Time to feel old!
April 23, 2013 2:21 PM   Subscribe

Youtube user Thepeterson puts together collections of the major radio hits, movies, video games, and technology of a given year. So why not take a time machine trip to the media landscape of : 1997, 1999, and 2002
posted by The Whelk (109 comments total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
Hey, I remember that stupid-ass thing!
posted by box at 2:36 PM on April 23, 2013 [7 favorites]


i hate you
posted by shakespeherian at 2:49 PM on April 23, 2013 [6 favorites]


One thing I discovered when I went to listen to "#1 hits of the 1980s" on YT to try and relive a bit of my youth is that, by-and-large, the music was awful. I mean, there is obviously some awesome stuff scattered here and there, but just listening to the "#1 songs"? Yuck.
posted by maxwelton at 2:57 PM on April 23, 2013


Well, I'm glad they fit Gattaca into the 1997 one, anyway. But I'm surprised how painful it is to watch this.
posted by koeselitz at 2:59 PM on April 23, 2013


So why not take a time ma- -
posted by CynicalKnight at 3:01 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


Watching 1999 was like getting slapped in the face by the past.
posted by The Whelk at 3:01 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Eleven years ago, I was thirteen. Let's see how 2002 holds up.

Eh. Catch Me if You Can was good.

AUGH THE SAND SPEECH
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 3:02 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


Generally related, though it's just pop music videos from given years.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:03 PM on April 23, 2013


Eleven years ago, I was thirteen.

If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.
posted by Mooski at 3:06 PM on April 23, 2013 [12 favorites]


Rustic Etruscan: “Eleven years ago, I was thirteen. Let's see how 2002 holds up.”

God, now I feel old.

Eleven years ago, I was 22, and I was listening to this in heavy rotation. I actually just listened to that record again the other day; I'm glad to know that it's held up so well.

"THEY CAN'T LOOSE THE DOGS ON US, BECAUSE THE DOGS LIKE US MORE THAN THE DOGS LIKE THEM!"
posted by koeselitz at 3:07 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Thank god I stocked up on gin at the weekend, because you're making me feel old.
posted by arcticseal at 3:09 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Eleven years ago, I had already been dead for 50 years.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:09 PM on April 23, 2013 [12 favorites]


Whoa! I'm pleasantly surprised to see they included Puerto Rico in the 2002 video; didn't expect to see a board game in a pop culture collage!
posted by gnidan at 3:09 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Eleven years ago, I was 22, and I was listening to this in heavy rotation. I actually just listened to that record again the other day; I'm glad to know that it's held up so well.

Yeah. I wasn't listening to anything cool at the time (I was a dorky kid engrossed with Overclocked Remix, of all things), so all the rock-station hits from that time make me cringe from overexposure.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 3:10 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


You know you're getting older when the oldest "REMEMBER" video given as an option still feels like yesterday.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:10 PM on April 23, 2013 [7 favorites]


Eleven years ago I was so much older then.
posted by shakespeherian at 3:11 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


On the other hand, a soft fade to a dead Princess Diana now leads me to snort out loud, so I guess a lot of time has passed in my head after all.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:14 PM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


Rustic Etruscan: “Yeah. I wasn't listening to anything cool at the time (I was a dorky kid engrossed with Overclocked Remix, of all things), so all the rock-station hits from that time make me cringe from overexposure.”

I get the same thing from the 1997 one, personally. Like, seriously painful. My spinal column contorts in a weird psychic-pain spasm whenever I hear that "DOOT DOOT DOOT! DOOT DOO-DOOT DOOO!" refrain from "Semi-charmed Kinda Life."
posted by koeselitz at 3:17 PM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


Was I even there?
posted by philohagen at 3:18 PM on April 23, 2013


Also, 2002 was great because it was before everyone realized that hipsters are evil, so we could all listen to our indie rock and blast Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and read Pitchfork and whatever and nobody bothered us. Even then, though, we'd always say we didn't agree with the Pitchfork reviews, just to seem cooler.
posted by koeselitz at 3:19 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Weird. 1997 I was nine. I can actually tolerate a lot of this stuff. I guess that's my Nostalgia Threshold.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 3:20 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


