Music in the 1990s - Victor Veytsman
Internet Advertising in the 1990s - Victor Veytsman
Politics in the 1990s - Jasmine Lamnii
Television in the 1990s - Chase Goodman
Film in the 1990s - Amia McDonald

Music in the 1990s

Rock Music

In the 1990s, Alternative rock and it’s sub-genres were booming with bands like Nirvana and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Other bands included Depeche Mode, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, and REM.

There are 2 main sub-genres of Alternative Rock that were very popular in the nineties: Grunge and Pop Punk. Grunge was a bridge between rock and heavy metal, with bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, from the early nineties and late eighties. In 1994 though, Grunge music started fading partially due to the death of Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. Grunge became popular because in the 80s sub-genres of rock like hair rock were becoming to overproduced, or fake. Grunge was the opposite of that. Grunge was real. And because of many problems faced by the white adults in the 90s, people turned to Grunge to steam off.

Punk Rock, on the other hand, is a bridge between rock and the punk genre. In the mid nineties, this genre really exploded, with bands like Green Day selling millions. Other popular bands included blink-182 and New Found Glory. Although Punk Rock was invented way before the 90s, Punk Rock became popular because it was defined as a rebellious genre. Kind of like Grunge music, people turned to Punk Rock to steam off.

Pop music

In the 90s, many genres of Pop were available, from the growth of the electronic genre with widespread computer use, to teen pop taking over the minds of the kids at the time. The decade started off with Contemporary R&B but then shifted to a different, more teen pop feel towards the end.

Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop and dance. R&B stands for Rhythm and blues, a name that has gone over many shifts previously, which is why Contemporary R&B is quite different from traditional R&B. It evolved out of the disco-style music that ended in the 80s and added a focus on the singer, usually black, with more electronic elements. Michael Jackson was considered great for decades, from the seventies onwards, with 2 R&B singles that pushed their way to the number-one spot on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, and many that didn’t. Other popular Contemporary R&B artists included Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. I think this genre became popular because it evolved the disco genre of the previous decade.

In the 90s, the British group Spice Girls broke into the US market and set the stage for an onslaught of teen pop, seeping into and pushing out the Grunge and Hip Hop genres. And they were not the only ones on the scene, oh no. American artists included the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC (N’ Sync, NSYNC *N SYNC, etc.), who’s fans were always engaged in fiery debates about which was the better of the two boy bands. And let’s not forget about the women, like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Jennifer Lopez (just to name a few). These artists were targeting the new generation, Generation X, the teenagers in the 90s. They were a growing market and Teen Pop capitalized on that, which is why it became popular.

Internet Advertising in the 1990s

In 1994, HotWired, the predecessor to the Wired.com website, needed to get some money off of the articles that they were publishing. So, they created banner ads. The first one, shown below, was from AT&T, and then HotWired launched banner ads from 13 other companies, including MCI, Volvo, Club Med, 1-800-Collect and Zima. AT&T had payed HotWired $300,000 to display the ad on top of the website, and 44% of users clicked through! Compare that to the 0.06% click rate of today! Soon, the small digital spin-off had more employees than the actual magazine company itself, and started pulling $20 million a year in revenue!

In 1995, internet ads were becoming increasingly popular. WebConnect, a new agency that specialized in online advertising, began telling advertisers what websites their ads would fit on. This was AMAZING in the advertisement world. Now, advertisers knew what websites their ads would go on! They could target a specific demographic, and increase their probability for clicking! And it doesn’t stop there. WebConnect created the CustomView tool, which made sure that if someone had seen a banner a certain amount of times they would be shown another one. No longer had advertisers had to deal with the guesswork in the demographic that would be viewing the ad, or how frequently they’d see and get bored of it.

