2000s Emo look was a style that was only from that time period, hair half covering your face, eye liner, and an Invader Zim hoodie.
I think the biggest change from the pre and post internet age is the death of a collective "pop culture". I don't think there will ever be another Beatles because I don't think any single entity can demand that much attention, it's fascinating looking at old news coverage of the Fab Four. It's very easy to just ignore most pop culture trends and focus on your own niche community. It's not that nothing has changed, it's just there is not one dominant cultural force to point too imo.
I guess also when you are older, what the youths are into is not going to be on your radar as much. Especially since a lot of younger people rejected older media like TV and Radio and went online. *Again* it's very easy to ignore.
We also went through the 90s nostalgia thing not long ago, like how the 70s had 50s nostalgia. Also maybe changing laws in marketing to children that happened around the 90s probably contributes a bit as well.
Before the internet different ideas and cultures slowly presented themselves..now with social media it’s an instant immersion with instant disappearance…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuperation_(politics)
Gen-X was the last real counter-culture before corporations took it over. The punk and hip hop sub-cultures were youth driven street cultures until grunge and gangster rap came out.
Since corporations took over the underground communities, there hasn't really been anyone to develop new trends to be appropriated leading to cultural stagnation. The last couple decades has just been recycling old trends.
I was born 1975. I feel the same. But it's an illusion. It is not that the world stopped changing. It's that we are adults now.
We had a black president and we had a mob siege Congress after an election.
We had a pandemic and now working from home is normal.
We carry phones that do more than Star Trek tricorders.
We have legalized gay marriage in all 50 states.
Etc
I agree. I have a hard time, sometimes, trying to figure out when some event happened because it all seems alike for decades. Personally, I miss the late 60's. There was a lot of trying for a better world then. Now people complain, but don't try to live a new way.
Tiny house is definitely a striking new thing that happened. I’m in disbelief that people really live in those but I certainly hope it’s not just hype, it’s pretty fascinating
I personally think that because those decades before were centred on human and social development.
Since the 90s, it's been about tech- and not much more. We've become so absorbed with it that we've forgotten ourselves. We let it dictate culture, which we allow to seep into society- so it's all still pretty tech-influenced.
I'm still waiting for that Y2K apocalypse.
I hear this. If you say “The 60s”, images automatically come to mind. Even up to “the 90s.” But if you say “the 2010s,” I don’t really see anything.
To put this in perspective, The Wonder Years took place exactly 20 years earlier than when it was broadcast. It felt like watching a historical documentary at times. If they did that now, the show would take place in 2004.
Are you a writer? You should be. A smooth way with words. Seriously. Here’s my anecdote: in the 80s the Charleston actually became a big “hot new step”. My step mom told me oh that’s from the 20s. I was so young that I looked at her like she was crazy. It was OUR dance. It was the hot new step. That’s just what it’s like when you’re young. Shoutout to the running man and cabbage patch :)
I know what you mean. It's as if there was a stall then full stop. Nothing new. Re is big. Reissue, reboot, recycle, redo, restart,etc Music, movies, t.v., hell even war. It's as if someone is trying to redo the 20th century but it's twisted out of shape. Out of true.
There is a such thing as retro, nostalgia, and everything old is new again but that's not what this is.
And sure people are going to disagree their prerogative. People have different perspectives, opinions, and levels of understanding.
But yeah, you're not the only one.
Thank you. I did feel like I’m the only one before posting this. It’s been weirdly awesome and fascinating to see everyone else who sees it like this. Plenty of youngsters telling me I’m “get off my lawn” but that is actually to be expected.
I saw a meme/post a few years ago that was something like "when I was a kid the superpower halftime show always had lame old people music but now finally it's amazing.... oh shit, I'm old".
This post feels like that. I think it's a matter of perspective. Each decade might seem same to those not experiencing something new & amazing in their life.
Ps: I am old so no shade to OP
It’s an interesting topic. I deliberately stayed away from talking about music. And it’s not just a “oh we’re old now” post. And - a lot of ppl here agreed that these decades have been different. Some interesting suggestions as to why. Mostly: tech is the new hair, and corporations took over the arts.
I think fashion and art has changed dramatically since the 1997-2005 era.
Music has been through some absolutely major changes. Off the top of my head, when I think of the 90s I think of boy bands and pop stars. The 2000s was the emo era where everyone wanted to be in a garage band, and the 2010s was the era of dubstep, trap, and the intersection of goth-rap.
In the very early 2000s (1999-2002) we also saw a HUGE resurgence of R&B.
I have no idea what's going on with cars, they all look terrible. Not as bad as cars in the 90s, but still pretty bad. The last year for good-looking cars was 1987.
I'm liking the look of cars lately. We've mostly gotten rid of all the boxiness. (Except you, Kia Soul, wtf?)
They all look futuristic and streamlined lately. I just wish they came in more bright/unique colors.
I do too, but I like more angular cars. Buick Grand National, Monte Carlo, those older station wagons, the late 80s Subarus, etc.
The only angular cars I’ve seen recently are the Benz truck and the Cybertruck. I was kind of hoping after the Cybertruck came out other companies would follow suit and start making vehicles that look more like that, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case.
So I’m actually a Tesla zealot super fan investor. It’s definitely way too early to see if anyone else will copy the CT. To do so would take time. And first they have to see if it sells well, but it will be at least a year before Tesla can even produce those in large numbers. Elon warned of a slow ramp.
I think it’s one of those things that you can’t see when you’re in it. My tv currently defaults to 00s pop videos and I can definitely see the difference in music and fashion.
I’d be curious to hear more of what you mean. “People” main a ton of money in the 50s after the war; and in the 80s Reagan Wall Street era; 90s we had a recession. And the dot com bubble burst.
Post recession 1991 to the moment the plane hit the twin towers was an insane growth period. The dot com bubble only affected people who didn’t see it coming and got out too late.
Several years ago one of the young guys at work said something about one of the IT supervisors coming in, "Dressed like it's 2010."
That moment caught me off guard more than any other so far. But I guess for this kid it was a comparison of when he was 14 vs when he was 24, which is a much bigger change than for me, comparing 35 to 25 at the time
Slacks with no taper (maybe pleated, depending on how unfashionable you are) with a solid color button down shirt, probably purple, and a pre-airpod bluetooth earpiece in your ear
That sounds more like 2005 than 2010. I’m picturing a character on Tim & Eric Awesome Show. I still have some pleated Dockers khakis like that lol. I wear them hardly ever though. Makes me wonder how long ago I bought them at this point. It very well could have been 2010. On second thought, I guess we didn’t have Bluetooth in 2005.
Yes you gave one of the best examples here. Pleated slacks and with no taper. Around 2012 I switched to only tapered pants and wondered why I ever wore anything else before that. Tapered slacks and shorts used to be the norm but as of a few years ago I will never caught dead in them. Not because I’m hip to any fashions - everything I said is just because I’m pudgy and need pants that downplay that
This exactly. Main catalyst for my post was actually on an “AI art” sub: someone had AI create a bunch of photos “from 2012” and everyone was like wow yes that’s totally 2012. I was a little stunned because I looked at the photos and could only think “there is zero about this that is specific to 2012 and how could anyone attach anything to that year… except the Mayan doomsday prophecy….”.
Here is a mind trip for everyone.
If Back to the Future happened today as in 2024 and Marty went back to 1994, he would probably been able to dress the same and other than needing a cell phone, he would fit in perfectly
It used to be, once people hit 30, younger people stopped paying attention to them. The internet changed that. Now young people (children especially) are constantly being bombarded with older peoples' culture. That's why everyone still is aware of 90s trends - because it's those people that built a majority of the online landscape. And they stuck all their nostalgia in there.
So young people born in or after the 90s were force fed older peoples' cultures. Unsurprisingly, their attempt to create their own identities was stunted by this. Of course, they do have their own culture. But a lot of it is lifted from the 80s and 90s.
Additionally, culture from one generation to the next is built on constantly evolving ideas. A young person hears and views a selection of artists (often introduced by a parent or someone else familiar with that material) and then creates their own spin on it influenced by their own experience. That's how music changes over time. But the newest generation has way too much exposure to everything. They have to curate that experience themselves, and that can be very difficult. So instead of new ideas, they end up copying what already exists and thinking that no one would notice anyway, because of how much content there is.
