Why has there been no widespread 90's revival?

also like... many people still do have cable tv, and if my random channel surfing in hotel rooms is any indication, it's easy enough to find yourself at an episode of F Troop in 2021. inexplicable as that might seem in programming terms.

Yeah but I don’t think many kids are watching cable, are they?

they’re watching historical NBA games and full length t.i. concerts and mini-documentaries about the tallest people to have ever lived. if my house is any indication. it’s just a wealth of accumulated pop cult at their fingertips that would have blown my mind as a child.

kids not only have access to the entire recorded output of the 20th century

lol

why would kids watch bad TV that we only watched because it was the only thing on

It was bad because it was mind-numbing, but minds kind of like to be numb part of the time. And kids can't drink vodka.

XP They're watching Friends, aren't they?

In all seriousness, Rob's list makes me think about how some shows could coast into multiple seasons simply because they were on between Friends and Seinfeld, or Seinfeld and ER. Definitely a lost art of sorts.

Speaking of ER, are there <any> classic TV Dramas that Millennials Stan for? And by 'classic', I mean pre-Sopranos/prestige TV.

hmm. Twin Peaks for sure. and maybe more in the "genre" zone? ST:TNG and DS9, Buffy, etc....? a friend of mine got really into M*A*S*H a couple years ago.

but it's an interesting question. i'm struggling to even think of that many classic TV dramas to start with - they're not on the tip of my tongue like sitcoms. and especially ones with either ongoing storylines, or a manageable overall episode count... feels like those might be important prerequisites for reasons i can't quite spell out.

do mystery shows count as dramas? Murder She Wrote gets a lot of love out there. feel like i've encountered a few other Columbo lovers over the years....

west wing maybe but that’s proto-prestige

as far as dramas go

law and order?

Oh yeah, those mysteries are pretty big. I think Rockford has a growing following too.

And how could I forget the Star Treks and Buffy? Although genre fandom helps in those cases.

I was really thinking about something like ER, which was _HUGE_ in it's time, but seems like you never hear about anymore.

every six weeks another article runs about people discovering Columbo during lockdown #acabec

Writing a piece for NYT Sunday Styles on how people these days present on social media as Columbo (enigmatic, one step ahead, always nails the rich bastard) but live as Rockford (mobile home, broke, beaten up every week)

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) May 8, 2021

I think that people have easier access to all kinds of things and are exposed to more, thanks to the wonders of algorithmic recommendations and the preservation of everything that exists now. But they aren't forced to endure it the same way. If I leave YouTube to autoplay some music videos and something comes on I don't enjoy I simply skip to the next one. And if I don't like that either I can search for something I will enjoy. Whereas, when I was growing up, I only had The Chart Show and TOTP and occasional trips to someone's house where they had The Box. So if I wanted to see music videos I had to take them all as a bundle together - so I could see my then-favourites like Bjork and Garbage, but I also had to sit through dreck like Boyzone. So even though I don't like their music I had a familiarity with it and sense of them. Whereas now I can simply skip past an Ed Sheeran video and remain completely ignorant, beyond knowing I won't enjoy it.

this is very true.

I remember arguing with Ilxors way way back when Top of the Pops got cancelled, saying that TOTP was a communal after-tea experience where, for example, everyone from your Dad, your Nan, your baby brother, would all get a glimpse into what was happening in the current charts, and everyone would have an opinion on, say, Brian Molko whether they cared about the music or not, which I think ties in a bit with what boxedjoy is saying.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/djwp/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/19155915/web_bbdb_EH_DJ-Arts-Beabadoobee_091.jpg

beabadoobee is leading the ’90’s revival

Inspired by the sounds of the late ’80s and early ’90s, beabadoobee cites Elliot Smith, The Moldy Peaches, and The Cardigans as early influences.

https://www.documentjournal.com/2021/04/beabadoobee-is-leading-the-90s-revival/

Obviously there is no way a show like TOTP or The Pepsi Chart would have worked since the mid-00s. Why would you expect the whole family to gather round the TV and sit together when everyone has their own taste and their own device to explore it?

xp: lol.

beabadoobee is excellent and yes she sounds a bit 90's in the same way Wolf Alice sound a bit 90's .

Xp to boxedjoy - that's true but then you could make that case against all TV, not just TOTP

That said, the charts don't seem to mean half as much to people in general as they once did. Do people pay attention to who's number one any more?

the spotify charts are a lot of people’s default playlists

xp: lol.

― peace, man, Monday, August 2, 2021 7:07 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

beabadoobee is excellent and yes she sounds a bit 90's in the same way Wolf Alice sound a bit 90's .

― akm, Monday, August 2, 2021 7:22 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

My lol was more at describing "Elliot Smith, The Moldy Peaches, and The Cardigans" as " late ’80s and early ’90s". Nothing matters.