2002 was great because it was before everyone realized that hipsters are evil

I hated retro before it happened the first time.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:22 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


Yeah. Nine isn't so bad, but I feel like if anybody can be truly nostalgic about what it was like to be eighteen they're probably lying to themselves about it. I guess thirteen is closer to eighteen in that respect.
posted by koeselitz at 3:23 PM on April 23, 2013


"Ah, to be eighteen and a sad bastard ... "
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 3:25 PM on April 23, 2013


I'd be satisfied if I could remember what it was like to be 38. Not joking this time. *sigh*
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:26 PM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


That's a great idea. I've often thought about how impossible it is to really recreate the texture of actual life, or even pop culture, in a given year. I've spent some time on those BIllboard sites listening to the minor, nearly-forgotten hits of the 70s and 80s, and it really brings back the time (or gives you some idea what the time was like, as far as what the wallpaper was all around us). Would love to see projects like this extend into the past.
posted by Miko at 3:27 PM on April 23, 2013


Time to feel old? Son, in the 1997 one, there is a picture of me labeled "Here's Joey Michaels feeling old for the first time." There's another identically labeled one of me from 1993.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:27 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I was 13 in 2002 as well, and I think it might be the first year I have coherent memories of. Everything beforehand is in one of two buckets: 'THE NINETIES' and 'PREHISTORY'.

For the 2002 video I remember the school politics of each song so well -- what it meant to like the RHCP then, the weird undefined divide between Eminem and other hiphop, songs only girls could admit liking (even though they obviously ruled in hindsight) etc.
posted by rollick at 3:30 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I don't feel old -- I just feel strange that somehow these things were considered important markers. Like I missed out somehow. I know most of them, but have little or no connection to them.

Jurassic Park is a good example -- I've heard people talk about it like it was a huge deal, where I saw it on video years after release and was, "eh, a dinosaur movie". Strange. Maybe I'm actually too old for this now? If it was a itemization of late eighties/early nineties stuff and included T2, I maybe I would feel more nostalgic.
posted by smidgen at 3:31 PM on April 23, 2013


I stayed up really late with friends to watch Princess Di's funeral. I laid out on the roof of a house and tried to drink vodka straight from the bottle while looking at the stars, but I only succeeded in pouring vodka directly into my nostrils and eyes. I jumped off the roof and came in the house looking like I had just been maced and people thought I was really fuckin' upset about Di.

I remember watching that Hansen video and my friend telling me that you can hear someone scratching, but there's no DJ in the video, and i was like THESE GUYS SUCK AMIRITE?

I was a DJ back then and played Daft Punk's "Around the World" at every party.

I loved the shit out of Daria.

I still think 5th Element is a beautiful movie.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 3:31 PM on April 23, 2013 [9 favorites]


I clicked on 1999 since it was the year I graduated high school. Apparently, most of the music I liked then, I still like now.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 3:32 PM on April 23, 2013


I was a 90s teen and was/am not cool enough to dislike any of the music in the 1997 video. I remember being mighty sceptical, however, when my younger sister told me that Usher was the new Michael Jackson and would be just as big. I must go rub that in her face! Again!
posted by peripathetic at 3:33 PM on April 23, 2013


I was 13 in 2002 as well, and I think it might be the first year I have coherent memories of. Everything beforehand is in one of two buckets: 'THE NINETIES' and 'PREHISTORY'.

::high fives rollick::

Where PREHISTORY is clearly PRE-ME.

and those two years of the eighties I guess
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 3:34 PM on April 23, 2013


I can't remember 1997. Apparently my memory only started working in 1999.