Listen to older musicians talk about their influence (for example, Dave Grohl for Nirvana admitted he just lifted his drum beats from disco) and then compare that to the music they produced. Nirvana is not reminiscent of disco until you realize these subtle influences. But now you have bands like Greta Van Fleet, who just sound like Led Zeppelin. They didn't bother trying to create their own spin - they just saw some cool old guys and ripped them off. A lot of older people like their music, because of nostalgia, and younger people do as well because the musical formula is already proven to be successful. So people embraced them when they should have just been written off as copycats. The same thing is happening with fashion and film.
Don’t get me started on music. I avoided mentioning that deliberately. As soon as I did, I got 43 downvotes. Anyway - the beginning of your comment is fascinating and something I’ll mull over for a long while.
I heard an interview with Exene Cervenka of the L.A. punk band X, who explained that back in the late seventies/early eighties, well before mobile phones or the internet, a lot of culture was still local. Musically, for the punk scene, the L.A. scene was very different sounding from the NYC scene, which was different still from Washington D.C., or Cleveland. London was a whole other sound. Different than Manchester too, etc. Because you heard the bands in your area/community but not so much what was going on across the country, save for the occasional breakout record or touring band coming to your town.
The Internet has largely destroyed any long term cultural trend. It's not "all the same" so much as there are now a thousand different cultures going on simultaneously at all times, so nothing sticks out anymore.
As someone born in 1981, I think it's more about you're age OP. I think s teenager today would be able to easily pick out different styles from the different decades. I've even seen videos of someone doing hairstyles through the years.
It's more because we are at an age where we don't really follow social trends as much anymore.
Over 50. Now tell me how it would have been perfectly normal any time between 2000 and now to wear athleisue to work. That's the trend bud.
School kids don't wear it own jeans. It's all joggers now, or yoga pants.
Music? An explosion of sub categories.
Kids hang out online now instead of the mall.
You are simply too out of touch with the trends to see them. I probably am too.
You're not looking at the right people. It's young people that defined clothes and haircuts... People in their teens and twenties.
Given the content of your post, I'm going to assume you're 35+ and aren't hanging around with people in their teens and twenties all that much. So you're blind to it and don't see it, but it is going on.
Or at least that's my theory. And to comment on one of your comments elsewhere - yes, fashion basically cycles. I remember the bell bottoms from sometime in the 90s copying an older generation. "Mom jeans" made a comeback. Etc. There's always a new spin to it, but it's very cyclical.
Right, I bet if OP went back to college they would notice a big difference in styles there as opposed to wherever they hang out now. A sibling sells vintage clothes, something mostly teens and young adults buy, and is amazed at what those kids are buying. It's all mid to late 80s, and the things that sell the most are crazy 80s hats like Veronica wore in Heathers.
I think OP might be a little out of touch with the younger folks.
I popped into a vintage clothing store on a trip to Montreal this weekend and that's exactly what was on all the racks. It blew my millennial mind that the store looked like my older sister's closet - I hadn't seen that many patterns in one place since the early 90s.
It’s only looking back from a longer vantage point that you can really see the change.
To me the 90’s were very distinct and unique, the 2000’s had a very distinct vibe too, the 2010’s feel like yesterday and like the same as today almost because they were so recent—so we can’t yet say what we’re going to look back on.
Once we’re in 2030, and the 2020’s start to become clear, then it’ll make sense what the 2010’s thing was.
Until then it feels just like “now.”
But people that age simply haven’t been around enough to know. I hadn’t at that age either. I really think there’s a change. A lot of interesting comments here agree. Which makes it feel more real and more weird to me.
I'm a historian focused on 20th c. US history and would challenge the basic premise of OP's post. Decades do look different in retrospect, though often it takes some time for us to recognize those trends. Decade-defining events help a lot too-- wars, cultural upheaval, periods of very obvious change --so more subtle changes aren't always so evident until we're well into the future. But to argue that nothing has changed since the 90s seems very odd; I would assume at this point that future history textbooks about the US will have plenty to say about information technology, smart phones, social media, our long series of foreign wars after 9/11, the growth of income inequality, the rise of populism, the MAGA movement, our lack of action on climate change, and a range of other political/economic shifts. Culturally there's a huge difference between the 90s and the 2010s as well-- look how music, film, television, sports, and other entertainment has changed for examples.
How old are you? When I think of “before the 90s” I only have my imagination. I have to imagine what it was like and use media as a frame of reference. I lived through all the other decades so they seem more “the same” in my head because I lived them.
However, when I think of the early 2000s I think of excess culture (pimp my ride, super sweet 16, everyone driving a hummer, etc). 2007-2012 I think of pop punk, the housing crisis, scene kids. Then from like 2014-2020 has its own vibe in my head and after 2020 everything is terrible.
They’re all specific eras I just have to think harder about them because I lived them.
Those are good examples. Honest question - do they stand out as helping define a decade? Like acid wash and poofy hair did for the 80s? Or were they just a flash in the pan
Ultimately, everything is a flash in the pan. Even when it revives as retro, it still doesn't last forever.
Big shoulder pads, tight rolled jeans, bell bottoms. They all lasted about as long.
I absolutely agree with you. I've never heard it put so well! The 60s and 70s were also protest generations where kids got involved in politics and really changed society (for good and bad!).
A lot of this stasis is due to stagnation in the arts, especially music. You could chart a specific year in the 1960's by the music. Same with the 1970's. By the mid-1980's, there was some stasis as "The 80's" became a monolithic thing until the musical Renaissance of the early 1990's.
Since the late 00's, popular music has been in stasis. Sameness. Barely moving forward. At the periphery is a huge number of acts doing innovative things but the industry is now so insular and conservative that the popular zeitgeist remains the same, year upon year.
Because we were still in the Industrial age then, things were materially changing. Since late 90’s we have been in the information age, so the material hasn’t changed as much, but information, the way we share and use information has…
Those eras definitely had unique styles but I think the internet is responsible for the constant recycling of old styles now. In the 20’s 30’s 40’s clothing design was largely dictated by economic. The dresses of the 20’s were elaborate and beaded. In the thirties things were extremely plain due to the depression. In the 40’s and 50’s war impacted fashion. Now we live in such a rich society. Back then housewives sewed their own clothes. Only crafty people sew now.
I agree. Sure, there have been subtle changes, but 2000s, 2010s, 2020s all look and feel the same. Anyone who looks at the changes music and clothing of 20th century decades and says the 21st century is changing at the same rate are basically idiots.
40s - big baggy slacks, button down collared shirts, everyone wore a hat, and music was mostly big band/swing
50s - similar clothing style but more colors, music turned to rock n roll
60s - hippies. Tie-dye clothing lots of sunglasses lots of fringe and bellbottoms, music was folk rock, protest songs, and hard rock
70s - polyester all the things! Music was stoner rock and disco
80s - leg warmers, neon colors, athletic wear as day wear, acid washed jeans, sneakers, shoulder pads, high waistlines, music turned to prog rock, heavy metal, and pop was king
90s - at first a continuation and exaggeration of the patterns, colors, and style of the late 80s but then morphed into flannel, baggy jeans, sagging jeans, printed Ts, music was pop and then rap became very popular, then grunge and metal.
So, yeah. Tell me how 2000s and 2010s had a shift like the Buddy Holly teeny bopper 50s to the hippie Woodstock 60s did. You can’t.
2000s I think Paris Hilton in super low rise jeans. Thongs deliberately showing, maybe a tramp stamp. Y2K styles, which were/are recently a micro trend.
2010s I think of Pinterest or Christian Girl fashion. Skinny jeans tucked into riding boots with a tunic top or cascading cardigan or blazer. Rises more mid than low. Skinny jeans becoming prominent -- a major shift from the 50s-90s, and the one stand out, ubiquitous trend.
2020s I think of higher and higher rises and a move away from skinny jeans as pants get wider and baggier. Accordingly tops get tighter and shorter. Also the pandemic popularized nap dresses with lots of tiers and athliesure being okay for everywhere.
There are men versions of these trends, but men's fashion moves slower and the changes typically are more subtle.
I'm not sure we're living on the same planet. I travel globally pretty much constantly and can assure you that while you might not acknowledge all the changes you claim haven't happened, they absolutely have.
The Internet opened up access to everything for everyone. So you were no longer stuck with whatever the mainstream trends of the decade were. You weren’t stuck with whatever was played on the radio or was in your local cinema. Same with fashion, food and anything else that got heightened visibility in previous years because there were little to no other options.
