TV Shows of the nineties

The family show of the 90s was definitely…

Full House
This show was the beginning of fame for twins Mary-kate and Ashlee Olsen as well as many other stars. The show is family based, watching character Danny Tanner raise his three littler girls all by himself. The show is funny, emotional and something everyone can relate to!




Adults may be more familiar with 90s shows such as…

Seinfeld
Often referred to as" the show about nothing" Seinfeld explored the lives of 4 friends living in New York City. Some say you have to have a particular kind of humour to enjoy it, but I tend to disagree, who couldn’t laugh at Kramer!





Roseanne
This show aired for nearly a decade, sharing the story of an average family and their daily struggles. This was another family show, but generally watched by adults.




If you were a kid of the 90s, you definately loved these shows...

Saved by the Bell
While this show only last 4 years it is one I bet you all remember!
The show revolved around a group of teenagers constantly causing mischief and avoiding trouble. Featuring all our favourite school stereotypes from the hot bimbo to the cute Nerd, Saved by the bell had it all!

The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirThis show has to be one of our favourites, when Will Smith was still a teenager! Will plays a typical street kid living in the wealth and luxury of his aunty and Uncle. Watching Will not quite fit in with this posh family is truly hilarious! He does bring a strong message to the plot however, that money can ever match the pleasure brought by moments with family and friends.

Mobile phones of the nineties

Even though the concept of mobile phones has been a hit from late 90's, the introduction of cell phones dates back to as early as 1947. The completely automatic mobile networks were first introduced in 1980's. But it wasn’t until the late 90's mobile phones that mobile phones started to take off, before then mobile phones were not convenient to carry because of its big size. The then mobile phones could rarely be carried in the shirt or jacket pockets. They were mostly used as car phones, installed in cars on permanent basis.

Mobile phones in the 80's and early 90's

These phones of the 90s are known as second generation of mobile phone systems (2G). This generation uses digital transmission instead of analogue. Another major difference was that Short Message Service (SMS) was available on these phones. The two most popular brands were Nokia and Motorola. Popular models released by Nokia were the 3210 and 6160. Motorola was known for their flip phones where you would have to pull the antenna out for reception.

2nd Generation mobile phones from the 90s

And a feature you would most likely remember about 90s mobile phones was that they definitely were not in colour and they had basic games such as snake on them. Nokia did however release a mobile phone, the 8270, with a blue backlight to try and add some sense of colour to the phones. But this model didn’t come out until about 2004. Another feature about these phones was that you were able to take the cover off and place your own cover on top. In the late 90s you were also able to purchase monophonic ring tones to personalise your phone.

Nokia 8270 released in 2004

Girls fashion accessories of the nineties

So back to the fashion of the 90s. We previously spoke about the clothing but we didn’t discuss the accessories that were fashionable at the time. Firstly, something that many girls, from primary school girls to high school girls, had was tattoo chokers, arm bands and anklets.  These were plastic, elastic-like bands that would in effect look like a tattoo.  They were originally released in black and later came in many different colours.  

Another accessory of the time was these plastic bands that could be tied together in different ways to look like different bracelets but they could also be worn just as it was. They were also commonly known as shag bands, which meant if you broke one you had to... I don’t need to finish it off, I’m sure you get the picture. It went around that different colours meant different things that had to be done.

In the 90s scrunchies were a popular accessory to wear in your hair. You could get srunchies in all different colours and patterns.

Hair ties that were made of fake hair, followed the scrunchy phase. Girls could tie their hair in a bun or a pony tail and tie this around to look as though it was there real hair just in a fancy up style. These came in multiple different hair colour tones.

Other hair accessories included butterfly clips. There were two different types of butterfly clips; the ones that had a fake butterfly attached ontop of a clip which would allow the butterfly to flutter when you moved and the other type was just a plastic clip which was made in the shape of a butterfly.

Little coil clips were also in. These came in different sizes and colours and some had flower, some had diamontes and some were just plain. They were to add a little bit of spunk to your hair style but they were a pain to get out at times!!

And what every girl had was a fluffy pen, just like Cher from Clueless.

Pop Music of the Nineties

In the 90s, pop music were highly popular. Many of the best selling artists of the time were bands/ groups.  Amongst young girls, the major all-girl group of the time was the Spice Girls, whose albums were all hits. They were so popular that they were able to expand to make a movie titled “SpiceWorld”. Top selling singles for the Spice Girls included: Stop, Spice up your life, Wanabe, Never Give up on the Good Times, 2 become 1, Who do you think you are, Say you’ll be there and Viva Forever. Other girl only bands included TLC, Destiny’s Child, Allure, Salt and Pepa , B*Witched and Dixie Chicks.

There were also boy bands that captured the heart of these girls; they were NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Savage Garden and Human Nature.  

And then there were the unisex pop groups such as Vengaboys, Aqua and S Club 7.  

Other than groups there were many artists that debut in the 90s. In particular Mariah Carey was the first recording artist to have her first five singles in the Billboard Top 100 Charts.  Mariah continued with her success. She released many songs that reached the number One position all around the world. Some of her best songs included: Hero, Without You, Heartbreaker, Dreamlover and One Sweet Day.