I couldn't finish the 1999 video because as soon as it started I curled up into a little ball and cried the keening cry of somebody who realized has was once a child who is now dead. I only hope that one day Tik Tok has the same effect on somebody's generation.
posted by Rory Marinich at 3:39 PM on April 23, 2013 [6 favorites]


Sooo it turns out that 1997 was smack dab in middle school for me - the period between when I started following pop culture rather than just listening to what my parents listened to/watching what my parent's watched, and when I rejected pop music and started listening to that alternative/indie Christian rock stuff (followed by just regular indie rock and whatever they played at college parties). I think I could name every single thing in that montage, and I keep thinking things like, "WTF, why is Speed 2 being memorialized?"
posted by muddgirl at 3:41 PM on April 23, 2013


why is Speed 2 being memorialized?

Because: HA HA!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:43 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Ah yes. The video games get better and the music gets worse.
posted by PuppyCat at 3:44 PM on April 23, 2013


Gah. You know it's bad when the tags induce shudders. Damn you, The Whelk, and your 40classichitsbytheoriginalartists. *twitch*
posted by EvaDestruction at 3:45 PM on April 23, 2013


I couldn't finish the 1999 video because as soon as it started I curled up into a little ball and cried the keening cry of somebody who realized has was once a child who is now dead. I only hope that one day Tik Tok has the same effect on somebody's generation.

Well, Smash Mouth is having that effect on me, and ugh, Smash Mouth.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 3:48 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


In 2002 I had a 2 year-old and a 4-year old so, no, I literally do not remember 2002. I have photos and third-party evidence.
posted by GuyZero at 3:49 PM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]


These are really well done in that I'm surprised just how much of it all I recognize, even the music, considering I had almost completely checked out of music for most of the 90s (something I had to rectify later when I got back into music again -- thanks MetaChat for that, and thank you Pulp for having been there for me to find later on). Yeah, a lot of it is pop culture dreck, which is partly the point, I gather.

Princess Di, though -- I wanted her to live out her life thumbing her nose at the royal family for every minute. Too bad she didn't get hers for being chewed up and spit out by a political and cultural (celebrity/media) system that treated her like a functional piece of equipment. What a cautionary tale for the ages.
posted by dhartung at 3:50 PM on April 23, 2013


Smash Mouth doesn't faze me, because their songs are a part of so many movies I occasionally go back to watch that they still seem like a natural part of the world.

Ditto 2002 ending on Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, which remains timeless "perfection".
posted by Rory Marinich at 3:50 PM on April 23, 2013


Only those who lived through the '90s will understand the lack of nostalgia.
posted by 2bucksplus at 3:52 PM on April 23, 2013


I dunno. I worked in a movie theater around the tail end of the throw-Smash-Mouth-songs-into-the-credits era, and their music reminds me of trying to sweep up those last popcorn kernels, which are stuck in a dried pool of soda.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 3:52 PM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


Tik Tok
Don't stop
The inexorable march of time.
posted by The Whelk at 3:53 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


I couldn't finish the 1999 video because as soon as it started I curled up into a little ball and cried the keening cry of somebody who realized has was once a child who is now dead.

Oh, Rory.

This comment made me think "Wow, I remember that sharp feeling of having lost my childhood" and I place that moment about ten years in the past. Trust me, Rory, in about a decade you'll probably feel very amused that 2013-Rory thought his childhood was over.

But of course that's a little presumptuous of me. In any case, it seems that there's sort of a contradiction involved in this kind of thing: on one hand, you really do identify with the circumstantial context of your childhood, while at the same time knowing that it was merely incidental. Thinking of your identity in terms of pop culture makes you feel awful, and, like, over and stale even if you're still very young. The scope of human history and experience is so, so vast; I like to read cracking historical work when I feel old and have since I was a teenager. Hate to sound so trite, but it puts things in perspective.
posted by clockzero at 3:53 PM on April 23, 2013 [4 favorites]


i remember 1967 - i feel old*

*this last one's for our british cousins, who seem to have liked this song of late
posted by pyramid termite at 3:55 PM on April 23, 2013


While I was reading all this, I've had a National Geographic Channel special on about The 80's., and have been watching shots of the Berlin Wall coming down and listening to U2 and Madonna.