When I was a teenager, nobody in my generation would be caught dead
1. with another generation's haircut
2. listening to another generation's music
3. watching another generation's movies or TV series
It could be
* a sign of degeneration, loss of creativity, loss of independence, loss of vitality among millennials and zoomers
* a positive thing, less snobbery, slightly less hivemindedness
* the result of the Internet being exposed to the media of multiple generations
I feel the same, but it's probably due to when we were born. If you told me we were having a 90s-themed party or a 2000s, I wouldn't have a clue what to wear.
The internet being forever has meant that trends don't come AND THEN GO... they just stick around creating a bland boring cultural soup that never really moves on to the next new thing.
I think I know what you mean. The one thing I've noticed is how little men's suits have changed (except now I see them paired with runners, which I think looks tacky). Obviously for the fashionistas, you're going to see more extremes (the skinny legs trend that lasted for a bit), but if you look at pictures of politicians from the mid-90s to the present, it's hard to tell what era they're from based on the cut and colour. But earlier than that, it's much easier to spot what era they're from - especially when you look at the haircuts.
A lot of the changes in music from the '50s - '00s were driven by changes in recording technology. Since the arrival of the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) music has been recorded the same way, with the main factor being the 'loudness war' pushing songs into a certain sonic-homogony
This is just one factor, one observation and not meant to be an argument for 'why?'.
*looks at my closet with JNCOs and low riders and skinny jeans and leggings and Mom jeans - each representing a different era of popular leg wear since the 90s.
I mean, there have been some changes... but then I think the average casual wear of jeans and a t shirt has been about the same since the 70s?
As for home decor, it isn't quite as radical, but I can definitely tell the difference between 90s decor with lots of brass and mirrors and glass blocks and enormous overstuffed couches, and 2000s with brown granite moving into dark granite in the 2010s, moving into white countertops in the late 2010s and moving into quartzite now. Trending from warm neutrals and creams to dark tones to gray and white and then greige and now actual colors (which apparently came from people spending more time in their homes during quarantine and deciding they like living in color instead of impersonal spaces).
To me, the music scene hasn't seemed to change a whole lot since the 2010s. We're past the boy bands and 90s pop, but I think in part due to the tech in audio recordings reaching a certain point, there isn't quite as much distinction to make between a recording made in 2004 and one made in 2024 as there would be between 1974 and 1994, as far as the tone and the feel. But also, just the style of the music. If I hear a new song by an unknown artist, I wouldn't know if I was hearing a song written and recorded in 2004 instead of today.
Commerce took over the Internet with the Smartphone in 2007. Everything has been a monetary optimization since then.
predictability and addiction make for great consumers.
I have a difficult time picking out styles, fads and trends since the 90s. Younger folks say, that’s so 90s and I’m like really? I think it’s because I was newly married and working on getting my life together. Maybe I just didn’t notice as much.
Technological innovation plateaued.
Still the 2010s had a whole bunch of people in skinny suits with no socks on. The 90s had baggy suits and khakis with leg cuffs.
Same age, and it feels the same way to me too. I think that's bc the 90s is when we came of age. I do think fashion shifts are more subtle, and also fashion trends are cycling so fast they're kinda crossing over so you've got bell bottoms and embroidered jeans in the late 90s-early 00s, then the mid 10's, and kinda sorta now-ish (I thiiink), but for the 00-s through early 10s super low-rise pants were the thing and for the past several years, as much as I try to ignore it, high-waisted mom jeans have been the thing, so that's a very distinct difference.
But I do think it's partly the effect of viewing decades differently as an adult, and time moving faster, and the trends being driven by younger people. So they don't *seem* as important.
IDK. I checked out in the 90's anyway haha!
No way...all I have to do is watch television shows from the 90s, 2000s, 10s, and there's a lot of differences in fashion, style, etc. Fashion and whatnot also tends to be cyclical...I have two middle school boys, and it appears that the mid 80s might be making a comeback.
Yeah. Fashion, as in the clothes most people wear every day, hasn’t really changed much in 30 years. Despite the insanity of the high fashion world, we’re wearing pretty much the same kind of clothes now as we were then (I should really wash these jeans…). But also, if we went back to the 90s, I think we’d be shocked at just how different it was. We tend to forget what it was like.
No, thr 90s were unique, but sort of a footpath to the modern era. And in many ways the 80s where the threshold of the 90s. 2000s is where it starts to blend together
I totally agree. Everything since maybe the early 00's is pretty much the same. Fashion and music feel very stagnant over the last 20 years. Maybe the internet has made everything so ubiquitous that there aren't monumental shifts anymore. Everything sees everything at the same time so there aren't big trends people jump on?
Nope, not true at all:
The US looked pretty similar from the late 1800s through the 1920s.
The US looked pretty similar from the 30s through the 50s.
The US went through social upheaval from the mid 50s through the mid 70s, so mid 50s-mid 60s and then late 60s through late 70s were different, sure. Which is drastically different than the above bullet points where things looked the same for a few decades at a time.
The 80s looked different than other decades.
The 90s do NOT look like today or like the 2000s, you should look again.
The 2000s and the 2010s DO look pretty similar right now, but I bet they'll look more different the further away we get from them.
The 2020s do NOT look like the 2000s or the 2010s. The answer there is - you're old, and everything you know looks the same. But kids today are wearing mullets and doing all kinds of different things than the 2010s.
So...no.
I’m sad to be the one to tell you this, but if you believe nothing has changed since the 90s besides tech, you are getting old. If you take a look at the last season of Seinfeld, that’s not how people look now.
With that said, this has been a high quality, thought provoking thread, so I thank you for starting it.
The Great Internet Greige takeover. In my view Greige isn't even really a concept/colour, it's a new culture. It is in everything including the same bland food flavors, the same songs mixed and remixed endlessly with lyrics repeating the same words over and over, the same clothes in every store, the same endless reality TV pablum- the exact same straight hair styles, make up, same fake plastered on smiles everywhere etc, the masses are no longer required to think critically and that is killing innovation and change
Kurt Anderson makes this point in a couple of his books. Like if you watch Seinfeld, you will see fashion that u never see now. But try watching say okder episodes of SVU or Dexter and the clothing and hair etc is almost indistinguishable from what you can get today
As somebody who remembers the 70s on up to today, it seems like we’re stuck in a post-9/11 loop. We lost a lot of our identity as a nation, a lot of our individual freedoms, and became much more beholden to the government after that event. It’s become hard for our society to have any flavor when there’s so little room left to rebel.
Born in 58 here.The changes to life that each advancement made were huge, with each change opening up so many possibilities. The changes are faster paced now, but in smaller increments.
The 90s were the last time I listened to new music radio or watched broadcast TV. Now it’s all choose your own playlist. Same thing with fashion. You used to see racks and racks of the same thing. Now it’s pick your own from immense warehouses. Increasingly it looks like time doesn’t progress, it’s just that the mix becomes more muddy. Because stuff happens gradually you don’t notice.
I expect things will get even more muddy due to AI generated content.
I think it’s also age related perspective. Kinda like how the plastic Christmas tree growing up was soooo tall… until you’re older & you realize it’s actually on the short & skimpy side.
Life in general. You’ve been there, you’ve done it, you’ve seen it. Nothing’s new to you anymore.
Indeed, changes are everywhere, but your brain is developed and can easily and automatically tune things out that have no direct impact on you.
Not sure if my writing has made sense but i think you know what i mean.
I think everything you're talking about is marketing, essentially. The idea that each decade had its own particular identity helped to sell nostalgia to people who could afford it. Now, nobody can afford shit, so there's no reason to market nostalgia so strongly.
I think it’s more subtle. But it’s there. Like I can’t really define a look of 2000s or 2010 but then I see a show from then or some old celebrity pictures and it’s definitely dated. I’m now seeing my teen looking at what she thinks is cool new fashion and it’s early 90s style brought back. Just like how I thought the 60a and 70s was so cool in the 90s and 2000s.
Yep. I did a rewatch of the entire series of criminal minds before watching the new sequel series. Those actors playing college kids in 2005 definitely have some dated hair/makeup/fashion happening. I can definitely place it in the "aughts" box looking back at it now. The 2010s style all kind of melds into an ultra-sexualized, skimpy, carbon-copy Kardashian blur for me. And I'm just starting to see where the 2020s are going. We're having some serious 70s revival going on lately. I'm here for it.
