2 weeks Ago
If social media is anything to go by, teenagers today who never experienced the 90s, and thus never experienced a world without social media, are yearning to turn back the clock. Baggy jeans, scrunchies, slip dresses, chokers and flannel shirts have all had their revivals in recent years, but what about certain elements beyond clothing and appearances that haven’t made their way out of that time vault yet? Now that Liam and Noel Gallagher have seemingly put their differences aside for their upcoming tour, we looked at other key components of the 90s that should also be making a comeback. Through the decades there have been plenty of musical groups made up of men and women, but the late 90s (and early 2000s) encapsulated a different sort of era — utterly camp, bubblegum pop, made up of boys with frosted tips in their hair and girls with butterfly clips in theirs.
S Club 7, Steps, The Vengaboys, A*Teens, Aqua — these bands were all formed in the 1990s, and it’s something you just don’t see as much today. In the age of streaming, it’s hard for anyone born after the millennium to imagine a world without instant streaming. They’re missing out on some seriously special memories, though.
It will be impossible to create the Friday night feeling of heading to your local Xtra-vision with friends or family, rifling through the different genres of VHS tapes (then turning into DVDs) for the perfect movie pick, and picking up a selection of snacks at the till. Certainly, no one misses the fear when you realised you were late in returning the tape, which resulted in a fine and had to happen to us all more than once in our lives. There has been a recent resurgence in the demand for vinyl records, so maybe the old VHS could make its comeback too.
Kodak’s disposable cameras are currently being sold online in packs of two for upwards of £30; unbelievable to think that these are in the ‘cool retro’ genre now, considering you could have bought one for less than a fiver at your local shop or chemist back in the day. The youths of this generation like them for the printed photographs’ “vintage” appearances. But we think they should make a bigger comeback because it was relieving to pose for a picture and not see it for a week or two — meaning less concern about how one looked and more time spent enjoying the moment.
There are plenty of famous scenes in 2001’s Legally Blonde, but the one that sticks out the most for Belfast Telegraph tech columnist Kurtis Reid is when Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) is standing in line to buy a laptop, having realised her fluffy notepad isn’t good enough. “The laptop, the iBook Clamshell from Apple is the thing I would want the most from the 1990s,” he said. “It’s popped up in everything from Sex and the City, Coyote Ugly, Crocodile Dundee, Big Fat Liar, Just Married, The Princess Diaries and even Friends.
I ended up buying my first Mac when I went to university and have been through a few already, but I can’t help but secretly wish it had a neon-coloured curved edge.” Neon colours were a trend in tech in general during this decade, as were clear casings on electronics. So many gadgets were given transparent tech makeovers — Game Boys, landline telephones, game console controllers and more.
Who didn’t love looking at an A4 image of Justin Timberlake when flicking through your favourite Smash Hits magazine? Bedrooms of teenagers the world over were plastered in images of boy bands and girl bands and even more randomly your favourite actor in your most-watched TV show. So, the question is, would today’s teenagers go for this style of interior design? It’s a rite of passage for teenagers to have spiky-haired musicians on their bedroom walls and the trend must return, no question about it. The Scottish retro-brand drink; just add water.
The fruity, fizzy soft drink was manufactured in Glasgow and sold in the UK from the 1950s, until Nestlé ended production in October 1998. We can still taste the effervescent crystals. Sofas, armchairs and even footstools.
These were hands down the most uncomfortable piece of furniture ever owned, but it was still a must-have regardless of whether you lived in a box room with hardly any floor space or if you were one of the lucky ones with furniture space in your bedroom. There was still room for a giant red inflatable chair with Homer Simpson drinking beer emblazoned across it either way. A quirky minimalist trend which may make a comeback today, though I’m not sure the lungs of some parents would cope to blow it up from a flat pack.
These handheld digital “virtual pets” were first released in Japan on November 23, 1996. Belfast Telegraph journalist Amy Cochrane recalls: “I’m not sure what the point was of these other than to forget about your pets for a day as they lived in your pocket and then wake up to their demise the next day. “I’m sure it was actually to teach responsibility, but I’m not quite sure it worked out like that.
Either way, if there was perhaps a Tamagotchi resurgence, there may be less time spent on social media and more time feeding and playing games with your virtual pets.” The original store that had something of everything; filling a paper bag with cola bottles and yellow bananas using little plastic scoops and getting it weighed, then leaving a good bit of it back as you only had a few coins . The first to introduce spring onion flavour.
There was also a Tudor special range, including gammon and pineapple and cream cheese and chives. Discontinued in 2003, sadly. Our last suggestion is somewhat philosophical, but numerous people said they would want to bring back a time when people didn’t have their phones glued to their hands.
BBC Radio Ulster presenter William Crawley put it best, saying: “I miss the anonymity of the 90s — when your youthful mistakes weren’t captured forever by an iPhone, when your momentary stupidity, however insignificant, wasn’t catalogued online. “I miss the silence — when you could sit on a train, quietly passing the time inside your own head without feeling a pathological need to interact with a stranger on your timeline. “I miss the slowness — when you could sink into an extended moment in time without being battered by swirling inanities, when the news meant something important had happened without manufactured urgency.
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