THIS IS NOTHING.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:59 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Jurassic Park is a good example -- I've heard people talk about it like it was a huge deal, where I saw it on video years after release and was, "eh, a dinosaur movie".

Eh, the clip is from The Lost World (JP was 1993). When the first film was released it was very clearly a major leap forward in special effects and yes, by some years later, all the CGI and Sensurround was fairly old hat. The film is very clearly just loving on itself at times, such as the brachiosaurus sequence: "Look what we can do now!" Makes it a little annoying later on. But it's Spielberg and there are some great bits, like the water in the footprint vibrating.... Fundamentally, it's a romp, like going to a theme park (surprise!), so view it in that context.
posted by dhartung at 4:00 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


2013-Rory is very aware that he is still basically a child, he typed as he made himself popcorn for the third time that day.

And it's not the pop culture itself that gets me. It's hearing Sk8r Boi and remembering an 8th grade dance where I first became, like, painfully aware of the girls dancing 10 feet away from me. And then remembering that a couple years after that one of those said dancing girls died in a car crash. The painful thing about the past isn't that it's simple or makes sense, it's that thinking about it reminds me that reality was even stranger and more confusing than I thought it was then, and I was terrified of it then. And now I feel once more like I understand the world, its glorious and sucky bits, only I know that ten years from now I'll be able to call myself an idiot once more.

Nickelback now sounds like fond memories of home to me. I shudder to think of what terrible thing from today will feel like comfort in 2023, and what horrible thing will have happened to make it feel so safe.
posted by Rory Marinich at 4:01 PM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


Yeah that 1999 video is like a one way to ticket HEY REMEMBER JUNIOR YEAR, HERE'S ALL THE STUFF YOU'VE SUCESSFULLY FORGOTTEN ABOUT AND THE AMBIENT SOUNDTRACK OF HIGH SCHOOL.

Like, dear god that Creed song is enough to make me remember my locker combination ( and I associate it with seeing Matt Damon's animated butt in Titan AR.)
posted by The Whelk at 4:05 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


Fortunately, I can't get the full 1999 effect, because YouTube won't load more than a sixth of the damn video. A lot of the music playing then would have still been playing at my middle school/early high school dances.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 4:06 PM on April 23, 2013


In 1997 I was 26, which isn't all that young anymore (but younger than I am now), but it seems so hazy. On the other hand, 2002 is a very vibrant year in my memory. It was the year my son was born, for one thing, but I was also enjoying life quite a bit.
posted by KokuRyu at 4:07 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


It's astonishing to me how little of this I recognise. I don't know if it's that I'm somehow the wrong age (I'm 26) or if I just missed even large swaths of American culture than I thought I had.

That said, were the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys really the same year? Because I definitely remember that damn Spice Girls song and the next song had 'backstreet' in it.
posted by hoyland at 4:09 PM on April 23, 2013


koeselitz: " 2002 was great because it was before everyone realized that hipsters are evil"

Speak for yourself kid
posted by Red Loop at 4:10 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Also having to face up to the fact that The Talented Mr. Ripley probobly played more into my psychosexual development then I'm willing to admit.
posted by The Whelk at 4:11 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


In 1997 my daughter was 3 and I listened exclusively to alternative rock (whatever the hell that is), so the first song I recognized was Chumbawumba, and the Teletubbies rang a bell. I saw a lot of those movies, though.