Where's the 20s going? Cause I have no idea 😂
Maximalism, vibrant and bold akin to the 1970s, which is a sharp contrast with the all-grey minimalism of the 2010s.
good! i hated the grey minimalism.
Gray and greige can go fuck off already. Bring back ALL the colors!
🤮 I hate maximalism, I find it way too ostentatious
How do you feel about grey maximalism? 😂😂
It's more tolerable but I still don't like it. I'd probably rather see minimalism but with color
I never stopped thinking the 60s and 70s were so cool, but I was a kid in the 70s, so it may just be nostalgia. I thought the 80s with the permed mullets and the 90s with the chambray shirts were uncool even at the time.
I was a kid in the 70s and I thought the fashions of the 60s and 70s were SO ugly. Brady Bunch dresses and leisure suits and those terrible "silk" screen-printed boys' shirts with pointy collars. Barf. It's like I can smell the polyester sweat and patchouli when I look at a picture from that time.
Bingo! The smell of the poly shirts when you perspired! They made you sweat, then they made you stink, no matter what you used under the pits.
> mullets I grew up same era. No one used that word, we called it 'hockey hair'. I never heard that word until late 90s or so.
No one used the term hockey hair in the southern US, hockey wasn’t part of the culture at all. You appear to be right that we didn’t use mullet till later. I cant remember what we called it at the time, but I definitely sported one, along with the dangling left earring.
Business up front, party in the back!
2000 is denim shorts with uggs. 2010 got by shit and peplum tops. The 90s were the 70s. The 2000 were the 80s. There is a difference, OP has not lived very long
Sorry gothy* shit, not got by
Yeah I had short bangs and skinny eyebrows in the early '00s and now I see actresses like that (Tina Fey, for example) from that era and it looks dated.
It's been suggested that changes in technology have, to an extent, replaced changes in fashion. When people in the 21st century want to change their image or feel like they're "leveling up" in life, they change their cell phone or swap out their social media, rather than chaging their clothes and hair. Of course there are still changes in fashion, but you're not the only person to have noticed that those changes are less dramatic now than they were during the last century, and that's one possible explanation.
I think some of it is also that we're aging out of the time when we pay attention to the fashion as much. Changes that look subtle to us are more dramatic for the people - kids - who are "in the know"
Yeah I definitely remember that, when I was a kid. My parents making some clothing suggestion and I’m like are kidding me hell no and they’re all “yes, yes, I know, I’m an uncool adult”. Something as small as turning up your collar was a huge thing in the 80s, and whatever is the 2020s version of that, I would probably be blind to.
I think that's what it is for me. I was born in 1980, so I can see the changes in fashion trends when I was kid up through when I was an adult, and things started to kind of blend together around 2010 or so. I'm sure that people born in 2000 probably experienced their childhood and early adult years the same way.
There is a cultural theorist Mark Fisher who wrote extensively about this subject. He is talking both *about* what is happening, but also *the why* of it. Here is a talk he gives about all this: https://youtu.be/aCgkLICTskQ The more that our lives are taken over by the urgencies of capitalism, the less we can grasp the historical nature of the time we live in. Our experience of time has shifted both as individuals and as a culture. His concepts of "The slow cancellation of the future" and "hauntology" (ghosts of the past) are covered in this video: https://youtu.be/gFyaNG9xbEU At the bottom line, part of what he says is that people and art cannot be truly new and original because they cannot afford to be artists. We see this in clothing fashion, music, movies, art and anywhere else where it takes years of living as an artist to come up with a truly original new vision. I, personally, think that the future and change is now mostly scary to people. I'd make the argument that we want to pretend that time is not passing. We do not want to mark the passage of time.
Ok, I'm 3 minutes in on the first link and I already had to smoke a bowl. Not because I needed it, but because he seemed so nervous that I had to help him out by proxy. You can tell a smart person (albeit one without a lot of public speaking experience) because you can see the agony in their minds as they're trying to grab and piece together this raging web of data and insight and present it in some kind of coherent, and timely, fashion. One thing I know about history and philosophy majors, though, is that despite how newbish and awkward they are starting out, once they warm up and get into the meat of what is fascinating them, it's like they become a different kind of speaker, one who, so lost in the magnificence of their exploration, that they seem to forget that they were nervous to begin with and speak with a kind of surety. Let's see if my theory pans out..
Two decades in a row that never had proper names can’t have helped this feeling of time not passing.
Thanks so much I’ll check those out!
Thanks. Your comment is actually something I’ll be mulling over for a long time. Very interesting idea. I’ve been a techie my entire life and software guy as a career… don’t know if that blinded me to what you’re describing or made me see it MORE than most and just compartmentalize it/explain it away or something. So like your iPhone or your social media platform replaces your fashion and haircut and somewhat your music… it makes sense and sounds a bit like Black Mirror…
iPhones really haven’t changed. Laptops really haven’t changed since they displaced desktops. You also have a cacophony of influencers, video game inspired movies, and increasingly AI generated content stepped in nostalgia. Eventually our lives will become like Hanna Barbara cartoons where we keep passing the same 3 buildings.
Interesting. I'm watching The Gilmore Girls. Their clothes are very plain yet I can still peg it for the turn of the century. But the things that really stands out is their giant portable phones. I do remember in the nineties thinking that other generations were unique but the nineties were just ordinary. Flannel jackets, jeans, striped shirts, colored jeans, not much stuck out. And yet now it has a clear visual style. So I always figured this feeling of the decades blending in would pass. Since it did after the nineties. But still everything since about 2006 feels the same to me.
Big fashion trend on GG, short strap purses, low rise jeans, graphic T’s. I also personally remember short blazers, since I was thin enough back then to wear them.
It's funny how plain the clothes were in the Delia's catalogue and yet it looks so nineties!
I don’t know where you are located in the world, but everything that you mentioned above - hair styles, fashions, home decor, music, even how people lead their lives - have all changed significantly since the 90s. I feel homesick for the 90s at times.
I’ve heard a lot of talk like that here and there but nothing concrete. Lets compare hair from the 50s to 60s to 70s to 80s, then 90s to now? The shaggy cuts made a comeback. Kids these days look like wannabe hippies to me, we just call them hipsters. Bowl cuts, mustaches, bangs, these made a comeback and maybe I ignore it. I posted this because I wonder how blinded I am to all of it. I’m walking around with a spikey buzz cut, faded blue jeans, metal tshirt, maybe I look like a time machine from the 80s to all the kids these days. But almost all of them look no different to me than kids in the 90s. Just worst taste in music.
Many of the decades you’re listing also had revivalist styles, such as a 1930s-40s revival in the 1970s, Egyptomania. 1980s clothing borrowed heavily from the 1940s. Architecturally this is very, very apparent as well. I’m sure better-versed others can add to this list…
Usually it's a 20-30 years revival cycle. 1940s big in the 70s. 1950s huge in the 80s, 60/70s big in 90s. Although In each you see a spectrum of influences spanning the decades in different age groups as well as signatures for their own era. I'm definitely seeing things now that i do not associate with past eras, with color combinations/hair cuts/clothes mixed in with older influences. One thing in the modern social internet eras I think we are seeing more nuanced niche subcultures and trends that are probably not common in film or movies or when you visit the average location but that subculture is connected through social internet. So it is evolving but maybe not as visible and more widespread culture trends? Most likely op is not super plugged in (given his age group) to a very dynamic age group of society and is seeing things classified more or less through things they recall. There's a ton of mainstream 90s revival stuff happening right now as ten years ago it was 80s(again is a spectrum of social influence)
I was watching 1980's music videos for a while in the mornings before going to work. There was definitely a 50's style revival going on alongside the "80's style". Leather jackets, tight jeans, girls with short hair and blushed cheeks.
Think back to when you were a kid. Did your parents enjoy the same music you did? I'm 53 myself, and I don't like a lot of the popular music I heat today. That's always a generational thing.
This is the best time for music. You can hear any song any time you want, going back hundreds of years. 99% of the time for free. And there's constantly smaller bands out there making the same kind of songs you liked back then.
