OK. Consider me slightly biased because of my age and the era I grew up in, but I firmly believe that the turn of the century has just not lived up to the standards brought about during the 20th century.
I mean, we have almost gone through 10 years in this new millennium! Time has flown by and what do we have to show for it? 12 editions of Survivor? Even cartoons are horribly bad these days, which is something you never saw during Nickelodeon’s hey-day in the mid 90’s.
Let’s do a little comparison of both decades and see which one truly reigns supreme.
MUSIC – The 90’s brought about the grunge era of music (which coincidentally put an end to hair metal) and made Kurt Cobain the icon of a new generation. Rock music enjoyed a rejuvenated scene until the sappy boy band scene came around, not to mention all the female pop stars that took MTV over (Britney, Christina, blah blah blah). However, the decade was great for music and brought out so many bands and genres, from the Smashing Pumpkins to 2pac to Sublime.
This current decade has had its ups and downs in the music industry. This is definitely a hip-hop oriented culture we are currently in, while it is also the era of music downloading. CDs are basically obsolete unless you use them to create mixes full of mp3s. I don’t know if it is great that a cough syrup chugging, face tattoo wearing rapper (Lil Wayne) is the man on top of the music world. But I digress.
Television – The 90’s had Seinfeld (the best show EVER in my opinion) and Nickelodeon was in its prime. You also had your hip teenage show Beverly Hills 90210. The 2000’s do not have a true identity – the decade started off as one full of reality shows which only became more of a nuisance as time went on. Actually, as I think about it, those reality shows were decrepit from the very beginning. But you also have great comedic shows like The Office and Chappelle’s Show. I would give the edge to the 90’s because of all the kids shows. Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, Doug…you just don’t see those kind of shows today.
Movies- This is where the comparison narrows. There are great movies from both eras: Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting from the 90’s and Gladiator, 300, The Dark Knight, Anchorman from the 2000’s. It is fun to see how movies have developed over the years and how the implementation of special effects has changed film-making in many respects. Just ask George Lucas.
The 90’s was just a simpler time. Where as cellphones are owned by over 90% of the American public today, they were definitely not as prevalent 10-15 years ago. Technology has forever changed the landscape of our lives, both positively and negatively. Kids are playing computer games at age six instead of playing hide-and-go-seek. It is a little sad really. It makes me wonder what our lives will consist of in 2050.
Until next time………….