Daft Punk Around the World is that old? Damn. And lots of that other stuff I would have placed in the 80's. After the first few decades, it all kind of mushes together.
posted by Michael Roberts at 4:13 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I can't get the full 1999 effect, because YouTube won't load more than a sixth of the damn video

Don't you mean, "I can't get the full 1999 effect, because YouTube loads more than a sixth of the damn video"?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:14 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Weird how Goldeneye 64 is somehow a more enduring icon than whatever carflipping eyebrow arches Pierce Brosnan was up to in each of those videos
posted by rollick at 4:15 PM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]


I'll be over here with my Colorforms and Shrinky-Dinks, listening to Dan Fogelberg and Carly Simon and feeling a million years old.
posted by tzikeh at 4:21 PM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]


tzikeh: "I'll be over here with my Colorforms and Shrinky-Dinks, listening to Dan Fogelberg and Carly Simon and feeling a million years old"

Don't forget the spirograph!
posted by Red Loop at 4:26 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Weird how Goldeneye 64 is somehow a more enduring icon than whatever carflipping eyebrow arches Pierce Brosnan was up to in each of those videos

Plot Twist: thepeterson is Pierce Brosnan.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 4:27 PM on April 23, 2013


Feh! Practically yesterday. Let me know when the 50's version is available. Pending that, I suppose I could just watch the Lucky Strike Hit Parade... =)
posted by jim in austin at 4:34 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I come from a time before mainstream viral video (well, popup video existed, and Beavis and Butthead eventually showed up, but that was music video only). That is my cutoff for old enough to no longer be young. So much of my youth will be missing from an anthropological perspective because it is so easy to find stuff just five years later so much more preserveable. VHS was the defacto video standard. Minidisc and digital storage was not accessible from a consumer perspective. What you know of the late 80s and early 90s will likely only be from MTV and movies which frankly even then wasn't very representative of reality. The reality is our generation will be one of an oral tradition our its teenage identity will disappear like the apathetic rebellion it was. Maybe it is in our absence that you will know and understand who we were.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:41 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I remember when the RIAA used to chase you for stealing books.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:49 PM on April 23, 2013


Which was stupid, because books didn't even fall under their jurisdiction. So we just laughed and pointed. Because we couldn't talk yet. And the whole world was sepia.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:50 PM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


Only those who lived through the '90s will understand the lack of nostalgia.

As a joke, back in February of 1990, a local niteclub hosted a special "80's" event featuring videos of Duran Duran and the music of Miami Vice, which had already seemed quite dated at the time. I didn't make it out, but the concept was hilarious.

One thing that I did see about ten years ago was a casual screening of several hours of unedited random early-mid 90's late-night cable TV recorded on VHS, and it gave a real impression of going back in time, into another century.
posted by ovvl at 4:58 PM on April 23, 2013


'90s nostalgia should be about Dubnobasswithmyheadman and Blue Lines.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 5:18 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


Wow, this is just what I need to be watching, two days after my 38th birthday. I was feeling young and hip, hey, look how lightly the years have treated me! Then I watched 1997, realized that was sixteen years ago(!) and suddenly, I am so. Very. Tired.

IMHO, that video was entirely too much Spice Girls and nowhere near enough Daria. Nice to see Daft Punk again... really, how much longer does a representative sample of Around the World need to be?

Now, if you‘ll excuse me, those damned kids are on my lawn again...

On preview: Second the more Underworld... Cowgirl! Yeahhhhh!
posted by Jughead at 5:21 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


You know, I somehow had actually forgotten just how horrifically dominant the boy bands were in the late '90s. Weird. It's not like I didn't notice it at the time.

I guess what I'm saying is Good job, 2000s!
posted by Sys Rq at 5:25 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Good job, 2000s!

Except for everything else!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 5:30 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


This isn't so much about how old I am/feel, but being reminded that Can't Get You Out of My Head and Get This Party Started and Work It are all from the same year makes me feel like a Time Lord.
posted by psoas at 5:43 PM on April 23, 2013


tzikeh: "I'll be over here with my Colorforms and Shrinky-Dinks, listening to Dan Fogelberg and Carly Simon and feeling a million years old"

Don't forget the spirograph!


Or Gnip-Gnop!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:48 PM on April 23, 2013


Nice to see Daft Punk again...