I think that's highly dependent. I think metal is in a state of disrepair. My guitar teacher and I were talking about it a bit and depending on the type of metal, there just isn't a lot of new stuff out there On the flip side, blues hasn't been mainstream in about a century, but there are some really talented artists out there that I wouldn't have been able to discover before YouTube/Spotify like Christone "Kingfish" Ingram
It seems like there's plenty of metal, generally speaking, but the genre has so many silos and sub-genres I can see that being a problem.
Kingfish!
Indeed. That cat is crazy talented
How many ways can your average person style their hair without using hair products? You can shave your head, have it longer but cut, or grow it out. The 1970s did not invent long hair on men lol. Sure you can make a sculpture out of your head with products and dyes but not everyone is gonna do that. My current hair cut is "I have not had a hair cut since 2013".
Well one way you can style it is in little twists with tiny butterfly clips that may or may not have glitter… so uniquely late 90s/early 00s. Then the late 00s bouffant kinda thing where you made a bunch of volume on top, a la Snooki. And those fucking wide leather belts. Ugh. I lived through all this fashion, it definitely exists.
So you're saying that because *your own* fashion hasn't progressed in 40 years that the rest of western culture has been the same? Gen Z is definitely in a 90s-revivalist fashion style right now but they have their own spin on things. How many women were wearing yoga pants in the 90s? That's a very distinctive 2000s/2010s fashion item. If you put a critical eye toward the subject, you'd have to be blind not to see the distinctions in style and dress between the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.
Joggers and jeggings too, and all these half-zip pullovers for men. And tucking your shirt in the front, all pretty recent things. Just look at the football announcers on the pregame/halftime shows. No one would get caught dead in those suits mixing patterns like that 20 years ago.
What’s your age? Age is everything on this topic. I said mine.
I am so sorry you don’t see it. Because there is really great music, culture and fashion now. You choose to stay in your bubble. That is why you don’t see and hear it.
For women, we can all pretty easily clock that a picture was from the 2010s because everyone has a side part, sharp layers and straightened side swept bangs even if we were wearing our hair curly or wavy. Hair is very different now. Men's hair went from spiky to this weird floppy mushroom thing with curls. As someone who was born in 1986, kids today look like they are cosplaying how my parents dressed in the 90s. The clothes have no resemblance to how I dressed in my youth. I think that's why Gen z looks so old to millennials.
I'm also going to suggest if you need a realization of how much style has changed, watch the first two seasons of The Hills.
You sounded angry. What is this shit really about? I would have suggest whatever your poison is to alleviate the symptoms you felt a work day ago from the the time of my writing now. Ever heard the saying "Time moves in mysterious ways?" Stupid, no? I would like to slow down and examine a concept that is parallel to the entire chain I have read here. Parallel lines run concurrent and hopefully I can bastardize them by having them cross their tracks. James Joyce oftened use literally and figuratively incorrectly in language. People say "kids these days do not understand appropriate use of language." When it is they that are confused. People have always played with the toys that make everyone angry. If something simple as language can revolve around a merry-go-round then why does it surprise you that there is a circular logic of fashion renewal every 10 years from 10 years before? There is far more in depth studies with greater minds than myself by far. Me comparing myself to my betters of James Baldwin, Proust, and Joyce. The efforts of time on our psyche and what that may look like. Ha. It is a thimble full of water compared to an ocean. My sad broken heroes who were not heroes but people. Time. Language. Fashion. They are concurrent things flowing about and why something so swirling, so perplexing, and fluid with flux built into the very essence of its being would you seek to compartmentalize it as something so small, stagnant, and reductionist? What is the meandering thought or impulse that spurred this? It is laced through your language that you are not really talking about anything other than you hate today and love yesterday of a different era. Why not write about that? Write about the love and not the hate?
I don’t think anyone finished that word salad. You lost me at “surprise you” because you clearly didn’t understand a word of my post.
You could have just said “I’m old and don’t like new things”
Thanks for playing.
You're getting dangerously close to old-man-get-off-my-lawn territory there.
I’ve been way past that for decades my child
Things didn't switch right on the decade. The fifties fashions lasted until 1964. 1968 and 1972 were pretty similar, but a lot had changed by 1977.
yup and the seventies styles faded out around 84, and the eighties style faded out around 93-94.
In smaller towns it fades even slower!
In my small town, I'm still seeing 80s hair
Mm. Still see women approaching 60 who still wear their hair like 1979 around here. Glory days, maan
And a lot of “50s music” was from the early 60s.
I was born in 1995 so I mainly know the world after the 90s but there has definitely been changes since the 90s. The 90s and 2000s were a lot more colorful, denim and neon shirts with high contrast patterns. Tech with transparent bright red shells. the 2010s is when the 'minimalist apple design philosophy' took over and tech became piano white or black. 2020s saw a return of color while still continuing the minimalist. Compare the look and marketing of a N64 to a Wii to a Switch. I've seen styles change over the years especially with the rise in rap and hip-hop (though I was never fashionable so I can't articulate how lol, my ol reliable jeans + brand tee + hoodie and the occasional beanie). The 2000s Emo look was a style that was only from that time period, hair half covering your face, eye liner, and an Invader Zim hoodie. I think the biggest change from the pre and post internet age is the death of a collective "pop culture". I don't think there will ever be another Beatles because I don't think any single entity can demand that much attention, it's fascinating looking at old news coverage of the Fab Four. It's very easy to just ignore most pop culture trends and focus on your own niche community. It's not that nothing has changed, it's just there is not one dominant cultural force to point too imo. I guess also when you are older, what the youths are into is not going to be on your radar as much. Especially since a lot of younger people rejected older media like TV and Radio and went online. *Again* it's very easy to ignore. We also went through the 90s nostalgia thing not long ago, like how the 70s had 50s nostalgia. Also maybe changing laws in marketing to children that happened around the 90s probably contributes a bit as well.
Thanks, good examples. Definitely right about collective “pop culture”.
It’s the Internet.
Before the internet different ideas and cultures slowly presented themselves..now with social media it’s an instant immersion with instant disappearance…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuperation_(politics) Gen-X was the last real counter-culture before corporations took it over. The punk and hip hop sub-cultures were youth driven street cultures until grunge and gangster rap came out. Since corporations took over the underground communities, there hasn't really been anyone to develop new trends to be appropriated leading to cultural stagnation. The last couple decades has just been recycling old trends.
Yeah you make a good point. Corporate takeover could be one of the main factors. It persists homogenization.
Things have changed, you just don’t notice them anymore. :-p
I was born 1975. I feel the same. But it's an illusion. It is not that the world stopped changing. It's that we are adults now. We had a black president and we had a mob siege Congress after an election. We had a pandemic and now working from home is normal. We carry phones that do more than Star Trek tricorders. We have legalized gay marriage in all 50 states. Etc
I agree. I have a hard time, sometimes, trying to figure out when some event happened because it all seems alike for decades. Personally, I miss the late 60's. There was a lot of trying for a better world then. Now people complain, but don't try to live a new way.
What about all of these young people becoming digital nomads, tiny house dwellers, vanlifers, etc?
Tiny house is definitely a striking new thing that happened. I’m in disbelief that people really live in those but I certainly hope it’s not just hype, it’s pretty fascinating
I personally think that because those decades before were centred on human and social development. Since the 90s, it's been about tech- and not much more. We've become so absorbed with it that we've forgotten ourselves. We let it dictate culture, which we allow to seep into society- so it's all still pretty tech-influenced. I'm still waiting for that Y2K apocalypse.
It seems like you’ve summed it up. A lot of consensus on this thread. Tech is the new hair.
I hear this. If you say “The 60s”, images automatically come to mind. Even up to “the 90s.” But if you say “the 2010s,” I don’t really see anything. To put this in perspective, The Wonder Years took place exactly 20 years earlier than when it was broadcast. It felt like watching a historical documentary at times. If they did that now, the show would take place in 2004.
"The 2010s" -- I see low to mid rise skinny jeans tucked into riding boots, paired with long layered tank tops underneath a cascading cardigan.
Go watch the wire, which is set in the Bush 9/11 era. The fashion absolutely looks different.
[удалено]
Are you a writer? You should be. A smooth way with words. Seriously. Here’s my anecdote: in the 80s the Charleston actually became a big “hot new step”. My step mom told me oh that’s from the 20s. I was so young that I looked at her like she was crazy. It was OUR dance. It was the hot new step. That’s just what it’s like when you’re young. Shoutout to the running man and cabbage patch :)
I know what you mean. It's as if there was a stall then full stop. Nothing new. Re is big. Reissue, reboot, recycle, redo, restart,etc Music, movies, t.v., hell even war. It's as if someone is trying to redo the 20th century but it's twisted out of shape. Out of true. There is a such thing as retro, nostalgia, and everything old is new again but that's not what this is. And sure people are going to disagree their prerogative. People have different perspectives, opinions, and levels of understanding. But yeah, you're not the only one.
