S and I were reminiscing the 90’s and we discovered that we both went through the same fads albeit in different geographical locations.
We were the mid till late nineties children, the early 90s was too… erm early heh. In 1997 I was still in secondary school (that’s high school to you noobs) and erm… I looked something like this.
Obviously the only coloured bit was my face. I don’t know if my ex-classmates would be happy to have their face on the Internet, better not risk it.
And later in the year my friends and I were at Kukup.
So that was 1997. So much could grow horizontally within a year. Amazing.
Anyway back to the 90s talk… it was GREAT, I tell ya. Of course one never fully appreciate the era they were in until it passed them by, so here I am in the early 21st century missing the late 20th century. Talking with S was such a trip down memory lane. I’ve always wanted to compile something like this, the conversation with S made me really do it, so here are some of our 90s memories that we love so much.
The #1 unifying factor for me and S was Smash Hits.
Nothing like the Smash Hits now of course, back then it was thicker and nicer and the editors (especially Gav and Kate) were mucho hilarious.
The first English album I bought was Blur’s The Great Escape in cassette.
I think I first got to know Blur from their ‘Country House’ music video which I thought had the coolest lyrics EVER.
City dweller, successful fella
Thought to himself: ‘oops, I’ve got a lot of money
Caught in a rat race terminally
I’m a professional cynic but my heart’s not in it
I’m paying the price of living life at the limit
Caught up in the century’s anxiety…
– Country House; Blur
Then there was Oasis whose line up I’ll always remember as from 1995 – 1999. Some really great songs not like the crap they have now.
Some day you will find me
Caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova in the sky
– Champagne Supernova; Oasis
Maybe I just want to fly
I want to live I don’t want to die
Maybe I just want to breath
Maybe I just don’t believe
Maybe you’re the same as me
We see things they’ll never see
You and I are gonna live forever
– Live Forever; Oasis
Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say
Chained to all the places that he never wished to stay
– Cast No Shadow; Oasis
And there was the infamous Oasis vs Blur, Liam vs Damon, Noel vs Damon feud. In the heat of the moment, Noel Gallagher let it slip in an interview that he wished for Damon Albarn to die of AIDS, which he immediately apologised and retracted. It was published anyway and it wasn’t pretty.
Then along the same lines was Jarvis Cocker and Pulp.
You’ll never live like common people
You’ll never do whatever common people do
You’ll never fail like common people
You’ll never watch your life slide out of view
And dance and drink and screw
Because there’s nothing else to do
– Common People; Pulp
Jarvis Cocker also pulled off a stunt which unfortunately would be more remembered than his songs; he sneaked onto the stage during a Michael Jackson performance and mooned.
There was also the beginning of Boyzone, the painful departure of Robbie Take That, the end of Take That (sniff), the beginning of Spice Girls, Scooter, Nirvana (1994’s From the Muddy Banks of Wishkah), Britney Spears’ singing debut around 1996, Super Furry Animals, Kula Shaker, Cast, Suede, Space, Manic Street Preachers, Weezer, Radiohead, REM, Green Day, 911 (kinda embarrassing for me to admit this but they were hot), PJ and Duncan which was basically Ant and Dec (we still listen to Eternal Love), East 17…
I had these albums
Scatman John, Venga Boys, Gina G from Eurovision (Ooh Ahh Just A Little Bit), Danii Minogue, En Vogue, George Michael (Jesus to a Child), Elastica, Bjork (It’s Oh So Quiet), the ridiculous Dr. Bombay, Cornershop (Brimful of Asha), Run DMC (It’s Like That) etc etc etc…
I didn’t have these, thank goodness.
And there was the beginning of Backstreet Boys in late 1995. Their first single was ‘I’ll Never Break Your Heart’, the music video was of them at a skiing place and there was snow and lots of boy band emotions. Back then I loved them so much; when they came to Malaysia for a showcase I got my second sister to go squeeze with the crowd so that I could have photos. She got me a BSB t-shirt as well, it was so cool heh. I got their self titled album in 1997, played it so much that one day my mom gave me a shock by singing ‘As Long As You Love Me’ correctly.
Then when their next album came out, it was so crap that I got disinterested in them.
There were other boy bands too, such as Worlds Apart, Code Red and so on who obviously didn’t leave much impression.
And before there was hot Kylie as we know her now, there was Louise Nurding.
She was with then-Liverpool bench warmer Jamie Redknapp (now they are married and have a kid), she was the darling of Brit-pop (don’t think she could sing that well but then she was h-o-t). S said that back then, Beckham could suck kok (he still can now).
Hmm what else can suck kok? Oh yeah bands that sound all the same today like Simple Plan and company. PFFFTTT!!!
