It's back to school time, and for millions of kids around the world, that means.... it's time to remember how to fit in!!! All the teachers and parents say to just be yourself and people will like you. And that's great! But it means jack shit when peer pressure hits and you realize that your hobbies and quirks are socially juxtaposed to the prevailing winds and trends of your peers. Yes, back in the day, I may or may not have tried "head rocking" to bands like Korn (backward R) and Limp Bizkit even though I couldn't understand the words they said. Yes, I may or may not have had several tamagotchi "pets." Somewhere, probably in a dumpster, is my pokemon collection I swore was gonna make me rich. Yes, I bought several Creed and Blink 182 CDs unfortunately. Fortunately, I also still have my Green Day ones. Focus: What trends do you regret getting suckered into? Alt. Focus: What trends do you feel were worthwhile / do you feel nostalgic about? Anti-Focus: What trends are better off dead forever than making a resurgence?
I think I got suckered in tamagotchis and pogs, I dont really remember jumping on the bandwagon for anything else. By the time other shit was hitting the hype train, I was probably already neck deep in computer gaming. Pokemon came out way too late but a lot kids I grew up with played Magic the Gathering, which I thought was fun but never really got into it. Anti-Focus: Most people think the idea of yuppies is a joke, but in the 90s they were the all-too-serious Starbucks crowd. They were satirized perfectly in Best in Show.
I don’t know if I’d say suckered but I do look back and cringe that I got into the hair bleaching frosted tips fad that happened in my middle school freshman year. I’m now into the undercut hitler youth hairstyle. We’ll see if this turns into a similar embarrassment 20 years from now.
It already is. For me it was music. When I was in junior high/high school I had pretty good taste in music. I listened to a lot of grunge rock and various other bands like Tool and Sublime. I was also really into Led Zeppelin. Then nu-metal came out in the late 90's and it all went to hell. I listened to every shitty nu-metal band you could name, and thought it was fucking awesome. It took me until I was about 23-24 to realize how terrible that shit is. Now when I hear that stuff I cringe and wonder how I ever thought it was even remotely decent. Nowadays I find myself listening to a lot of the same old stuff I listened to when I was in junior high.
At least you had the excuse of youth. The older Gen-X crowd did it as full-grown humans. It was the mullet of the 90’s. Anti-Focus: Planking. This horse had a broken leg before it left the gate, was embraced by millions for no reason, then died fast and thankfully. Lamest hobby ever devised. Cuddle Parties. How emasculated are you that you decided to skip sex and go straight to the boring part? Probably the gayest thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen A Nightmare On Elm Street 2.
I wonder what the people who stuck with the shitty teen rock do in their everyday lives? Seeing 30-40 year olds at a Powermann5000 concert always gave me pause. They couldn’t be gainfully employed.
I know a few mid-40's guys around here who still get excited for Nickelback concerts. It's hard not to give them as funny look when they talk about it.
Focus: You know, I was going to say I regret getting suckered into wearing JNCOs, but I don't because at the time, they were super comfortable and I thought I was the coolest sk8ergrl ever. I DO regret my first AIM screen name being CaliSk8erB7 though. I've never even been to California. The farthest west I've been is Houston. Alt. Focus: Lately, I've been going back and forth with myself about nostalgia. Sometimes I think I can get too caught up in the past and what used to be, instead of focusing on the present. During the summer, I especially think about how different it was before I had kids and any real form of responsibility - just picking up and going for a long drive or even a multistate road trip seems like such a distant memory and makes me kind of sad that it's not as easily obtainable. Do kids even go for long drives anymore or does everyone just hang out on their phones in their bedrooms? I recently read this article regarding nostalgia and was interested to find that back in the day, nostalgia was considered a disease and then a form of depression. I can see how it could become debilitating to living in the past and there's definitely a fine line between having fond memories of what used to be and wishing it was still that way. Anti Focus: These 90s clothes that are making a comeback - they need to stay in the 90s.
As someone who often wishes for the way things used to be, I've wondered about this. I mean, I wouldn't say it's an obsession or anything. It's hard to explain on an internet message board, but I tend to get a little down thinking about how life used to be compared to now. I guess if I had to sum it up things seemed more simple.