They have a new single out as of last week, FWIW. (I don't really like it. Daft Punk + Pharrell Williams = Maroon 5, apparently?)
posted by Sys Rq at 5:49 PM on April 23, 2013


Look, we effectively erased Nu Metal from existence, let's just feel pride about that.
posted by The Whelk at 5:57 PM on April 23, 2013 [4 favorites]


So, basically everything, both cool and horrible, happened in 1997.
posted by Nomyte at 6:31 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Eleven years ago, I was thirteen.

Eleven years ago, I was 31, living in South Florida in a stucco apartment complex and working as a computer salesman. Get off my fucking lawn.
posted by jonmc at 6:33 PM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


Eleven years ago, I was 31, living in South Florida in a stucco apartment complex and working as a computer salesman. Get off my fucking lawn.

Okay, fine, I wasn't even tramping all over the zinnias this time.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:41 PM on April 23, 2013


I was in 8th grade in 1999

The Matrix and Fight Club both came out in 99? What a combination! No wonder I remember my peer group as being mostly a bunch of nihilistic, know-it-all assholes (back then). We didn't even have a chance! I mean, we were already primed for it at 14, and those movies were like CRACK.

Then 911 happened. We grew up rather quickly.
posted by UrbanEye at 6:49 PM on April 23, 2013


Eleven years ago my ass didn't hurt when I pooped.
posted by swift at 6:57 PM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


1999 - I am amazed at how much free time I must have had. I recognized all of those movies and TV shows. And now I've got two kids who can be fairly called babies and I see 3 movies a year if I'm lucky and I haven't watched TV since.... Since Monday but that doesn't count.
posted by bq at 6:58 PM on April 23, 2013


Weird how Goldeneye 64 is somehow a more enduring icon

I still remember that game. In the winter of 1999/2000 I drove a couple of nights a week for a half hour out into the countryside of Japan, usually through blowing snow, to teach two brothers English conversation (their father had worked at a Murata plant in Georgia), and we finished up the lesson by playing N64 for a half hour, usually Mario Kart, but also Goldeneye.

They always shot me down, and always called each other "you prick" (kono chinko tare).

Good times.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:01 PM on April 23, 2013


You know you're older when all this sort of stuff is something you experience with your peripheral vision.

Remember when you had a plan for your life?

AH ha ha!
posted by Twang at 7:27 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


well I don't have the same OH GOD MEMORIES flash-flood for 2002 cause I spent a lot of that outside the US.

That era is just The Pet Shop Boys' "Go West" which was apparently THE ONLY SONG ALLOWED TO BE PLAYED in gay nightclubs in the Eurozone that year.
posted by The Whelk at 7:28 PM on April 23, 2013


(I also think I watched an absurd amount of MTV in 1999 cause I know every music video in that video year but 97 and 02 are kinda hit and miss.)
posted by The Whelk at 7:32 PM on April 23, 2013


This is fantastic! The only items I recognized were LA Confidential, Johnny Bravo, and Austin Powers. Well, I think I saw Rowan Atkinson and Eric Clapton in there for about a frame each. Oh, and was that Jewel? I almost know who that is.

¡Excelente! I was only in my forties in 1997 and already mass popular culture could not touch me. Could - not - touch me! Things are really looking up.

I feel young!
 
posted by Herodios at 7:35 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


Just so those of us who might happen to have been a bit older than, say, 9 or 13 or whatever in 1997* can play, too: *Not that there's anything WRONG with that, mind you . . .
posted by flug at 7:58 PM on April 23, 2013


My spinal column contorts in a weird psychic-pain spasm whenever I hear that "DOOT DOOT DOOT! DOOT DOO-DOOT DOOO!" refrain from "Semi-charmed Kinda Life."

Aghhhhhhh.

Legoland California had a soundtrack at the entrance to the park that went unchanged from 1999 to oh, at least 2006. On that soundtrack was Sk8r Boi (and Complicated) and Semi Charmed Life and I'm a Believer and Truly Madly Deeply and maybe two other songs. These were all played on constant rotation, maybe 30 minutes worth of songs repeated over and over and over again.

