American 1990s - Daily Dose Documentary

American 1990s

Collage of the American 1990s including gameboy and blockbuster video.

After the social breakdowns of the 1960s and 70s, followed by the financial excesses of the 1980s, New York Times columnist David Brooks described the American 1990s as a time of moral self-repair, which was further amplified by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, leaving America, at the time, as the sole world superpower following decades of Cold War tensions. Still distrustful of big government after the Nixon Watergate Scandal, Bill Clinton prevailed in the election cycle of 1992, after Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot divided voters over Washington’s inability to deal with a bad economy, that saw many white collar Americans lose their jobs.

Birth of Grunge

Americans in the 1990s also paid greater attention to multiculturalism, while Gen Xers bonded over alt music movements such as grunge, Eurodance, hip-hop, denpa and trance. The period also witnessed the birth of the internet and faster home computers, igniting a massive increase in computer gaming with the development of CD-ROM supported 3D computer graphics, on such gaming platforms as Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64, while the World Wide Web saw Wall Street shift from paper to online trading. Popular TV shows imprinted the 1990s into the minds of Gen Xers, with such smash hits as Cheers, Friends and Beverly Hills 90210, while box office hits like Home Alone, Jurassic Park, Titanic and Independence Day became runaway favorites with moviegoers and VHS and later DVD rental outlets like Blockbuster Video.

LA Riots

The decade also saw its fair share of violence and tragedies, including the 1992 Rodney King beating and subsequent L.A. Riots, the 1993 World Trade Tower bombings—an unheeded forewarning of the 911 attacks—the 1993 Branch Davidian standoff in Waco Texas, which inspired anti-government hatred in Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, leading to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that took the lives of 168 innocent adults and children. After winning a second term in the White House in 1996, Bill Clinton’s presidency devolved when he denied having sex with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, leading to his 1999 impeachment and acquittal by the U.S. Senate, making the American 1990s, a time of peace, prosperity, and rapid technological change.