High on diesel and gasoline, psycho for drum machine
Shaking their bits to the hits
Drag acts, drug acts, suicides, in your dad’s suits you hide
Staining his name again
Cracked up, stacked up, 22, psycho for sex and glue
Lost it to Bostik, yeah
Shaved heads, rave heads, on the pill, got too much time to kill
Get into bands and gangs
– Beautiful Ones; Suede
A thousand thundering thrills await me
Facing insurmountable odds gratefully
The female of the species is more deadly than the male
Shock shock horror horror shock shock horror
I’ll shout myself hoarse for your supernatural force
The female of the species is more deadly than the male
– Female of the Species; Space
Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
But what price now for a shallow piece of dignity
– A Design For Life; Manic Street Preachers
The future teaches you to be alone the present to be afraid and cold
‘So if I can shoot rabbits then I can shoot fascists’
Bullets for your brain today but we’ll forget it all again
Monuments put from pen to paper turns me into a gutless wonder
– If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next; Manic Street Preachers
Pop rock alternative songs today… no depth… no substance… nothing that’s not been said before… recycled tunes… 2 or 3 miserable albums then putting up a Greatest Hits album… PFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!!!!!! Only The Killers are doing a good job. The popularised others… PFFFFFTTTT!!!
Or maybe I am getting older… 🙁
Before Harry Potter, there were…
There were also…
And Casper, Pocahontas, Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, Reality Bites, Free Willy, Home Alone, The Mask (the debut of Cameron Diaz)… all these I remember oh-so-well.
And there were: Saved By The Bell, Blossom (Mayim Bialik), Seinfeld, Home Improvement, the Olsen twins always babies in our eyes…
And HOT child actors…
I didn’t know that Jonathan Brandis committed suicide in 2003. Seaquest DSV was one of our favs.
One of my favourite movies of all time is Now and Then in 1995, starring Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, Devon Sawa, some other kids and some grown ups like Demi Moore.
S’s top 10 reasons to go back to the 90s :
1- Smash Hits
2- ponteng
3- budaya bohsia
4- who had sex and who hasn’t
5- metrovision/mega tv/astro
6- hitz fm in the beginning
Unfortunately she stopped at 6 because I had to go off somewhere.
But man, those were the days.
We’re stuck in a path
Where fashion is fast
And nothin’ is lasting
It’s all ghetto blasting
And Lord knows
Where it goes
But I know
That if so well I want to tell you
We’re tired of the 90’s
We’re tired of the 90’s
Tied to the 90’s
– Tied to the 90s; Travis
oooo….. OASIS! BLUR! Ah yes… when Britpop was brilliant and there was no Simple Plan…
I shall always remember the 90’s for helping me ditch my Cantopop music preferences and giving me the likes of Nirvana and Green Day instead…
Me grow up with NKOTB then Vanilla Ice then CB4 the movie soundtrack then G-Funk then Nirvana then Smashing Pumpkins/Blur/Pulp/Pearl Jam/Soundgarden.
By the way, you led a normal 90s life.
yup, there’s no Simple Plan, but there’s a Simple Minds.
I started off listening to Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung and Beyond… all thanks to my mother. Since I went a kebangsaan school, my friend and I began to get caught up in those sentimental songs, like Tommy Page (it’s that time when you want to chase after a girl, you got to know how to sing a TP song), NKOTB (before all the boyband craze), Martika, Richard Marx (k, i’ll stop)…
Remember buying tonnes of Galaxy magazines… and yes, also Smash Hits. That’s when i start listening to Brit stuff. Blur and Oasis and others. And yup, I remember Eternal.
Then I remember my friend and I singing “60s TV” by a local band, and that’s the only song we all know…
90s the time when I spent so much time and money on music…
eyeris: eh I listened to Mandarin pop before going Britpop. Pan Mei Chen, Sally Yeh etc
Beef Stew: oO I remember Vanilla Ice’s movie Cool As Ice, thought he was damn hip, but now we have Eminem to fill the void.
SMASHING PUMPKINS!!!
l0ft: I’ve heard of Simple Minds but I don’t remember any of their songs.
Tommy Page was kind of my sisters’ era, so was NKOTB etc.
Eternal the 3 girl Eternal or Eternal Love? Hehehe.
60’s TV = OAG.
I also know Isabella and Tragedi Oktober 😛
why the photos so blur one 🙁
I’m curious. Does anyone – ANYONE – remember a TV3 magazine called ‘TeleSkop’? It was like the local version of Smash Hits, Galaxie, etc. It was cheap and quite widely available during the early 90’s (some may refer to it as TV3’s glamour years). It has since died a natural death.
