Things From the '90s That We Don't Miss

While Vince Staples’ attitude towards the ’90s remains subject to debate, the Long Beach native has certainly kicked off an interesting discussion. The ’90s had certainly brought us countless classic records, iconic movies and legendary TV shows, however, we don’t embrace every single element that is indicative to that particular decade. We’ve listed some things from back in the day that we feel have become somewhat outdated and do not deserve glorification. Have a look below and feel to (dis)agree in the comment section.

VHS/CASSETTE TAPES

Vinyl enthusiasts and some audiophiles will argue that gramophone records have a superior/unique sound quality to them compared to digital music. Arguable, but fine, we can give them that. Cassette tapes though? They can keep that. Not only is the jamming and tangling an issue, there’s no debate that CDs – their successor – are superior in every single way. Unless your car does not have an auxiliary input or Bluetooth technology to play the music on your phone, there’s no reason to bring the cassette tape back in this day and age. The same goes for VHS tapes; with the amount of time tape-rewinding requires, we’d like to see you try to VHS-and-chill.

PREPPING FOR Y2K

No matter how serious they made December 21, 2012 seem, a majority of the population wasn’t worried. Y2K though? We’re willing to bet your mom was stocking extra cans of Campbell soup and four-liter water jugs in the basement closet. For some reason, even some of the world’s smartest academics and scientists at the time were worried the world would potentially end because of the possibility that the year 2000 might be registered as 1900 on computer systems. Sounds crazy right? That’s 1999 for you.

BALLADS

There was a lot of good music in the ’90s, but as with all other decades, there were really bad ones too. On top of nu-metal, rap-rock and boy/girl bands, the ballad was a defining style of music in the era. Don’t get us wrong – there are a few really good ballads out there. We’re referring to the gimmicky, cheesy, cringeworthy, over-the-top songs that end up on the upper echelons of the Billboard Hot 100 every single year. If you’ve ever bought a cheap Casio keyboard and clicked the “demo” button, it’s basically exactly how most ’90s ballads sound like.

THE INTERNET

Two decades ago, the Internet was a weird, new thing that most people didn’t understand. While mankind eventually learned how to deal with slow download times, as well as the lack of pop-up blockers, the worst thing about the Internet was its lack of accessibility. Due to the super slow dial-up access and weird modem sound, online research was not easy at all. For the most part of the decade, Google didn’t even exist (word to AskJeeves.) On top of that, discovering new music wasn’t “one click away.” To find out about your favorite artist and their new releases, you had to go to your local record stores. Actually, sometimes that’s not really a bad thing — we do miss record stores.

THE PAGER

Before becoming obsolete with the arrival of cell phones, the pager was a popular communication/flex tool in a lot of rap videos back in the day. It’s hard to imagine that something with such a small display and minimal functionality could set you back a few hundred dollars — you can’t even send a text message with a beeper. In addition to these drawbacks, the device lacked what makes modern mobile phones so popular: cameras and Internet connection.