90's=Golden Age

[TRF_stormer2010]

Oh, that brought back memories. And you know what I just realized I liked the most about that era; the girls were into grunge, metal and alt rock too. And not just for the sake of getting near the boys, you know, they were actually into it! My wife still listens to the 'Black' era Metallica stuff, Radiohead, Oasis, The Verve etc.

 

[nickdnz]

I like the 90s. It was good. But any decade being objectively better than another is rubbish.

I'd say music of the 90s was sh*t. Give me the over the top pop of the 80s, the progression of the 70s or the innovation of the 60s ANYDAY over most my memory of 90s music. ****ty grunge, boring metal and generic hip-hop. The trend of singles being released over albums was in full blast.

Television, well I love Seinfeld. I have a nostalgic spot for a lot of 90s television...The Simpsons was still funny. But every sitcom was a classic three camera sitcom with canned laughter. For whatever people want to criticize the 21st Century for - at least television has finally arrived at an era of plenty, where premium cable channels can make your Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empires etc. Yes there is a lot more dross out there, but there is also a ton more quality. The only exception in my opinion is children's programming, which seems to have gotten a ton dimmer and less well animated.

Movies, well I'll agree that Hollywood isn't spinning out any great original screenplays anymore. Companies such as Miramax, even after they'd been bought by Disney - were willing to invest more in original screenplays back then. I was listening to John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer of Dysney) essentially claim that spectacle films are pretty much the present and future of movies. Instead of making 50 films, some which may do well, some won't, all of which requires 10x the marketing budget than the production budget, each competing within a saturated market, it is simply more viable to throw $200 million on a spectacle film. Barring the Lion King and Toy Story 3 (both still had a large budget) the top 20 highest grossing films of all time are just spectacle dross. Unfortunately the 90s is just as much to blame for the **** on television today. I'm sorry, but Arnold Schwartzenegger - while may having a 90s ****-quality charm to it - are very much responsible for todays crap. He was the highest paid actor in the world and he couldn't act himself out of a cardboard box. I think you just love puns too much...So yeah, in a round about way I agree that the 90s had some better quality of films in terms of writing, but also contributed to the crap situation we're in now.

Sport: Well, I loved my 90s All Blacks. And Super Rugby was more exciting back then. New professionalism in general. I preferred Basketball in the 80's if I'm honest. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Hockey I preferred in the 80s. Boxing I preferred in the 70s or 80s (I'm not that old, but from watching fights). Soccer I probably actually have enjoyed the 2000s the most having really only taken an interest from 2002. One thing I think we can all agree with is television coverage has generally improved from the 90s.

 

[Feicarsinn]

A lot of the talk seems to centre around film and how the largest grossing movies of the 1990's are better than today. I feel like people are ignoring the effect of the internet on the film industry here. Before the broadband and reasonable internet speeds studios could take more of a chance on films that may not do well in the box office, as they could fall back on the video/DVD market. A classic example would be something like Anchorman - didn't do great in the cinema by any means, byt became a cult classic and the studio made a fair bit of dosh of rentals and DVD purchases.

That market is essentially gone now. The people who would have once rented/bought after the film is gone from the cinema can now download it for free. This means that studios can't take the risk of something bombing in the cinema. So they go for safe options like sequels or lowest common denominator blockbusters.

What this has meant is that a lot of the best writers have gone into TV, leading to the rise of the HBO style mini-series. They get a lot more artistic freedom and there's less pressure due to much smaller expense. The quality of network television has probably never been higher.

The same arguments could be made for music too I suppose. Recording companies are more inclined to pump money into pop acts as they're safer returns in an industry that's been utterly transformed by illegal downloading. That said, I think that anyone who bemoans a lack of quality in the charts is an idiot. The pop charts are aimed at kids from the ages of about 10-17. If you don't like it it's because it's not for you. We're living in a proper golden age of creativity at the moment. There are more people than ever making high quality, high production value music thanks to the emergence of cheaper recording and processing gear, and with the internet they can spread it to the world without need of a record label. Services like Spotify, Soundcloud, etc. make it so easy to find really good new artists. The only difficulty is that because there's so much material out there it can be a bit overwhelming, but this is a good problem to have.