Also, I just remembered TV3 once calling itself ‘the official Malaysian TV station for.. New Kids On The Block!’ This would have been so laughable if not for the fact that this was picked up by US Billboard and shown on their US Top Ten TV show back then. Cringe…
Thanks for flashbacks, Suanie!
.. and wait… you thought Vanilla Ice was hip??!?!?
My heart.. my heart.. it’s stoppped..beating…. arghhh…. blek.
i don’t believe it. you blogged it! hahaha.
come one! your turn to give reasons 7 to 10!!!
And there was Mega Hit 3, the MOST power album back then.
O M F G fear street!!!! i was a super gila babi fan la wei. that and sweet valley. wahahahaha.
whoosh. thanx for the roller coaster ride.
I remember the 90s as Take That, Spice girls and BSB. My friends and i used to have BSB sessions, putting on the mtv tape and danced and sung along. Oh have I almost forgotten 911?
2 friends and I clinched the 1st place doing a 911 number for talenttime (with dancing summore). Now think back also damn malufying whey…
It was also a time when I was obssessive about looking for porno scenes in Sailormoon comics.
Yeah, SVH, RL Stine and Christopher Pike..makes me wanna dig bag the old books. I like Pike more cause it’s got the porno stuff.
Do you know I started sleeping late from staying up till 12am to watch SVH on tv2? sHIT is evil
Loved this post!!! You hit the nail on the head encapsulating what it was to grow up in the 90’s. I can’t believe I used to read SVU and Fear Street!!! Was impressed you remembered JTT, Devon Sawa and Jonathan Brandis!!! Oh and Now and Then was THE teen chick flick then!!!
Nostalgiaaaa….
I was in my prime in the 90’s, hitting 15 in 1993.
I was into the other side of things though, house music emerging around 1988 onto drum and bass into 1992, illegal raves in the fields and MADCHESTER.
I was into Oasis and Blur though, they had some good music going on unlike the shit today. But was also into the genius that the 90’s gave me like Snoop Doggy Doggs – Doggystyle, one of THE best albums ever made, some other weird shit like Bone Thugs n Harmony, ONYX, and some late 80’s stuff like Grand Master Flash.
The main thing for me though was the movies, the 90’s gave birth to so many wonderful movies, unlike the past 5 years, which to be honest have been frankly quite shit in the GREAT movie department.
i admit i never really read this post before commenting.. shit is too long. kthxbai
nice CDS you have .. err , cant say the same about the techno techno ones though :p
takethat,boyzone,WAHAHAHA. i used to save my $$ to buy a copy of smash hits each month. OMFG, blood suckers. so expensive one! LOL.
TRAINSPOTTING. my first RA movie. hehe
Whoa..reminiscing those 90s days huh.
I so very remember the Chumbawamba’s…Not forgetting Dr. Alban – It’s My Life! Ok, I had weird taste in music then 😛
Oh, I met 911 at the resort where I worked before. They were here for their album promo, and they had a free day so they actually took time to come chat with us at the counter! Those were the days.
At one times day in day out Radio DJ keep playing “Lemon Tree”.How about ‘Michael Learn To Rock’.
Haha Scatmans,Dr Bombay & Vengaboys Pasar malam songs wor.
My best time during the 90’s is KL Commowealth Games 1998.
Only same year biggest fear happen in Kl is ‘Reformasi’
I miss the 90’s
hur hur hur… is good to reflect back… Smash hits been around for so long hor??? when i was in Form 1 they were already around!
I can recognize Miss Tan Ah Moi in that high school pic! 😉
Waah! 90’s memeories … that was only like 5 years ago!!! Try remembering back to the 60’s … I can!!!! (and you can’t because you’re too young!) Hee Hee!!!
[Old Man Voice ON]
Now, help cut my food up so my gums can chew it … and stop playing that rock music so loud … oooo, those teenagers look dangerous … when I was a kid we resepected our elders … and what was hip was weird and scarey, now it’s just weird!!!
[Old Man Voice OFF]
90’s – Dabido’s top 10 memories (unrequested, but it never stops me babbling anyway!!!)
1) The year my band ‘Living Proof’ broke up missing the Grunge Movement which we were all set to take advantage of … regret regret regret!!
2) 1990 Year I got married and wasn’t allowed to play guitar in the house any more.
3) Lots of free sex (till 1997 when I discovered it would cost me everything I owned!!! Bloody Ex Wife!!!)
4) 1997 Year of seperation and year I was allowed to play guitar in the house again! (1998 year of divorce! *sings* Oh Happy Day! Oh happy Day!)
5) 1998, year I did the dying act in hospital from loss of blood. (Still haven’t found a good use for that either!!!)
