The '90s, fueled by a booming tabloid industry and the 24-hour news cycle, witness high-profile divorces, figure skater clashes, rapper feuds, boy band battles, and the first presidential impeachment in over a century.
From a primetime cartoon family getting into it with the president to a show about nothing, the 1990s tore the comedy rulebook in half. The decade revitalized old icons and gave rise to bold new voices--from the young Black comedians of Phat Tuesdays to the drag queens of "To Wong Foo." The cultural landscape was shifting, and comedians were leading the charge.
The 1990s see teens influence pop culture through MTV's TRL countdown, horror film Scream, House Party's dance craze, soap Dawson's Creek, and Alicia Silverstone as Cher in Clueless.
From the death of the Cold War to the birth of a space station, our '90s dreams are coming true. But as Biosphere 2 blurs fact and fiction, and "The X-Files" makes us paranoid, is humanity about to lose control of its own narrative? From Furby spies and human clones to vampire battles and fight clubs, our existential fears build as we speed toward Y2K. Will we survive? Spoiler alert: Yes.
With a Beanie Babies feeding frenzy and Harry Potter changing the literary landscape, the '90s was the decade of the craze. Country artist Garth Brooks ruled the pop charts, must-see TV ruled the airwaves, and contagious catchphrases infected us all. This was the last hurrah of mass culture before the internet changed everything.
The 1990s redefined love, from the friendship of Beavis and Butt-Head to virtual pets in children's pockets. A pill sparked a sexual reawakening. Pedro Zamora illuminated living with HIV. RuPaul taught self-love.
The 1990s saw the World Wide Web set free and humanity wrestling with its awesome power. Although few people recognized it, everything was going to change. This is what happens when a groundbreaking technology potential for creation or destruction is unleashed upon the world.
In the '90s, a new generation of women came of age, taking the feminist movement on a rowdy joyride. Building upon the work their mothers had done before them, these cheeky disrupters embrace all aspects of femininity as "Girl Power" becomes the rallying cry for the decade's trailblazing pop stars, media moguls, athletes, fictional fugitives and warrior princesses.
From the boundary-pushing diversity of "In Living Color" and "Ellen," to the ruthless reality of Madonna's "Truth or Dare" and Clinton's war room, it was a period of innovation, authenticity and exploration. We revolutionized communication by making cell phones cool and mixed groundbreaking tech with timeless storytelling to create a new genre of film. Change was the only constant.