I worked at Legoland off and on for about three years in the mid 2000s and the earworm that you just generated is evil.
posted by librarylis at 8:03 PM on April 23, 2013 [4 favorites]


me: "2002 was great because it was before everyone realized that hipsters are evil"

Red Loop: “Speak for yourself kid”

No, seriously! I actually remember the precise moment when this happened, at least for me. People forget that Pitchfork actually managed to steer a lot of indie rock for a few years, for better or for worse, and even aside from Pitchfork there was sort of this renaissance of indie rock centered around the popularity of the Strokes and then the White Stripes and then some other things I don't remember what. And so a lot of us read Pitchfork then, even those of us who hated it, but I grew up in Colorado and then went to school in New Mexico so – yeah, "hipsters" wasn't a thing where I was from. And so I was blissfully unaware that the thing I was doing – digging deep into the obscure and cool music, having detached and ironic appreciations of popular music, etc – was "being a hipster," which I guess is very bad.


So anyway, it was like late 2002 or early 2003, and I was reading Pitchfork (yep) and sighing at how lame they were (of course) and I was reading this feature interview with Roger Miller from Mission of Burma, whom I loved then, and at one point in the interview he kind of narrowed his eyes (maybe they mentioned that, maybe I just imagined it) and started cursing about how awful "hipsters" were, and how terrible they were, and how they ruined everything. And then it dawned on me that my coolness could have this target; hating hipsters was so much easier than hating pop music or bad knockoffs of indie rock or something. But by then, of course, the disease was already inside me. As it soon was to be inside us all.

Although I guess I didn't really know it so keenly then. That didn't happen until I moved to Boston, and specifically when I first walked on Newbury Street. Then, my hatred had a face and a name.
posted by koeselitz at 9:43 PM on April 23, 2013


I finally saw the rest of the 1999 video. Yeah, that's a trip. GalaxyQuest and "No Scrubs" redeem the bad parts. Still, I'm surprised how many of the big pop songs didn't make me cringe. That said, I didn't notice nü-metal at the time, and I'm happy to keep ignoring it.

Aghhhhhhh.

Legoland California had a soundtrack at the entrance to the park that went unchanged from 1999 to oh, at least 2006. On that soundtrack was Sk8r Boi (and Complicated) and Semi Charmed Life and I'm a Believer and Truly Madly Deeply and maybe two other songs. These were all played on constant rotation, maybe 30 minutes worth of songs repeated over and over and over again.

I worked at Legoland off and on for about three years in the mid 2000s and the earworm that you just generated is evil.


Back when I worked at the movie theater, I had two jobs: First, I had to help clean the theaters when the movies ended; second, I had to stand by the ticket receptacle, a hollow aluminum cylinder with a slotted lid, and take tickets, waiting for the movies to end. Occasionally, I had to help make popcorn, but that only happened two or three times. I didn't like the first job, but the second made me fantasize about burning the place down.

The theater played music from a satellite station that made garbage out of gold by playing the one right next to the other. "The One I Love" played before "Big Yellow Taxi," which in turn played before the other "Big Yellow Taxi." "Semi-Charmed Life" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" also got plenty of time.

When I returned home, I would crank up Fugazi and The Jesus Lizard. It felt good. I would wear headphones because my family still lived in a small apartment. I never had good ears to begin with, but I don't think this habit helped. Now I'm practically hard of hearing.