6) Great bands Nirvana etc (already mentioned)
7) Decade I paid for Pay TV that my Missus used to watch, and I wasn’t allowed to as she’d normally had seen everything and didn’t want me seeing it!!
8) Decade of High Distictions at University
9) Crazy Flatmate thretened me with a baseball bat because she felt she has to control people … friggin’ mad COW!!!
10) Decade I went Skydiving, white water rafting, etc etc because I was once again allowed to do what I wanted!
I think the decade of the 2000’s on will be much better for me! 🙂
Oh btw hor… I was wearing BOY LONDON pasar malam t-shirt with a BOY LONDON metal plate cap when I listen to all these shit, envying my friend’s Dr Marten boots…
beef stew: hahahhaa eww (guilty of knockoff BOY LONDON watch once upon a time)
This entry reminds me of my NO FEAR t-shirt. =P
Was doing some stupid stuffs in the 90s. LoL …
minishorts: photos blur coz of confidentiality purposes :p
Sashi: I thought Vanilla Ice was hot because of the movie Cool As Ice mah… the Ice Ice Baby, I thought was crap even at a young age 😛 Yeah I remember TV3 touting themselves the official station etc. Went on for quite some time, it was weird.
S: hehehehe okay but got a bit of Sporean influence coz we get Spore Tv
7- Kate Reyes on Perfect 10 98.7fm, her night spot
8- James Lye kekekekkekekekeke
9- guitar lessons. if i could go back i wouldn’t have stopped
10- Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart vs Undertaker in WWF.. WOO HOO!!!
Lil’ Patchee: And ‘Now that’s what I call music’
Ms Bloom: and Brad Renfro the bad boy
ST: I guess if you were in UK at that time, you couldn’t have escaped Blur/Oasis.
Pinky: What CDs? All cassettes!
Dee: They were short fellas, no?
ahseng: way back in the 70s or 80s I think
tEo: oO do I know you too?
Dabido: oh man.. different era :p
Beef Stew: I had a Boy London watch! Prolly fake, don’t remember. Swatch was huge though. then the Baby Shock blah
Bryan: and Converse was huge.
I’m a junior of urs back in both the primary and secondary. I doubt u know me. Maybe u do know my elder sis as she’s juz a year junior of u. However, if my memory didn’t fail me, u like dancing and always performed in those special events (Majlis Penyampaian Hadiah etc) during primary school, rite?
Btw, my mum knows ur mum.
I grew up in the era of BSB, 911 and the Spice Girls. Super cheesy? Yeah. But somehow a part of me missed those cheeky popstars.
I am an 80s baby. 80s babies ROXORRR!!!11oneone.
i had LOADS of smash hits magazines. my mom made me throw them out later on.
i love the 90s.
Fireangel: I can see you as a Baby with your Dire Straights / Duran Duran head band on now, with the giant Flock of Seagull hair doo and wearing one glove … Bwahahahahaha!!! 🙂
Oh and Suanie … CD’s came out in the 80’s I bought my first ones back then, and I remember talking about them in Music class in 1982!!! which was my last year of High School! Waaah!
I don’t think I was even buying Cassettes or Records in the 90’s anymore … in fact, 1990 I remember vinyl records were all on sale REALLY cheap as a lot of stores were no longer going to stock them!!!!
OMG OMG OMG! You just named all the 90 hit songs I haven’t thought about in years! And Seaquest was all I wanted to watch on TV at one time. And the SV series was all I wanted to read. And BSB … Oh, how I hate them now but how I loved them then. My cousin used to have her bedroom walls covered with 911 posters!
Wahaha! I suddenly feel like I’m 14 again.
ahhhh remembering the good old days, as I was pretty tempted in leaving a comment right after I saw the word ‘Oasis’ hehe. I do agree stuffs they have these days are shitcraps contrasting of what they have in the 90s. What’s The Story, Morning Glory and Be Here Now album are still and will always be my personal favourite although my mum and neighbours are not very fond of the noise. Especially memorable tracks like Roll With It, All Around The World, Stand By Me, Don’t Go away and many more. Nevertheless, great post you got there, Suanie. You certainly did a very good job by triggering the nostalgic mood in me 😀
tEo: scary how small the world is, eh? 🙂
sharina: oO I still keep mine. Dad was going to throw them up, and when Mom called me to tell me that, I was like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. So he didn’t. And history was saved 😀
Dabido: I was kinda broke as teens usually are to be buying CDs. All teenagers should be broke like meh, then they would appreciate audio CDs and mp3s.
Hsin: oh yeah I hate the BSB now heh.. but memories eh 😉
anthraxxxx: I didn’ really like ‘Be Here Now’, it was a bit like Coldplay’s XYZ after the last really fabulous album Parachutes. Oh well 😛
oh god! great post!