Why 90s nostalgia

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Indeed, many movie critics have made the case that was the best year ever for movies , featuring high-quality films that have become part of the cultural dialogue. The s were a unique period in modern history in terms of technology and social connection. At the start of that decade, mobile phones were for the rich and famous and did nothing but make and receive calls.

The internet hadn't been invented, google was a made-up word, and social media was meeting your mates at the Hoyts theatre complex to roll Maltesers down the aisle. By New Year's Eve , the first dot-com collapse was on the brink of occurring and our lives had become mobile and connected in ways the Baby Boomers could never have imagined.

It's not always nostalgic things but it is things that make you feel good. If you look at Friends you can see why young people are interested in that - you always want to hang on to your friends. It's also a show about negotiating life in your early 20s. If you watched the show the first time around you would see how it would be dated, but those common themes continue to be popular. While our screens are becoming saturated with sitcoms from the '90s, our AirPods are being filled with sounds from the Spice Girls , Nirvana , and Oasis.

Dr Tim Byron , from the School of Psychology at UOW, says there is always a part of pop culture that is focussed on the past, especially in music. They weren't born when the original song came out. There is something fascinating about the ways in which young people interact with pop culture songs. They will go to a dress up party and mix up their eras. Any bit of pop culture has a meaning for certain people that is different to those who were around at the time that culture was happening.

Just like accessibility has changed the way in which the later generations watch media content, streaming services have also changed the way in which they listen to music, and the revival of '90s melodies. The internet has democratised entertainment — it's no longer essential to have a lot of spare income to become a music connoisseur, because you can listen to music for an affordable monthly fee. Similarly, you can become a film or TV buff without giving Blockbuster Video a sizeable chunk of your life savings or paying extra for cable.

And this is cool. If you grew up in the '90s, you might have noticed how much broader your taste in entertainment has become post-streaming services. You don't have to refuse to watch horror movies because you paid Blockbuster a substantial fee for something you only watched the first ten minutes of before hiding behind the sofa for the rest of the movie.

But it also means you're less invested in what you do consume. What band's album will ever mean as much to you as that copy of TLC's Fanmail your older cousin handed down to you? Similarly, what movie have you watched over 20 times in the past ten years?

I'm going to make an educated guess: probably none, because what obsessive person watches something over and over now that they have access to a world's worth of entertainment for very little dollars?

So yeah, the nostalgia makes all the sense in the world — and not just because Fanmail is an indisputably great album.

These were the last pop-culture remnants from that age when the internet existed without being all-consuming.