Anyhow, the scent of popcorn and the sound of MOR garbage waft through my vision of hell.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:09 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


Wow, 1997 really took me back. I was at a real turning point after a horrible relationship and it was a time of both relief and optimism. So thanks for reminding me of those good feelings - and Parappa the Rapper.
posted by mmmtofu at 10:15 PM on April 23, 2013


You're going to have to go back farther than that, flug. Some of us here are old.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:54 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


At about 0:43 in the 1997 video, in between clips of some white chick with a guitar, there's a brief snippet of the best RTS game ever: Total Annihilation. That took me back. 1996 to 1998/99 were some of the best years ever for computer gaming and I had the disposable income to profit from it, having just started my first proper job after giving up on uni.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:03 PM on April 23, 2013


how are all these songs the exact same tempo
posted by speicus at 1:09 AM on April 24, 2013


I never realised just how much Britney there was in 1999 until watching that. I also don't remember music in 1997 being quite that bad.
posted by Kris10_b at 2:12 AM on April 24, 2013


The theater played music from a satellite station that made garbage out of gold by playing the one right next to the other. "The One I Love" played before "Big Yellow Taxi," which in turn played before the other "Big Yellow Taxi." "Semi-Charmed Life" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" also got plenty of time.

It could have been worse - one of the summers I was working at the local movie theater, the in-house radio was playing this.

Death would have been a sweet release.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:13 AM on April 24, 2013


"It could have been worse - one of the summers I was working at the local movie theater, the in-house radio was playing this."

...I, I was born that year.
posted by Blasdelb at 5:24 AM on April 24, 2013


...Yes, blasdelb, that's exactly what I needed to hear before my second cup of coffee, thank you....

kidding.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:30 AM on April 24, 2013 [2 favorites]


why is Speed 2 being memorialized?

Interesting that out of two Keanu-staring films in the '99 video, Keanu doesn't appear at all. I never listened to boy bands, Brittany Spears or R&B so I'm surprised at how popular that stuff was, apparently. Around '99 I was just diving headfirst into Pacific Northwest twee indiepop and still listening to the last albums of my favorite Britpop bands so a good chunk of the music in the video was new to me.
posted by Bunglegirl at 6:38 AM on April 24, 2013


I also don't remember music in 1997 being quite that bad

That's because the late 90's was still recovering from the early 90s

I had a collection of similar links that were a result of a friend of mine and I trying to "outdo" each other with bad music from the era, before we agreed that the only way to win was not to play at all.
posted by MysticMCJ at 10:46 AM on April 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh, now I remember why I've been singing Spice Girls songs for the last 24 hours... this thread. Thanks, I guess.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:55 AM on April 24, 2013


1997 was when it looked like luck was finally turning my way; 1999 was when I was attempting to follow a life's dream; 2002 was halfway through a painful chain of loss and recognition of my limitations that eventually led to a lost decade.

Fortunately, I don't tie too much of the music back then to what happened, though on relisten, a lot of it really is forgettable, and there were some truly nasty earworms back then.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:07 PM on April 24, 2013 [2 favorites]


1997 was when it looked like luck was finally turning my way; 1999 was when I was attempting to follow a life's dream; 2002 was halfway through a painful chain of loss and recognition of my limitations that eventually led to a lost decade.

Holy crap, I'm not the only one.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:46 PM on April 24, 2013 [2 favorites]


Re: Spice Girls

This guy is now a Teen Vogue cover model.
posted by The Whelk at 4:34 PM on April 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


I associate Pearl Jam with Ten. It's weird to hear them playing a tears-in-your-beer ballad.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 4:42 PM on April 24, 2013


Which is double odd cause that's the one song that People Who Are Not Pearl Jam Fans know as That Pearl Jam Song.
posted by The Whelk at 4:57 PM on April 24, 2013


I dunno. I guess even FNX was sick of it by the time I started listening to that station.

::Pours out a drink for FNX::
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 5:01 PM on April 24, 2013


Holy crap, I'm not the only one.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 15:46 on April 24


Nope. This was also the era of ridiculous hiring salaries and bonuses. Techies benefited in the long run with permanently inflated salary ranges, but back then anyone with a brain could end up pulling at least $40K, though for heaven knows what. Herman Miller Aeron chairs became a status symbol. And when the Dot-Com boom imploded, a lot of people went a lot of different ways.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:13 AM on April 25, 2013 [1 favorite]




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