Anyone who grew up in Generation Next probably remembers the following between 1995-2003:
Pop culture……We are generation “Scorpio” which also defines our generation. All we care about is sex, violence, and power. Our generation is marked by everything dark and mysterious…we hate superficiality and anything “cheerful”…anything mystical, psychic, and occult. We transformed ideas of tranformation, lost the adult “rites of passage” other generations before us had, and are the only generation who can’t find jobs in the recession, still living with parents well into our twenties, and take a while to get married, if at all. But we still find ways to rebel against society, use the internet as our way of gaining social power, and stick to ourselves in our secretive and mistrustful minds. We are also quite an emotional generation….dangerously emotional.
Television
Anyone who is anybody can’t forget the grand children Networks of Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel. Rugrats and ALL That defined Nick, until the Rugrats grew up and Kenan and Kel left All That and so did Nick Cannon, and Cartoon Cartoon Fridays, Toonami, Ed Edd and Eddy, and Powerpuff Girls defined Cartoon Network. But MTV was infested with a bunch of teeny boppers who began filling the channel with their pop videos. At least we still had Michael Jackson… VH1 was filled with oldies. And BET actually had funny comedians on Comic View and showed black movies and shows. Let’s not forget Nick Jr. owned Blues Clues, Face, and Little Bill, while Playhouse Disney had Little Mermaid and Madeline…they even used to show Timon and Pumba, Arabian Nights, and other “Disney-like shows”. Back then, cable was just becoming the “It” thing. I still remember My Brother and Me and Clarissa Explains It All, Sabrina the Teenage witch. Fox and ABC were big back then, UPN too…Sister, Sister, Smart Guy, which also came on Disney Channel along with Boy Meets World, Growing Pains, and Brotherly Love…with those Lawrence Brothers that everyone loved. Disney even had shows like the Famous Jett Jackson, So Weird, and The Jersey. Courage the Cowardly Dog was like So Weird…except weirder…Scooby-Doo was still big. We liked a lot of mysteries like Shelby Woo and the occult like So Weird and Goosbumps….we also loved Power Rangers and Anime as kids. Barney was even in our slot time, though I always preferred Kid Songs….and Zoom, the new version. Aurthur was our show too! And even Sesame Street, especially Elmo’s World. And we weren’t too far from old classic cartoons from Tex Avery, Toonheads like Bugs Bunny, and even some Animaniacs….best time for television. In later years, we supported shows like Lizzie Maguire, the first tween show to make over a million viewers, and That’s So Raven which was the first longest running show on Disney Channel. We loved Lindsey Lohan…until she got cracked up.
What a creative show! Back when Klasky was running things: Rugrats!
The Simpsons, South Park, 90210, Living Single, Baywatch, X-Files, Law and Order, and other nighttime television. Not to mention, watching the Bulls game was far more entertaining than it is now.
Technology
Computer was just becoming a part of the home, and laptops was spreading jobs across the nation. And everyone used to chat on AOL…it used to talk back and say “You’ve got Mail” which used to be so cool. Of course, I was always on yahoo…..Then MP3s came out, though you could only play one song at the time. CDs were still pretty big. Downloading became big like two years after 2000. But people still bought CDs, and everyone had a CD player with big headphones….The DVD player was it, but then everyone found out Playstation 2 could play DVDs and it was done. Playstation 2 was like the biggest thing, though Dreamcast and Gamecube also marked the generation. Of course, realistic graphics were the biggest thing back then. LOL Remember Street Fighter, Tekken, Final Fantasy? And NBA Live was regular too.
Playstation, remember? LOL
Literature
It varied, actually towards the end, kids stopped reading and started again. Babysitters’ Club, Sweet Valley, and American Girl marked the generation. For boys it was between How to Eat Fried Worms, There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom, Help! I’m trapped in Obedient School Again, Anamorphs, and Goooooosssbumpsss!!!! Who doesn’t remember Goosbumps? That was like the biggest thing. Then Harry Potter came out like in 1999 or before, and that took over. A Series of Unfortunate Events was big too. And Pirates of the Caribbean marked the later generation.
