Overview
Pop Culture Universe is a testament to a notion that has gained significantly in pervasiveness; that to truly understand a society one must look not only at its high culture, but also at its popular culture, at how people dressed, what they ate, what they did to pass the time, and the like. The last decade of the 20th century, in fact, saw a rapid growth in the amount of critical attention cast upon popular culture and its components. There was an increase in the number of American universities with departments devoted to popular culture, or contemporary media, or various categories therein. The number of university film departments, for instance, rose notably. But the change in popular culture's reception occurred not only in scholarly circles, but also amidst the general public.
Indeed, there appeared among the populace a growing need to not only consume popular culture, but also to understand it. Perhaps nowhere is this seen more vividly than with the introduction of Digital Video Discs (DVDs) during the 1990s. Although picture and sound quality of DVDs certainly spurred sales well beyond those of the older VHS video cassettes, an additional appeal of the DVD was the bonus features, those that gave insights, through short documentaries or commentaries by filmmakers, into the background and making of the movie in question. The popularity of this one technology can be held as symbolic of a larger trend towards the almost rabid pursuit of information about popular culture.
The 1990s have been referred to as the "Age of Information." With the rapid spread of various media, carrying an ever increasing amount of information, there was a growing sense among many Americans that information was of value. And what could be of more value than information about the popular culture to which so many people devoted so much of their time, whether it be by watching television, listening to music, or deciding on an outfit to wear to school or work? The ultimate value of these things, especially as compared to, say, global or national politics, or technological advancements, remains a subject of debate. Some might question the ultimate, lasting value of DC Comics' killing and resurrection of Superman, for instance, as compared to the impeachment of a president.
One of the very premises behind Pop Culture Universe, however, is that there is considerable value in studying popular culture. Clearly, popular culture is not divorced from politics and technology, and to understand one is to understand the other with greater depth. Obviously politics and technology influence popular culture, but one would be remiss in ignoring how popular culture has affected politics and technology. The computer technology developed to operate home video games, for example, has continued to push the digital envelope, and these same video games have on more than one occasion dictated political and social discourse, on everything from media violence to computerized education.
Hindsight is something that we have but little of when considering the 1990s. The relative lack of distance between the 1990s and today presents us with both advantages and disadvantages when considering the decade's popular culture. Time greatly affects the way we perceive a given era, especially when considering something as apparently ephemeral as popular culture. The passage of time allows one to distance oneself from a period, and this distance potentially allows for a broader perspective of that period. One looking back on an earlier decade might have a greater sense of which developments of that decade had the most lasting effect.
Indeed, what may have seemed the most vital development during the period may, ultimately, have little lasting effect on the future development of American culture, and seemingly minor developments can have enormous effects. Experiments with computers in the 1960s and 1970s, for instance, generated relatively little interest amongst the majority of the American population, but given the ubiquity of computers today, those early stirrings necessarily demand careful attention. This is but one example of how the preceding decades of the 20th century helped shape the 1990s. In analyzing the 1990s, one can't ignore developments in the late ’80s and earlier, which shaped the final decade of the 20th century as much as any developments strictly restricted to this ten-year period.
If any general theme can be drawn from the decade at this point, it might be that of diversity and blending. The 1990s seem to have been a great age of mélange, of the coming together of disparate forces. This is true socially, politically, and aesthetically. The sharp political split that marked the Clinton era seems to belie the notion of a blending of oppositions. But as many have pointed out, and as a growing segment of the American population complained of bitterly, the two major political parties both moved towards the ideological center, indeed becoming more alike. There was also a growing diversity of the American populace, due to immigration and other changes in the country's demographic makeup, which nonetheless was coupled with a growing homogeneity of cities across the nation, largely driven by media and commercial influence.
In the latter half of the 20th century one can see an increasing dissolution of the barrier between high and popular culture, and this dissolution seemed to reach a peak in the century's final decade. The increased use of popular film, music, and literature in classrooms across the country in the 1990s indicates that such artifacts were seen as being as valuable as works from the traditional literary and cultural canon. Likewise, Hollywood's vigorous use of classic literary works as the source for numerous film projects demonstrates a reverse impulse.
The proliferation of literature about the 1990s continues unabated, and, in fact, seems to be accelerating as more and more people seek to determine the impact of this complex decade from which we have but recently emerged. It is probable that the 1990s produced more literature on the decade itself than had any previous one. The quick pace of the decade did not stop individuals from engaging in some degree of analysis of what was happening around them and what significance these events would have. Therefore, even at this early date, much has been said about the 1990s. But much more remains to be said.
Use the links on the top left and top right sides of the page to find out more about the news, films, movie stars, songs, books, Broadway shows, awards, fads, fashions, sports, and other elements of pop culture in the 1990s. Or, if you’d like, continue reading from The 1990s by Marc Oxoby.
Adapted from Marc Oxoby, The 1990s. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003), xi-xvi.