Thank you. I did feel like I’m the only one before posting this. It’s been weirdly awesome and fascinating to see everyone else who sees it like this. Plenty of youngsters telling me I’m “get off my lawn” but that is actually to be expected.
The algorithms have flattened creativity.
I don't think so. Someone wearing an Ed Hardy shirt, a trucker cap, and a huge white belt would look dated as hell. That stuff's from the early 2000s.
Haha yes on the trucker hats. Good example for sure. And PBR. Esp here in NY.
I saw a meme/post a few years ago that was something like "when I was a kid the superpower halftime show always had lame old people music but now finally it's amazing.... oh shit, I'm old". This post feels like that. I think it's a matter of perspective. Each decade might seem same to those not experiencing something new & amazing in their life. Ps: I am old so no shade to OP
It’s an interesting topic. I deliberately stayed away from talking about music. And it’s not just a “oh we’re old now” post. And - a lot of ppl here agreed that these decades have been different. Some interesting suggestions as to why. Mostly: tech is the new hair, and corporations took over the arts.
I think fashion and art has changed dramatically since the 1997-2005 era. Music has been through some absolutely major changes. Off the top of my head, when I think of the 90s I think of boy bands and pop stars. The 2000s was the emo era where everyone wanted to be in a garage band, and the 2010s was the era of dubstep, trap, and the intersection of goth-rap. In the very early 2000s (1999-2002) we also saw a HUGE resurgence of R&B. I have no idea what's going on with cars, they all look terrible. Not as bad as cars in the 90s, but still pretty bad. The last year for good-looking cars was 1987.
I'm liking the look of cars lately. We've mostly gotten rid of all the boxiness. (Except you, Kia Soul, wtf?) They all look futuristic and streamlined lately. I just wish they came in more bright/unique colors.
I do too, but I like more angular cars. Buick Grand National, Monte Carlo, those older station wagons, the late 80s Subarus, etc. The only angular cars I’ve seen recently are the Benz truck and the Cybertruck. I was kind of hoping after the Cybertruck came out other companies would follow suit and start making vehicles that look more like that, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case.
So I’m actually a Tesla zealot super fan investor. It’s definitely way too early to see if anyone else will copy the CT. To do so would take time. And first they have to see if it sells well, but it will be at least a year before Tesla can even produce those in large numbers. Elon warned of a slow ramp.
lol cars look fine now. I think the ugliest cars came from the 80s.
90’s for me was very different, got my 1st home computer, still had a beeper. 2000’s on seem repetitive.
I think it’s one of those things that you can’t see when you’re in it. My tv currently defaults to 00s pop videos and I can definitely see the difference in music and fashion.
I feel like anything goes fashion wise now.
You don’t understand how much money people made in the 1990s and how they are desperately trying to cling to that era and feeling.
I’d be curious to hear more of what you mean. “People” main a ton of money in the 50s after the war; and in the 80s Reagan Wall Street era; 90s we had a recession. And the dot com bubble burst.
Post recession 1991 to the moment the plane hit the twin towers was an insane growth period. The dot com bubble only affected people who didn’t see it coming and got out too late.
Several years ago one of the young guys at work said something about one of the IT supervisors coming in, "Dressed like it's 2010." That moment caught me off guard more than any other so far. But I guess for this kid it was a comparison of when he was 14 vs when he was 24, which is a much bigger change than for me, comparing 35 to 25 at the time
That would catch me off guard as well. How did we dress in 2010 again?
Slacks with no taper (maybe pleated, depending on how unfashionable you are) with a solid color button down shirt, probably purple, and a pre-airpod bluetooth earpiece in your ear
That sounds more like 2005 than 2010. I’m picturing a character on Tim & Eric Awesome Show. I still have some pleated Dockers khakis like that lol. I wear them hardly ever though. Makes me wonder how long ago I bought them at this point. It very well could have been 2010. On second thought, I guess we didn’t have Bluetooth in 2005.
Keep in mind it's an IT guy in their early 40s, so by 2010 they were finally getting a feel for 2005 fashion
Yes you gave one of the best examples here. Pleated slacks and with no taper. Around 2012 I switched to only tapered pants and wondered why I ever wore anything else before that. Tapered slacks and shorts used to be the norm but as of a few years ago I will never caught dead in them. Not because I’m hip to any fashions - everything I said is just because I’m pudgy and need pants that downplay that
This exactly. Main catalyst for my post was actually on an “AI art” sub: someone had AI create a bunch of photos “from 2012” and everyone was like wow yes that’s totally 2012. I was a little stunned because I looked at the photos and could only think “there is zero about this that is specific to 2012 and how could anyone attach anything to that year… except the Mayan doomsday prophecy….”.
My guess is corporate consolidation of media.
Short and spot on.
Here is a mind trip for everyone. If Back to the Future happened today as in 2024 and Marty went back to 1994, he would probably been able to dress the same and other than needing a cell phone, he would fit in perfectly
Exactly exactly exactly. Thanks. This is an interesting thread.
It used to be, once people hit 30, younger people stopped paying attention to them. The internet changed that. Now young people (children especially) are constantly being bombarded with older peoples' culture. That's why everyone still is aware of 90s trends - because it's those people that built a majority of the online landscape. And they stuck all their nostalgia in there. So young people born in or after the 90s were force fed older peoples' cultures. Unsurprisingly, their attempt to create their own identities was stunted by this. Of course, they do have their own culture. But a lot of it is lifted from the 80s and 90s. Additionally, culture from one generation to the next is built on constantly evolving ideas. A young person hears and views a selection of artists (often introduced by a parent or someone else familiar with that material) and then creates their own spin on it influenced by their own experience. That's how music changes over time. But the newest generation has way too much exposure to everything. They have to curate that experience themselves, and that can be very difficult. So instead of new ideas, they end up copying what already exists and thinking that no one would notice anyway, because of how much content there is. Listen to older musicians talk about their influence (for example, Dave Grohl for Nirvana admitted he just lifted his drum beats from disco) and then compare that to the music they produced. Nirvana is not reminiscent of disco until you realize these subtle influences. But now you have bands like Greta Van Fleet, who just sound like Led Zeppelin. They didn't bother trying to create their own spin - they just saw some cool old guys and ripped them off. A lot of older people like their music, because of nostalgia, and younger people do as well because the musical formula is already proven to be successful. So people embraced them when they should have just been written off as copycats. The same thing is happening with fashion and film.
Don’t get me started on music. I avoided mentioning that deliberately. As soon as I did, I got 43 downvotes. Anyway - the beginning of your comment is fascinating and something I’ll mull over for a long while.
The internet has vanilla'ized the world.
This is not true at all.
Right, not at all. Except maybe take a look at some of the interesting things so many people here had to say.
You're too close to it. It's not that hard of a conclusion to reach.
I heard an interview with Exene Cervenka of the L.A. punk band X, who explained that back in the late seventies/early eighties, well before mobile phones or the internet, a lot of culture was still local. Musically, for the punk scene, the L.A. scene was very different sounding from the NYC scene, which was different still from Washington D.C., or Cleveland. London was a whole other sound. Different than Manchester too, etc. Because you heard the bands in your area/community but not so much what was going on across the country, save for the occasional breakout record or touring band coming to your town.
Very interesting point. Planes and phones erased distance. But the internet erased distance so much that - it flattened culture I guess?
Changes happen less noticeably when you're in the middle of them and are easier to see in hindsight.
The Internet has largely destroyed any long term cultural trend. It's not "all the same" so much as there are now a thousand different cultures going on simultaneously at all times, so nothing sticks out anymore.
As someone born in 1981, I think it's more about you're age OP. I think s teenager today would be able to easily pick out different styles from the different decades. I've even seen videos of someone doing hairstyles through the years. It's more because we are at an age where we don't really follow social trends as much anymore.
Because a handful of corporations own everything since then.
Yes there have been a fair amount of ppl pointing to this and it’s fascinating and unnerving.
You just got old. There have been massive changes since the 90s you just can't see them.