Let’s say you’re an advertiser in 1996. Here is something you would say: “I really love these new internet banner thingies, but how do I know if they are working or not?” One way was tracking how many visits they got on their landing page, but who had time to do that? A company called “Doubleclick” thought the same way and so in 1996 they created a service called D.A.R.T. which allowed advertisers not only to see how their ad campaign was doing but it allowed them to make changes in the middle of it. Previously, you just had to wait the campaign out and see if anything changed. Now, you could see if an ad was performing badly on a website and pull the ad from it. This program also meant that a different pricing system was put in place called Cost Per Impression (CPI). Basically, Cost Per Impression = Advertising cost / Number of Impressions (Views of ad). It was kind of like the Cost Per Click model of today but less expensive and more easily trackable.

Then, came the pop ups. In 1997, pop-up ads were created because people started paying less attention to banner ads and would detach the ads from the actual content of the website, thus not harming the advertiser’s image. But nobody liked them and they quickly died because nobody actually fell for them.

The year is 1999. Search engines are evolving steadily. A search engine called GoTo.com, later to be bought by Yahoo, introduces a model which is called "Pay per Placement Search." Advertisers can pay for the top spot in a search for specific keywords. Eventually, like with banner ads, the model moved from Pay per Placement to Pay Per Click. But this model was not perfect, as less relevant ads would be placed above good ones based on how much the company wanted to pay. Better models like Google’s AdWords would evolve in the 2000s to solve this problem.

POLITICS IN THE 1990'S

The decade leading up to the year 2000 saw a lot of change ,with many important events that shaped not only the 1990's but our lives since then. In the 1990's Madeleine Albright (born May 15, 1937) was the first woman to become the United States Secretary of State. She was nominated by US President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997. She thought it was important for woman to get out there and do something for the world, and make it a better place. She was a true inspiration for woman in the 1990's and is still respected to this day because of it.

There were also dramatic increases to the deaths due to H.I.V and AIDS in the states in the 90’s. In 1997, almost 3.5 million people were diagnosed with H.I.V but after that it began to decline and in 2015 it reached 2.1 million diagnoses per year. AIDS diagnoses also began to increase in the 90’s and peaked in 2004 and 2005. But some good news came from this, after years of denying AIDS as a real problem Ronald Reagan publicly talks about it. In the 1990’s, treatments for H.I.V and AIDS became more accessible.

The United States economy grew by an average of 4 percent every year between 1992 - 1999, from 1990 - 1999 the median American household income grew by 10 percent and since 2000 it’s shrunk by nearly 9 percent. An average of 1.7 million jobs a year were added to the workforce The unemployment rate went down from 8% to 4%.

The Lewinsky scandal was an American Political sex scandal that involved 49-year-old President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The relationship took place between 1995 and 1996 and came to light in 1998. Clinton ended a televised speech with the statement that he did not have sexual relations with Lewinsky. Further investigation led to the impeachment of the president in 1998 but he finished his term.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was elected president of South Africa in 1994 and was the first ever Black President of the country, ending the apartheid rule of the white supremacists in south Africa. He served as President of South America from 1994 to 1999. After the National party's white only government established apartheid—a system of racial segregation that privileged whites—he and the ANC (African National Congress) committed themselves to its overthrow.

Television in the 1990's

TV in the 90s was all about family sitcoms, kid cartoons and teenage wrestling. A couple of the biggest 90s sitcoms were Friends and Seinfeld. Some very popular cartoons that still air new episodes on television are The Simpsons and Family Guy. These comedies and action packed television shows are still popular to tons of people today. While Seinfeld and Friends may have ended their run on television, most family sitcoms started because of them.

The WWF attitude began in 1997. It is known as WWF most dominant era after WWF best former superstars went to their rival wrestling brand, WCW. WWF’s (now known as WWE) chairman purchased WCW in 2001 and then there was a 6 - man tag team elimination bout and the loser would have to disband the company. WWF won and became the more superior.

Friends was a family sitcom that was created by David Crane Marta Kauffman. It aired on September 22nd, 1994 and ended on May 6th, 2004, lasting 10 seasons. The show follows the lives of 6 friends (Rachel Green, Monica Geller, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing, Ross Geller) and their professional lives in Manhattan.