GOOOOSSSEEEBUMMMPSS!
Music
It sucked balls. Pop idols like Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls took over the industry. Who can forget the Hansen brothers? Pure lamety. Then here came Britney, the first teen solo act, and she influenced the whole world to come out with pop imitations. Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore who dyed her hair for the “occasion”, and all of these pop groups like Dream and Play, and just too many pop artists to count. And then the boy Britney Spears came out, Aaron Carter. Even black people changed genres like After Dark and Blaque…TLC was the biggest group…until, well you know. It was back when Jesse McCartney was part of the group Dreamstreet. Hoku and Myra marked Disney and Nick movies for their contributions, and Baha Men music swept the world by storm. Then in 2001, it seemed Dark Child took over everything, and so did 50 cent…later Avril Lavigne stole Britney’s shine in the early Y2K years. Then all these poprock artists came out of the closet, of course singers like Michelle Branch, Lindsay Pagano, Vanessa…can’t remember the rest of her name, and even Pink came out of the closet with her “real self”. Evanescence also dominated the industry. Metallic and Coldplay were even at their peek. All the most hard-core music marked our generation….along with the most giddy… If only Panic! At the Disco had been around….
Britney Spears when she was a little innocent...only a little...
The wildest group around! Spice Girls!
Original famous style! Avril Lavigne!
50 Cent back in 2003...
Fashion
I remember overalls….which no one wears anymore. Jordans were popular too…Capri pants were the “it” thing…and for some reason…ponchos….baggy pants, bandannas and scarves, and surfer boy hair cuts. Jean jackets and Timbaland boots were in too. That’s what Spongbob used to remind me of back in 2002, his debut…a surfer, valley dude, which those bleached-blond idiots were the “it” thing. Now, Spongebob is just a geeky idiot…Ponytails, and scrunchies were popular. Lip gloss had just become a big thing. Belly tops were “oh-so revealing” but not compared to now…especially if you consider Gaga’s “no pants rule”. Skorts were popular, and no one wear those either. Numbered tees, like with “57” or “23” and words all over the pants. And because of 9/11, everyone was wearing red, white, and blue. Feathery and hot looking jackets marked later generations. Like this:
jacket
And these checkered and worded jeans:
checkered pants?
Backstreet Boys look...LOL
Words and Sayings
The words and sayings that came back were “Cool” and “Awesome”, but we also added “Totally hot” and “bogus” and “wack” and “corny” and “lame” and who can forget “psyche”. “Wicked Cool” and other sayings that are too funny to repeat. “For shizzle my nizzle” was popular too, and you could add of “izzles” if you liked. And” then “it’s off the heezy for sheezy. “Da Bomb” was it too. And “Bad” or “Sharp” was in too. “Totally Rad” was in too. LOL This is funny.
This is really a walk down memory lane…
I feel sorry for this generation. Sorry later generation, you missed out on the best age to be a kid. Your Television Network producers have gotten so stupid they can’t even read their own network titles. Instead they show everything but music on MTV and live actions on Cartoon Network. Not to mention, the face of Disney is no longer Mickey, but Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus….
No one uses their voices in music anymore, it’s now been replaced by cheap equipments that electronically “disguises” real voices.
Glad I grew up in Generation Next.
Movies
Movies ranged between Sixth Sense, Scissors hands, well really anything with Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp. Matrix marked the 21st Century. We also had “Ritchie Rich”, remember the little blond boy from Home Alone? And let’s not forget the Disney movies. The best movies in the 90s were the Disney movies, hands down, like Lion King, Huntchback of Notre Dame, and Beauty and the Beast. Of course, there were some pretty good thrillers here and there, and other children’s movies like Little Rascals which had Mary-Kate and Ashley, America’s Twins. Also, Dennis the Menace. Remember Free Willy? LOL That movie still makes me laugh. Childrens’ movies had reach their peak in the 90s. The first child actor won an acting award, Haley Joel Osment, and you used to see him everywhere before his sister went all “Hannah Montana”…though he still acts as Sora on Kingdom Hearts, which is all I care about.
Generation Next 