Do you know that the average Western person stops looking for new music when they’re only 28 years old? That’s when they accept what they’ve listened and collected as “their music” and anything new isn’t good. I can’t do that. I’m always looking for new things. I couldn’t imagine just listening to the same music forever, and not being interested in new sounds before I turned 30. That’s just fucking sad.
I also am pretty accepting of new music and like to think of myself as moderately eclectic, but it seems like the last 15 years have been rather lacking when it comes to rock music in general. It has improved over the last 5 or so years, but we haven't seen anyone turning out almost full albums of hits since the mid 90's. I wonder how much the change from hard copy to electronic format has had to do with it. Speaking of clothing, one trend I really miss are the low-rise jeans that women wore in the early 2000's. I knew a few women who quit wearing underwear because their jeans were too low to cover them up. I still think they looked better than the mom jeans that women wear now.
That's exactly what I'm talking about. It's really bad when a girl has a curvy physique and they make her look like she has a FUPA. Here's an old classic. Who knew that a few years later it would be trendy:
Most of the main stream punk rock bands aged terribly. Green Day is hard to listen to. Doesn’t help that Lithium plays them every other god damn song. Blink 182 is.... ok. I usually don’t listen to anything from them anymore, but if it catches me in the right mood I’ll listen to some of their older stuff. I stayed hard and fast with the grunge rock bands though. Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, AiC are still in my regular rotation. Bands like Nine Inch Nails and Tool also aged pretty well.
90’s bands with the smarts had staying power. Rage Against the Machine was intelligent, powerful and it’s band members were the real deal. Tool & NIN where super-smart art bands that also adapted their live shows into unforgettable sensory experiences. Alice In Chains is just timeless, beautiful dark rock music with the best harmonizing since ABBA. Most Nu-metal wrecked all that. Korn and Limp Bizkit were juvenile and never matured or enhanced their sound. I think Disturbed would be the best if them if it weren’t for Dave Drainnan’s obnoxious guttural barking, his normal sining voice in incredible.
Agreed. Disturbed was always one of my favorite live acts, they really put on a hell of a show. But you’re right, they just never matured passed that. I’d also say Linkin Park didn’t age well. Yeah they’re newest album isn’t bad and maybe I just wasn’t that into them. But they were definitely better than Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, etc. I’d say out of those types, Godsmack was the best.
I cannot look past CRAWLLLLLLLING IN MY SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!! That phoney, sci-fi level of angst just turned my spine into glass. I think “Numb” is the only song by them I could stand. The Jay-Z mash-up version.
My gym playlist consists of the big 4 for grunge, Tool and NIN. I would say that consists mostly of what I listen to in general. Tool is so unique and out there that if you were to play pretty much any Tool song for someone who never heard it, they wouldn't be able to guess when it was recorded. Try that with the Gin Blossoms.
I was always a jeans and t-shirt/concert shirt/flannel type of guy. I never got into the more ridiculous fashion tends of the 80s (painters caps, neon colors, parachute pants, etc.). Except for a very brief period in the late 80s, post fiance' breakup, when I lost my mind, and decided that I needed a new look when I was out at bars and parties looking to hook up. So of course, living in Northern New Jersey, I went with the guido look - black Cavaricci's, a black guinea tee and a loud short sleeved button down shirt. Of course this didn't even remotely match my personality or overall looks (skinny, pasty white freckled kid), and I looked absurd. I ditched it after about 6 months, but I'm not proud of that time in my life.
The Gin Blossoms belong to an exclusive club of bands I call “Gay-Ass 90’s Social Scene”. Other bands include: Better Than Ezra Toad The Wet Sprocket Third Eye Blind Circle 360 Soul Asylum ...etc. you know, that sappy-ass emotional blackmail that assholes would sing along with in their indie coffee shops. Speaking of coffee shops: WHITE PEOPLE WITH DREADLOCKS. Stop it, it’s been 25 years. Like black people with tattoos, it just looks retarded and wrong to me.