1994 was the cultural epicenter of the Xennials
I've had this thought for a while of trying to pinpoint what year was the cultural epicenter of our generation. I landed on 1994. It was a culturally significant year in many ways there are plenty of articles out there supporting that. I was torn between 1994 and 1995 but when comparing the two, especially music that came out that year, I went with 1994. Here's a not at all complete list I've been putting this together and checking the year as I go. Of course would love to see who agrees / disagrees and your arguments in support of / against (pick another year and explain why!) Also I'm sure I missed a lot so yeah add more.
EDIT: I made this a very U.S. centric post so apologies to friends elsewhere in the world.
First off, just a few movies including The Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, The Lion King, Speed, Clerks, Interview with the Vampire, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Flintstones movie, Maverick, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, True Lies, Natural Born Killers, Reality Bites, Stargate, Legends of the Fall, The Crow, Ed Wood, Quiz Show, Airheads
On TV we had Friends (NBC), ER (NBC), The Magic School Bus (PBS), My So-Called Life (ABC)All That (Nickelodeon), Sister, Sister (ABC), Frasier (NBC) The X-Files (Fox), Mad About You (NBC), NYPD Blue (ABC), The Simpsons (Fox), Beverly Hills, 90210 (Fox). Plus it was the year fX launched with live shows from the fX apt in NYC like Breakfast Time and The Pet Dept, Backchat and SoundFX plus other live shows, with live channel hosts all day. That was a damn cool channel for the first two years if you got to see it. Also launched were HGTV and TCM.
On the radio we had "I’ll Make Love to You" – Boyz II Men, "The Sign" – Ace of Base, "Stay (I Missed You)" – Lisa Loeb, "Hero" – Mariah Carey, "All I Wanna Do" – Sheryl Crow, "Breathe Again" – Toni Braxton, "Loser" – Beck, "Black Hole Sun" – Soundgarden, "Basket Case" – Green Day, "Regulate" – Warren G feat. Nate Dogg, "Creep" – Radiohead, "Shine" – Collective Soul, "I Swear" – All-4-One, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" – Elton John (from The Lion King), "Don’t Turn Around" – Ace of Base, "Another Night" – Real McCoy, "You Mean the World to Me" – Toni Braxton, "Secret" – Madonna, "Whatta Man" – Salt-N-Pepa feat. En Vogue, "Come Out and Play" – The Offspring, "Zombie" – The Cranberries, "Linger" – The Cranberries, "You Gotta Be" – Des’ree, "Fantastic Voyage" – Coolio, “I’ll Remember” - Madonna, “Back & Forth" - Aaliyah
And for albums the top ones were
- "Dookie" – Green Day
- "Superunknown" – Soundgarden
- "CrazySexyCool" – TLC
- "The Downward Spiral" – Nine Inch Nails
- "Illmatic" – Nas
- "Definitely Maybe" – Oasis
- "Ready to Die" – The Notorious B.I.G.
- "MTV Unplugged in New York" – Nirvana
- "Vitalogy" – Pearl Jam
- "Under the Pink" – Tori Amos
It was the year of Woodstock '94, Launch of the Sony PlayStation, The O.J. Simpson chase in the white Bronco and then the trial; MLB Strike which cancels the 1994 World Series. It was the year Netscape Navigator launched, Yahoo! was founded that year too. Also sadly the year we lost Kurt Cobain.
We were reading "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" – John Berendt, "High Fidelity" – Nick Hornby , "Disclosure" – Michael Crichton , "Insomnia" – Stephen King ---- for magazines Rolling Stone was dominated by grunge and alt rock. Spin was our second favorite. Entertainment Weekly was okay too.