The 1990s means…
Supermodels. What was it about these ladies that exploded them on to the celebrity scene in the 1990s? Was it their amazingly long legs? Was it the fact they refused to get out of bed for less than £10.30, a glass of champagne and a stick of celery?
Five points if you can name each one, bonus point for the middle top
What were we wearing in the 1990s? Designer labels, mostly, or fake designer labels if we were poor. Shell suits (if we were really in the trend). I wore long dresses, big cardigans, and big boots mostly.
Remember this Versace dress?
Or was this more your style?
Interior design meant an appreciation of the minimalist aesthetic. Can we take absolutely every characteristic away from art and still call the end product art? When I think of 1990s interior deco I think of calm hues, greys, coffee coloured walls, white minimalist sofas, cushions that match curtains and carpets and sleek, shiny, reflective kitchens. Think IKEA.
Don’t spill coffee on that sofa.
These people made important decisions in the 1990s. No more Tory’s, yeah! And a nice, young handsome Prime Minister to boot. What did the New Left mean? The Old Right?
I needed just a handful of CSEs to get this job
Rory Brenner did a very good ‘me’
I went a bit mad in the 1990s:
What do I like to do at the weekend? Go to the mooovies.
I also went a bit mad in the 1990s:
I’ve come to save you all from sin, but only if you wear green
This person lost her life in the 1990s.
Do you remember where you were on August 31st, 1997?
So did this person.
I just want to break free!
What were we watching on TV in the 1990s? Baywatch, Beverly Hills 90210, Friends, Absolutely Fabulous, Brookside, Hollyoakes, Have I Got News For You, This Life, X Files, ER.
Dylan or Brendan, Dylan or Brendan? Decisions, decisions
The show with a man called Egg
Are you a Rachel? A Monica? Or a Phoebe?
Does she fancy him, or what?
Music of the 1990s: another iconic decade for music which brought us Brit Pop, the Blur vs Oasis battle (of course you couldn’t like both), Pulp (pasty, skinny British men singing angsty songs), Nirvana, Indie (Stones Roses, Charlatons, Soup Dragons – perhaps more end of the 1980s). Oh, and how could I forget that girl band with silly names: Baby, Sporty, Ginger, Posh and Scary. So did the 1990s witness the birth of the squeaky clean girl band and boy band brand of pop?
And it’s not about you joggers who go round and round and round
We’re better than those Blur blokes you know
We’ll tell you what you want, what you really, really want, you want, you want a load more girl bands
Films of the 1990s were a mixture of light-hearted British humour, gritty realism, sweet love stories and big, blockbuster ‘USA vs them’ epics: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Titanic, Independence Day, Armageddon, The Sixth Sense, Pretty Woman, Basic Instinct, Saving Private Ryan, The Matrix, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Philadelphia, Reality Bites.
Do you love someone else, Charles? Do you? Do you, Charles?
I’m a nice lady, not a lady of the night
Art in the 1990s makes me think of those lovely Young British Artists such as Damien Hurst, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and friends. Tony Blair and others like him of course capitalized on this new popularity of home-grown artists, realising the potential of this new ‘trendy’ image for Britart.
Haven’t we seen this bed before?
What were we reading in between all this TV watching, art appreciating and film watching? Nothing much else besides Harry Potter it seems. But also perhaps Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, Irvin Welsh’s Trainspotting, Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Philip Pulman’s His Dark Materials.
The book of the decade?
And in conclusion to the 1970s, 1980s., 1990s watch this: YouTube slightly rude video about the last three decades.
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Tutorial Notes