As 1980s elitism vanished in a wave of euphoria, rave culture exploded, art shows were like rock concerts and even war seemed a thing of the past
I began the decade as editor of the teen pop culture magazine SKY, writing about acid house music, Naomi Campbell and Vivienne Westwood, moved on to The Sunday Times Magazine where exciting new young British artists, actors and directors were my editorial quarry, before transitioning into the Noughties as the co-writer of a weekly, Evening Standard gossip column with Nicky Haslam.
asserted
artists → vanish → Haslam
Call me shallow if you like, but pop music, pop art and champagne-popping parties was pretty much it, back then.
asserted
music → call → me
The crucial difference being that suddenly everyone seemed to be invited.
asserted
everyone → seem → ?
After the go-getting 1980s when elitism, minimalism and materialism were our aesthetics and aspirations, the 1990s seemed like a cultural democratisation.
asserted
1990s → get → democratisation
Raves not private clubs were where we went.
asserted
we → go → ?
And style-wise, we weren’t looking to America or Europe any more — we had our own thing going and, matey, it was going off.
asserted
it → look → America
For me (and probably many of you) the 1990s started in 1988, the fabled Second Summer of Love, when the whole city seemed to be moving to an unzt-untzing, four-on-the-floor beat and a Roland TB303 squelch for months on end.
asserted
city → start → end
Every weekend that summer, and subsequent 1990s summers, I went to warehouses (Clink Street and Battlebridge Road), to far-away Essex fields and even bussed out to an equestrian stables in Henley, to lose myself, shake a leg and throw hands in the air.
asserted
I → go → air
Everyone could do the dance, feel the rhythms, catch the vibe.
uncertain
Everyone → do → vibe
House was uniting, pacifying and euphoric, and the capital quickly co-opted this black Chicago music for its own multi-coloured soundtrack.
asserted
capital → unite → soundtrack
Yes, we felt fuzzy on Mondays but jobs were held down and mortgages paid.
asserted
mortgages → feel → Mondays
I know it sounds trite and sentimental to suggest that pop culture can influence the moods and ideas of a whole nation, but people really did change.
asserted
people → know → nation
Football terrace violence was down, men learned to kiss and hug one another and, inspired by the house music explosion
asserted
men → learn → explosion
, British pop music embraced its own black, white and brown influences.
asserted
music → embrace → influences
History frames the 1990s as all Oasis, Suede, Blur, Elastica and Pulp, but for lots of us Londoners it was also The Young Disciples, Omar, Jamiroquai, a music scene that sparked connection, unification and feeling — what curator Edward Enninful calls a “shared impulse”.
asserted
Enninful → frame → what
That new spirit had a trickle-down effect on other areas of lifestyle.
asserted
spirit → have → lifestyle
Where 1980s fashion had been all monochrome power dressing and sartorial brutalism, colour made a comeback in the 1990s.
asserted
colour → make → 1990s
And in the financial recession of the early 1990s, why go to an expensive designer store when a Rachel haircut and a long-sleeved Hanes T-shirt hoodie, or a smile and pair of Birkenstocks — just like that girl Kate Moss was wearing in The Face magazine’s Corinne Day shoot — was much more the thing?
asserted
Moss → go → shoot
Over in east London — large parts of it still a wasteland back then — the YBAs were making art that was visually impactful and easily disseminatable, but more importantly, approachable and un-snooty.
asserted
that → make → art
I’d attended Damien Hirst’s first-ever solo show, 1991’s In and Out of Love, staged at a vacant shop on Woodstock Street, just off Bond Street, enjoying a quiet and modestly attended affair.
asserted
I → attend → affair
It was more like a rock concert — the landmark show of work by Hirst, Marc Quinn, the Chapman Brothers, Mat Collishaw and Tracey Emin drawing over 300,000 visitors (a whole Glastonbury weekend’s worth!), setting a British record for a contemporary art exhibition.
asserted
show → draw → exhibition
If you wanted to, you could easily go and see Sensation when it travelled to Berlin.
uncertain
it → want → Berlin
The 1990s was when easy and accessible, cut-price air travel became part of our collective schedule — cheap flights from London not just to Ibiza and Corfu but to exotic Mittel-European and Scandinavian destinations as well.
asserted
travel → cut → destinations
Shameful to think that the potentially planet-ruinous concept of one’s carbon footprint wasn’t much of a consideration back then, but travelling to Eastern Europe to check out the rave scene in Prague or Gdansk for the weekend, on a whim, sometimes for as little as £15, seemed like an unmissable bargain.
asserted
travelling → think → bargain
We generally admired and approved of the Americans for doing the right thing (imagine that!)
asserted
We → admire → that
Through this highly mobile, idealistic and hedonistic, rainbow-hued prism, the wider world appeared to be over the worst of itself too.
asserted
world → appear → itself
From 1990 to 1994 South Africa dismantled apartheid, and the whole planet seemed very happy about it.
asserted
planet → dismantle → it
In 1990, a USA-led air and ground initiative drove Saddam Hussein’s invading army out of Kuwait in just 100 hours.
asserted
initiative → lead → hours
We generally admired and approved of the Americans for doing the right thing (imagine that!).
asserted
We → admire → that
There were the now largely forgotten Oslo Accords, interim peace agreements of 1993 and 1995 that encouraged Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization to negotiate a framework for peace and coexistence (which would definitely be happening very soon).
asserted
which → be → peace
The civil war in the former Yugoslavia ended and in 1993, John Major, bless him, issued the
Downing Street Declaration, establishing a core “principle of consent”, asserting that Northern Ireland’s constitutional status would only change with the majority consent of its population.
asserted
status → end → population
A 1994 IRA ceasefire followed, making way for the Good Friday Agreement, finalised by Tony Blair in 1998.
asserted
ceasefire → follow → 1998
Honestly, that’s how it felt.
asserted
it → ’ → ?
How did we get along without smartphones and an omnipresent internet?
asserted
we → get → smartphones
When the digital age did arrive, proper, during the 1990s we took it in our stride, naively regarding our Nokias, Motorolas and Ericssons as simply useful and exciting social tools; providers, facilitators and accelerators designed for our convenience and communication, rather than essential appendages to dominate and distract us, weaponise our opinions and take pictures of our food with.
asserted
we → arrive → food
We had the internet but no one really bothered too much about the wonky world wide web.
asserted
one → have → web
Bereft of browsers, search engines and shopping channels, back then it was for airlines and banks to operate more efficiency, not to sidetrack and doomscroll us all into oblivion.
asserted
airlines → operate → oblivion
Little did we know, but what we were experiencing was modern technology — just the right amount of it — at its exciting, untyrannised, benignly connected, socio-cultural sweet spot.
asserted
experiencing → know → spot
When it worked in harmony with, say, music, media and retail — and wasn’t intent on wiping out everything fun, good, clever and creative (and forcing kids into their bedrooms for hours on end instead).
asserted
it → work → end
The writer Michael Bracewell once noted that the 1990s were like the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s “whizzed through the blender of information technology”.
asserted
1990s → note → technology
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
