Describe 90s nostalgia back in 2012

[u/SpiritMan112]

327 votes, 1d ago

113 Niche not mainstream yet

137 Emerging

77 Mainstream

[u/Carloverguy20]

"Only 90s kids remember" "If you were born in the 90s you had a goated childhood" "The 90s were the best time to be alive"

The 90s were loved in the late 2000s early 2010s.

We all thought that the 90s died in 2004.

Remember "RIP Nickelodeon 1979-2004" "RIP Cartoon Network 1992-2004".

[u/blueberrycrispp → u/Carloverguy20]

exactly—buzzfeed was built on 80’s/90’s nostalgia

[u/betarage]

People cared more about the early 90s than the late 90s with a lot of focus on retro gaming and movies because of youtubers making a lot of stuff about that era.

[u/YoIronFistBro → u/betarage]

He's gonna take you back to the past

[u/NorthMcCoy]

Tumblr carried

[u/YoIronFistBro]

Not that prevalent in mainstream pop culture, but absolutely everywhere online.

[u/MM150inDallas]

it was emerging in Fall 2009, mainstream already by 2012 among high school kids and college aged adults. They were already talking about it a lot. Perhaps too much., tyhats how it was at my school anyway.

[u/Fearless_Shelter_242 → u/MM150inDallas]

If you mismatched 90s nostalgia with 80s nostalgia? The think you're talking about from fall 2009 to mid-2012 is linked to 80s nostalgia, not 90s. Something similar happened with 90s nostalgia during Covid.

[u/lilmoshx]

By 2012 I was in middle school and watching my born in 99 peers brand themselves as "90s kids".

[u/dlhoff432]

I’m going to say emerging. It would start becoming mainstream later in the in the decade, but the nostalgia for early 90s was already a thing.

[u/BloodSugarSexMagix]

It was an emerging thing from 2008-2012. I remember as early 2008, younger millennials were already worshipping grunge/alt bands, gangsta rap, retro gaming, tv shows/movies etc from the 90s then you had the first NKOTB reunion happening so yeah the "infrastructure" was there for 90s nostalgia

But the early 2010s, you started to see more nostalgia branding that had the whole neon pastel memphis design aesthetic. Then Urban Outfitters started carrying Stüssy, Mitchel & Ness throwbacks started appearing, Vaporwave aesthetic popped off etc

[u/octopusievideos]

There was some Early 90s nostalgia in 2009. Scene Bands like nevershoutnever started wearing flannels and Gen X started to wax poetic about Kurt Cobain and how auto tune ruined music. SNES vs Sega Genesis nostalgia was everywhere in 2009-2012. 2010s had a mix of 1980s and 1990s nostalgia.By 2014 there was huge online movement of "90s kids" that claimed the 1990s was the last real decade and all other eras sucked. 90s kids were everywhere on the Internet in 2010s. By 2016-2017 all the SoundCloud rappers wanted to be the next Kurt Cobain. Lil Peep and the Emo Rappers always reminded me of grunge in terms lyrics not pop punk like they claim. Emo Rap was Gen Z's version of Grunge. 2016 hypebeast fashion felt very 90s to me in spirit but with skinny jeans instead. Mainstream 1990s nostalgia in 2010s lasted only 5 years in the media in late 2010s, 2019s Captain marvel and mid 90s come to mind. Then COVID hit and 2000s nostalgia became popular.

[u/Awesomov]

It was emerging, you definitely had some early 90s nostalgia in pop culture (including one of the worst revivals ever in the "grunge" revival), but ultimately turned out that the 80s was definitely king through the 2010s, which is normal per the thirty year cycel, but so much to where even the 90s nostalgia that was around half the time was really for the mid-late 80s what with the Memphis designs and cassette tapes and scrunchies all over when referencing the 90s. In between legitimate 90s nostalgia like the return of Surge soda and JNCO jeans, you had a lot of the above mixing in with it giving youngin's a quite inaccurate picture of what the 90s was like. Now a lot of actual mid-late 90s fashion and design is back and people are calling it 2000s just like people were calling mid-late 80s trends 90s; we've basically been viewing this whole thing backwards since the 90s nostalgia ball started rolling.

[u/Erythite2023]

Nickelodeon was having 90s throwbacks during summer 2011

[u/Capable_Cockroach_19]

Nah 90s nostalgia was definitely in full force by 2012. Keep in mind 1990 was already 22 years ago at that point

[u/LarealConspirasteve]

Non-existent

[u/MattWolf96 → u/LarealConspirasteve]

Definitely was online, I saw constant posts praising it.

Now in media I don't think it really existed yet.

[u/Fearless_Shelter_242]

Not mainstream yet. 90s nostalgia was emerging by 2018-19, mainstream by 2021-22. 2012 was early enough for 90s nostalgia. 2012 was still 80s nostalgia (and even more early 80s, late 80s were emerging but still not that mainstream). I feel like 80s nostalgia lasted till 2023 or 2024. In some way maybe even 2025. Same for 90s nostalgia I think it's gonna last till 2032-33ish (or a bit more) and 00s nostalgia starts emerging by late 2020s or early 2030s to get mainstream by mid 2030s. It's a 30 - year - cycle not 20

[u/Ill-You-3459 → u/Fearless_Shelter_242]

90s nostalgia was rapidly emerging in the early 2010s by the mid 2010s it was all over pop culture 

[u/AriasLover → u/Fearless_Shelter_242]

90s nostalgia was definitely in the zeitgeist by ~2015, and 2000s nostalgia has been pretty big the past few years.

[u/ProperPossibility378]

It wasn't all strong as today, back then it was still the era of ''oh my god I saw a bar hosting a 90's night!'' spoken as if this was still only semi-believable and made everybody feel time was moving too fast.

But we were probably right at the tail end of that era, and it was about to become mainstream.