Other artists that debuted in the 90s and became the top of charts was Celine Dion, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera.  

A top songs included: I’m Blue by Effiel 65, Pretty Fly for a White Guy by The Offspring, Mambo no. 5 by Lou Bega, 5,6,7,8 by Steps and Cotton Eyed Joe by Rednex.

But the all time catchiest song is the Macarena by Los Del Rio, with its iconic dancemoves.

Shoes of the nineties

Many shoes of the 90s inspire the trends of today, from air max sneakers to stiletto heels. Let’s begin with the dressy shoes of the 90s.

Court shoes
Court shoes also known as pumps are low-cut front heel, they typically did not have any fastening but sometimes you will see them with ankle straps…check them out here!!

Chunky Heels
While 90s women still wore classic Mary- Janes, points and plain pumps the 90s were known for making the styles chunkier. Thick heels and square shaped fronts were also very common.

And for the casual shoes of the 90s…


Keds
This brand of shoe were made with canvas and rubber soles. The shoes were generally worn by girls with baby doll dresses, leggings/bike shorts and "slouch socks” mostly without lace. You could say they were the vans of the 90s.

Jelly shoes
By far the hottest shoe of the 90s…are you ready for it? Jelly Shoes! These were the ideal shoes for junior school and maybe even early senior school students at various discos and parties. I guess you could say these were the alternate to heels for girls that were still a little young! The shoes were not very good quality breaking easily, but they sparkled and came in a range of colours making them a 90s hit!

Chuck Taylor All-Stars
Yes that’s right the converse shoes of today date all the way back to the 90s…Commonly referred to as "Chuck Taylors", "Converses", "All-Stars", "Chucks" or "Connies” these shoes are also made of canvas and rubber. Converse modified the shoe with 1920’s basketball player Chuck Taylor (hence the name). They reached their peak in the mid 90s.

Ugg Boots
And while today we’d call them slippers today, Ugg boots were at one point a fashion statement in the 90s, who would have thought!
Incase your not familiar, Ugg boots (or uggs) are unisex sheepskin boots, with fleece on the inside and generally a synthetic sole. While today we see them in many colours, they traditionally had a tan exterior and white inner fleece.

Nike
I guess you could say that air max’s were the male shoe of the 90s.
Named after the decade Nike released their second edition of the air max sneaker. The style uses a large air cushioning unit at the heel of the shoe. The original shoes were white black and grey with infared.

Air Max 95
Nike released a 3rd edition of the shoe in 95, basing the visual design on the human anatomy! If you look close enough, you’ll notice that the spine of the shoe resembles the human spine with materials intended to represent skin. Here’s a fun fact: a study in 2007 by forensic science services claimed Nike air max 95’s were the number one choice of footwear for criminals!

Movies of the nineties

We previously mentioned the popularity of Disney. This popularity derived from the success of their animated movies. Their best selling movie in the nineties was Lion King. They had many other successful animated films in that era, these included: A Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, 101 Dalmatians, Fantasia, Peter Pan and the Jungle Book. In 1995, Disney became the first to create a computer-animated feature film made entirely from computer-generated imagery.



All movies used in the above clip were made in the 90s except for Sleeping Beauty which was made in the 1959 (one of the first Disney feature films)

Another first for the film industry happened in the nineties with the romantic film titled ‘Titanic’. This became the highest-grossing film of all time, for 12 years at almost $200 million.

For the teenagers of the nineties, a favourite movie was Clueless. Clueless explored the various status’ and social cliques in a high school.   This movie is a perfect showcase of 90s fashion, as well as trendy items of the 90s.

Other popular movies included: Pulp Fiction, Saving Private Ryan, Godfellas, Schindler’s list,  The Silence of the Lambs, Forest Gump, Jurassic Park, Terminator, Edward Scissorhands, Apollo 13, Shawshank Redemption, Boyz n The Hood, The Sixth Sense, Babe, The Apostle, American Beauty, Fight Club, The Usual Suspects, The Fugitive, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love and The Matrix.

Entertainment Technology of the nineties

The gaming console was not first introduced in the 90s, it had been around since the 70s. But 3D gaming consoles were around in the 90s as opposed to the original games such as Pakman. One of these consoles was the Sega Mega Dive which was brought to Australia in November, 1990. This was the beginning of the 16-bit era of video gaming. Sega had many games compatible with the device but a very popular game was Sonic the Hedgehog. Unlike the games nowadays, the game cassette would stick out the machine.

Nintendo had to compete with Sega, and did so by releasing the Super Nintendo Entertainment systems in 1992. This device became the most popular video gaming console. It was so popular that Ninetendo were able to uphold their popularity well into the 32 bit era.  

 Another device Nintendo had created was the ‘Gameboy’. This was a 8 bit hand held gaming device which hit the stores in 1990. Similar to the consoles, you had to slide the game cartitridge into the slot and be careful of getting dust into the system.  In late 1998, Gameboy colour was introduced. This meant the games were now in colour!

Cassette Players and ‘Walkmans’ (portable cassette players) were an ‘old’ invention for 90s kids. You were up-to-date if you had a ‘Discman’ (portable CD player) or a CD player.