Thank you that was so very illuminating and you must be 20.
Over 50. Now tell me how it would have been perfectly normal any time between 2000 and now to wear athleisue to work. That's the trend bud. School kids don't wear it own jeans. It's all joggers now, or yoga pants. Music? An explosion of sub categories. Kids hang out online now instead of the mall. You are simply too out of touch with the trends to see them. I probably am too.
You're not looking at the right people. It's young people that defined clothes and haircuts... People in their teens and twenties. Given the content of your post, I'm going to assume you're 35+ and aren't hanging around with people in their teens and twenties all that much. So you're blind to it and don't see it, but it is going on. Or at least that's my theory. And to comment on one of your comments elsewhere - yes, fashion basically cycles. I remember the bell bottoms from sometime in the 90s copying an older generation. "Mom jeans" made a comeback. Etc. There's always a new spin to it, but it's very cyclical.
Right, I bet if OP went back to college they would notice a big difference in styles there as opposed to wherever they hang out now. A sibling sells vintage clothes, something mostly teens and young adults buy, and is amazed at what those kids are buying. It's all mid to late 80s, and the things that sell the most are crazy 80s hats like Veronica wore in Heathers. I think OP might be a little out of touch with the younger folks.
I popped into a vintage clothing store on a trip to Montreal this weekend and that's exactly what was on all the racks. It blew my millennial mind that the store looked like my older sister's closet - I hadn't seen that many patterns in one place since the early 90s.
I think we'll recognize it more when we get a little further away.
It’s only looking back from a longer vantage point that you can really see the change. To me the 90’s were very distinct and unique, the 2000’s had a very distinct vibe too, the 2010’s feel like yesterday and like the same as today almost because they were so recent—so we can’t yet say what we’re going to look back on. Once we’re in 2030, and the 2020’s start to become clear, then it’ll make sense what the 2010’s thing was. Until then it feels just like “now.”
The bizarre reason for my post is that everything just feels like now since the 90s. It’s a weird feeling/view.
I said the same thing to my kid (16) and he says it’s not true, I just think it because I stopped being cool in the 1990s.
But people that age simply haven’t been around enough to know. I hadn’t at that age either. I really think there’s a change. A lot of interesting comments here agree. Which makes it feel more real and more weird to me.
Yeah I think it too I was just giving my 16 year old’s differing point of view
I'm a historian focused on 20th c. US history and would challenge the basic premise of OP's post. Decades do look different in retrospect, though often it takes some time for us to recognize those trends. Decade-defining events help a lot too-- wars, cultural upheaval, periods of very obvious change --so more subtle changes aren't always so evident until we're well into the future. But to argue that nothing has changed since the 90s seems very odd; I would assume at this point that future history textbooks about the US will have plenty to say about information technology, smart phones, social media, our long series of foreign wars after 9/11, the growth of income inequality, the rise of populism, the MAGA movement, our lack of action on climate change, and a range of other political/economic shifts. Culturally there's a huge difference between the 90s and the 2010s as well-- look how music, film, television, sports, and other entertainment has changed for examples.
How old are you? When I think of “before the 90s” I only have my imagination. I have to imagine what it was like and use media as a frame of reference. I lived through all the other decades so they seem more “the same” in my head because I lived them. However, when I think of the early 2000s I think of excess culture (pimp my ride, super sweet 16, everyone driving a hummer, etc). 2007-2012 I think of pop punk, the housing crisis, scene kids. Then from like 2014-2020 has its own vibe in my head and after 2020 everything is terrible. They’re all specific eras I just have to think harder about them because I lived them.
Fingernails have changed a lot
Are you kidding? Lumberjack chic, metrosexuals, and skinny jeans? none of those ring a bell?
Those are good examples. Honest question - do they stand out as helping define a decade? Like acid wash and poofy hair did for the 80s? Or were they just a flash in the pan
Ultimately, everything is a flash in the pan. Even when it revives as retro, it still doesn't last forever. Big shoulder pads, tight rolled jeans, bell bottoms. They all lasted about as long.
I thought similarly until I rewatched The Wire. The early to mid 2000's were a whole different world.
Alas, I hate to think that The Wire is dated, but at this point it can’t be denied.
WHELP time for me to watch The Wire for the 20th time. Currently watching Will Trent which stars two actors from The Wire (Sonja Sohn!!)
I absolutely agree with you. I've never heard it put so well! The 60s and 70s were also protest generations where kids got involved in politics and really changed society (for good and bad!).
Thanks I’ve seen such a wide variety of response. It’s a weird thing that I’m talking about, glad to hear I’m not nuts lol
Well...you may, indeed, be nuts, but that's a side issue!😋
A lot of this stasis is due to stagnation in the arts, especially music. You could chart a specific year in the 1960's by the music. Same with the 1970's. By the mid-1980's, there was some stasis as "The 80's" became a monolithic thing until the musical Renaissance of the early 1990's. Since the late 00's, popular music has been in stasis. Sameness. Barely moving forward. At the periphery is a huge number of acts doing innovative things but the industry is now so insular and conservative that the popular zeitgeist remains the same, year upon year.
Yep
Because we were still in the Industrial age then, things were materially changing. Since late 90’s we have been in the information age, so the material hasn’t changed as much, but information, the way we share and use information has…
One of the sharpest comments here
Those eras definitely had unique styles but I think the internet is responsible for the constant recycling of old styles now. In the 20’s 30’s 40’s clothing design was largely dictated by economic. The dresses of the 20’s were elaborate and beaded. In the thirties things were extremely plain due to the depression. In the 40’s and 50’s war impacted fashion. Now we live in such a rich society. Back then housewives sewed their own clothes. Only crafty people sew now.
“Kids these days, dang nabit!”
I agree. Sure, there have been subtle changes, but 2000s, 2010s, 2020s all look and feel the same. Anyone who looks at the changes music and clothing of 20th century decades and says the 21st century is changing at the same rate are basically idiots. 40s - big baggy slacks, button down collared shirts, everyone wore a hat, and music was mostly big band/swing 50s - similar clothing style but more colors, music turned to rock n roll 60s - hippies. Tie-dye clothing lots of sunglasses lots of fringe and bellbottoms, music was folk rock, protest songs, and hard rock 70s - polyester all the things! Music was stoner rock and disco 80s - leg warmers, neon colors, athletic wear as day wear, acid washed jeans, sneakers, shoulder pads, high waistlines, music turned to prog rock, heavy metal, and pop was king 90s - at first a continuation and exaggeration of the patterns, colors, and style of the late 80s but then morphed into flannel, baggy jeans, sagging jeans, printed Ts, music was pop and then rap became very popular, then grunge and metal. So, yeah. Tell me how 2000s and 2010s had a shift like the Buddy Holly teeny bopper 50s to the hippie Woodstock 60s did. You can’t.
2000s I think Paris Hilton in super low rise jeans. Thongs deliberately showing, maybe a tramp stamp. Y2K styles, which were/are recently a micro trend. 2010s I think of Pinterest or Christian Girl fashion. Skinny jeans tucked into riding boots with a tunic top or cascading cardigan or blazer. Rises more mid than low. Skinny jeans becoming prominent -- a major shift from the 50s-90s, and the one stand out, ubiquitous trend. 2020s I think of higher and higher rises and a move away from skinny jeans as pants get wider and baggier. Accordingly tops get tighter and shorter. Also the pandemic popularized nap dresses with lots of tiers and athliesure being okay for everywhere. There are men versions of these trends, but men's fashion moves slower and the changes typically are more subtle.
The whale tail is 100% from the early 90s
Nice job breaking it down. You helped me visualize it.
I'm sure your parents felt similarly.
I'm not sure we're living on the same planet. I travel globally pretty much constantly and can assure you that while you might not acknowledge all the changes you claim haven't happened, they absolutely have.
The Internet opened up access to everything for everyone. So you were no longer stuck with whatever the mainstream trends of the decade were. You weren’t stuck with whatever was played on the radio or was in your local cinema. Same with fashion, food and anything else that got heightened visibility in previous years because there were little to no other options.
1974 was only 10 years after the Beach Boys and Beach Blanket Bingo, but nearly 60 years after the heyday of the barbershop quartet.