Seinfeld was another family sitcom that aired from 1989 to 1998. It lasted for 9 seasons. It was created by Jerry Seinfeld (who also happened to be the star in the show) and Larry David. The show features a handful of Jerry’s friends: Elaine Benes, Cosmo Kramer and George Costanza.

Family Guy is a TV comedy that first aired on January 31st, 1999 and still runs on TV today. It was created by Seth Macfarlane. The comedy is based off of Peter Griffin and his wacky life with his family and friends. The TV show’s episodes are based on real life situations (racism, sexism, the flint, michigan water crisis) and make fun of celebrities. The show also may appear to be a rip-off of the Simpsons which leads to debates on which show is better.

The Simpsons was another 90s popular cartoon created in 1989. The TV show was created by Matt Groening. It follows the life of Homer Simpson and his family. Homer, like Peter Griffin, is a moron who does stupid stuff but is a good guy. The TV show became so popular that they decided on making a movie in 2007.

FILMS IN THE 90's

The 70’s was an era of “groundbreaking creativity”,while the 80’s was recognized as the advent of the blockbuster. The 90’s, however, was considered a mixture of both. Known as the era of mainstream films and the rise of more independent films, going to the movies increased as technology began to surface. During this era, computer generated imagery and special effects began to surface. Jurassic Park, in 1993, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997 mesmerized viewers with its special effects and creation of dinosaurs using puppets, robots and computers to bring this film to life.

In addition to the use of digital imagery, there were many movies, such as Malcolm X and Jungle Fever, that encouraged social consciousness and explored interracial relationships. Although messsages were sent to viewers by the actors and actresses in these movies, they also became a leading source of entertainment after the recession in 1991. The cost of going to the movie theater began to rise as well as the cost of producing them. Many movies cost over $100 million just to produce and some was even more than that. Some major hit films include:

The film Pulp Fiction was one of the 90’s great movies. It is full of mystery and crime. It also was released on October 14th 1994. Pulp Fiction starred John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Ving Rhames, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth,and Amanda Plummer.Pulp Fiction became the signiture of the era because it popularized pop-surf music.This movie is full of drama and crimes to solve. They were a best picture nominees at the oscars. The first indie film to break the $100 million mark, a game changer and a modern classic to the list. This movie was so popular that other directors wanted to "rip it off". People say "The ’90s brought us an onslaught of weird, goofy criminals all thanks to Pulp Fiction."

The movie Titanic is about a 17 year old aristocrat who falls in love with a kind but poor artist 84 years later, a 101-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story to her granddaughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell and Anatoly Mikailavich about her life set in April 10th 1912, on a ship called the Titanic when young Rose boards the ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon Hockley. Meanwhile, a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets to the ship in a game. And she explains the whole story from departure until the death of Titanic on its first and last voyage April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning.

A movie that was big for pre-teens and teens was Clueless by Jane Austen. This movie was created July 19th 1995 about Cher (Alicia Silverstone) an upper-class teenage girl makes friends with Tai (Brittany Murphy) the new girl and gives her a complete makeover. Cher plays matchmaker with not just fellow students but also teachers to get her grades up. When Tai become more popular then Cher, Cher realizes that her disapproving ex-stepbrother (Paul Rudd) was right about how misguided she was and falls for him.

Chucky Child's Play 2 was created March 16th 1999. This movie is about a two year serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) inserted his soul into a Chucky doll, a toy company attempts to re-create the doll, bringing Ray back in the process. The possessed doll, kills his way toward former owner Andy (Alex Vincent), who now lives in a foster home. Andy's foster sister, Kyle (Christine Elise), tries to protect him, but his foster parents believe Andy is just a troubled kid and Chucky's murderous adventure goes on and on and on.

10 Things I Hate About You came out March 31st 1999.It's about a girl named Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) who is smart and quite cutting to most of her fellow peers, meaning that she doesn't attract many boys. Unfortunately for her younger sister, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), house rules say that she can't date until Kat has a boyfriend, so strings are pulled to set up Kat with the life that she was probably never going to get. Soon Kat crosses paths with handsome new arrival Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) and falls for him not realizing she was tricked into dating him.

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