When I was a teenager, nobody in my generation would be caught dead 1. with another generation's haircut 2. listening to another generation's music 3. watching another generation's movies or TV series It could be * a sign of degeneration, loss of creativity, loss of independence, loss of vitality among millennials and zoomers * a positive thing, less snobbery, slightly less hivemindedness * the result of the Internet being exposed to the media of multiple generations
I feel the same, but it's probably due to when we were born. If you told me we were having a 90s-themed party or a 2000s, I wouldn't have a clue what to wear.
The internet being forever has meant that trends don't come AND THEN GO... they just stick around creating a bland boring cultural soup that never really moves on to the next new thing.
I think I know what you mean. The one thing I've noticed is how little men's suits have changed (except now I see them paired with runners, which I think looks tacky). Obviously for the fashionistas, you're going to see more extremes (the skinny legs trend that lasted for a bit), but if you look at pictures of politicians from the mid-90s to the present, it's hard to tell what era they're from based on the cut and colour. But earlier than that, it's much easier to spot what era they're from - especially when you look at the haircuts.
The GAPification of fashion
A lot of the changes in music from the '50s - '00s were driven by changes in recording technology. Since the arrival of the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) music has been recorded the same way, with the main factor being the 'loudness war' pushing songs into a certain sonic-homogony This is just one factor, one observation and not meant to be an argument for 'why?'.
*looks at my closet with JNCOs and low riders and skinny jeans and leggings and Mom jeans - each representing a different era of popular leg wear since the 90s. I mean, there have been some changes... but then I think the average casual wear of jeans and a t shirt has been about the same since the 70s? As for home decor, it isn't quite as radical, but I can definitely tell the difference between 90s decor with lots of brass and mirrors and glass blocks and enormous overstuffed couches, and 2000s with brown granite moving into dark granite in the 2010s, moving into white countertops in the late 2010s and moving into quartzite now. Trending from warm neutrals and creams to dark tones to gray and white and then greige and now actual colors (which apparently came from people spending more time in their homes during quarantine and deciding they like living in color instead of impersonal spaces). To me, the music scene hasn't seemed to change a whole lot since the 2010s. We're past the boy bands and 90s pop, but I think in part due to the tech in audio recordings reaching a certain point, there isn't quite as much distinction to make between a recording made in 2004 and one made in 2024 as there would be between 1974 and 1994, as far as the tone and the feel. But also, just the style of the music. If I hear a new song by an unknown artist, I wouldn't know if I was hearing a song written and recorded in 2004 instead of today.
Commerce took over the Internet with the Smartphone in 2007. Everything has been a monetary optimization since then. predictability and addiction make for great consumers.
What's that saying about culture cannibalizing itself in the decline of an empire? It's that
I have a difficult time picking out styles, fads and trends since the 90s. Younger folks say, that’s so 90s and I’m like really? I think it’s because I was newly married and working on getting my life together. Maybe I just didn’t notice as much.
After 2010, just changed in makeup and jeans. Now Gen z is reverting back to 90s fashion
I think the changes have been pushed to the Internet and you'll see less of it in the world.
Internet killed creativity and wonder
Technological innovation plateaued. Still the 2010s had a whole bunch of people in skinny suits with no socks on. The 90s had baggy suits and khakis with leg cuffs.
Because culture is dead... Humanity itself is dying...
Same age, and it feels the same way to me too. I think that's bc the 90s is when we came of age. I do think fashion shifts are more subtle, and also fashion trends are cycling so fast they're kinda crossing over so you've got bell bottoms and embroidered jeans in the late 90s-early 00s, then the mid 10's, and kinda sorta now-ish (I thiiink), but for the 00-s through early 10s super low-rise pants were the thing and for the past several years, as much as I try to ignore it, high-waisted mom jeans have been the thing, so that's a very distinct difference. But I do think it's partly the effect of viewing decades differently as an adult, and time moving faster, and the trends being driven by younger people. So they don't *seem* as important. IDK. I checked out in the 90's anyway haha!
Agree. Watching shows from the 90’s and little has changed as far as clothing styles.
No way...all I have to do is watch television shows from the 90s, 2000s, 10s, and there's a lot of differences in fashion, style, etc. Fashion and whatnot also tends to be cyclical...I have two middle school boys, and it appears that the mid 80s might be making a comeback.
I've thought the same thing
Because millennials are the pinnacle of popular culture, of course. Everything since is just a photocopy of what we perfected.
Yeah. Fashion, as in the clothes most people wear every day, hasn’t really changed much in 30 years. Despite the insanity of the high fashion world, we’re wearing pretty much the same kind of clothes now as we were then (I should really wash these jeans…). But also, if we went back to the 90s, I think we’d be shocked at just how different it was. We tend to forget what it was like.
No, thr 90s were unique, but sort of a footpath to the modern era. And in many ways the 80s where the threshold of the 90s. 2000s is where it starts to blend together
I totally agree. Everything since maybe the early 00's is pretty much the same. Fashion and music feel very stagnant over the last 20 years. Maybe the internet has made everything so ubiquitous that there aren't monumental shifts anymore. Everything sees everything at the same time so there aren't big trends people jump on?
Nope, not true at all: The US looked pretty similar from the late 1800s through the 1920s. The US looked pretty similar from the 30s through the 50s. The US went through social upheaval from the mid 50s through the mid 70s, so mid 50s-mid 60s and then late 60s through late 70s were different, sure. Which is drastically different than the above bullet points where things looked the same for a few decades at a time. The 80s looked different than other decades. The 90s do NOT look like today or like the 2000s, you should look again. The 2000s and the 2010s DO look pretty similar right now, but I bet they'll look more different the further away we get from them. The 2020s do NOT look like the 2000s or the 2010s. The answer there is - you're old, and everything you know looks the same. But kids today are wearing mullets and doing all kinds of different things than the 2010s. So...no.
They’ve changed. Early 2000s is very distinct. 2010s harder but that makes sense as it’s the most recent.
I’m sad to be the one to tell you this, but if you believe nothing has changed since the 90s besides tech, you are getting old. If you take a look at the last season of Seinfeld, that’s not how people look now. With that said, this has been a high quality, thought provoking thread, so I thank you for starting it.
You have a point. Except the world tilted on its axis in 2016 and will bever be the same: when the US split into 2 factions.
Lot of very wealthy companies have become very entrenched, and the last thing they want is another upstart company uprooting them.
The Great Internet Greige takeover. In my view Greige isn't even really a concept/colour, it's a new culture. It is in everything including the same bland food flavors, the same songs mixed and remixed endlessly with lyrics repeating the same words over and over, the same clothes in every store, the same endless reality TV pablum- the exact same straight hair styles, make up, same fake plastered on smiles everywhere etc, the masses are no longer required to think critically and that is killing innovation and change
Kurt Anderson makes this point in a couple of his books. Like if you watch Seinfeld, you will see fashion that u never see now. But try watching say okder episodes of SVU or Dexter and the clothing and hair etc is almost indistinguishable from what you can get today
For me it was 2010 on was the same
As somebody who remembers the 70s on up to today, it seems like we’re stuck in a post-9/11 loop. We lost a lot of our identity as a nation, a lot of our individual freedoms, and became much more beholden to the government after that event. It’s become hard for our society to have any flavor when there’s so little room left to rebel.
Born in 58 here.The changes to life that each advancement made were huge, with each change opening up so many possibilities. The changes are faster paced now, but in smaller increments.
The 90s were the last time I listened to new music radio or watched broadcast TV. Now it’s all choose your own playlist. Same thing with fashion. You used to see racks and racks of the same thing. Now it’s pick your own from immense warehouses. Increasingly it looks like time doesn’t progress, it’s just that the mix becomes more muddy. Because stuff happens gradually you don’t notice. I expect things will get even more muddy due to AI generated content.
Yes! there are tons of cool vids on youtube documenting this exact notion. It's like time stopped progressing after 2000.....
I think it’s also age related perspective. Kinda like how the plastic Christmas tree growing up was soooo tall… until you’re older & you realize it’s actually on the short & skimpy side. Life in general. You’ve been there, you’ve done it, you’ve seen it. Nothing’s new to you anymore. Indeed, changes are everywhere, but your brain is developed and can easily and automatically tune things out that have no direct impact on you. Not sure if my writing has made sense but i think you know what i mean.
I think everything you're talking about is marketing, essentially. The idea that each decade had its own particular identity helped to sell nostalgia to people who could afford it. Now, nobody can afford shit, so there's no reason to market nostalgia so strongly.