Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton, the cigar, and the blue dress that never made it to the dry cleaners. Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas and the Coke can. Desert Storm and the Scud Stud. CNN and the 24-hour news cycle. The Rwandan Genocide. The Bosnian Genocide. Kosovo. Grunge mashed up heavy metal and punk and draped a torn flannel shirt over it. Riot grrls took third wave feminism and added electric guitars and explicit lyrics. And speaking of explicit lyrics, they put warning labels on rap CDs, helping sales under the law of unintended consequences. The 90s was the era of sex, lies and the Intertubes. James Cameron was king of the world. Disney started making animated classics again. They freed Nelson Mandela. Alternative music and indie film briefly took over, until the big corporations caught on and cashed in. A lot of us started thinking it might be worth it to pay more for organic. Scientists cloned a sheep – hello, Dolly. Al Gore started talking about something called ‘global warming.’ On TV we had Friends (hairdo: the Rachel), ER (hairdo: the Clooney) and, of course, Steve Urkel.
Here are some of my favorite films, books and music from the 1990s:
Favorite 90s Films
Short Cuts (Altman, 1993)
Before Sunrise (Linklater, 1995)
Being John Malkovich (Jonze, 1999)
Schindler’s List (Spielberg, 1993)
Magnolia (Anderson, 1999)
Happiness (Solondz, 1998)
Ed Wood (Burton, 1994)
Fargo (Coens, 1996)
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (Morris, 1997)
The Celebration (Vinterberg, 1998)
Groundhog Day (Ramis, 1993)
Lone Star (Sayles, 1996)
Microcosmos (Nuridsany/Pérennou, 1996)
Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)
Rushmore (Anderson, 1998)
Secrets & Lies (Leigh, 1996)
The Sweet Hereafter (Egoyan, 1997)
All About My Mother (Almodóvar, 1999)
Unforgiven (Eastwood, 1992)
Boogie Nights (Anderson, 1997)
The Apostle (Duvall, 1997)
American Beauty (Mendes, 1999)
Election (Payne, 1999)
Boys Don’t Cry (Peirce, 1999)
Brother’s Keeper (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 1992)
Favorite 90s Music
World Party Goodbye Jumbo (1990)
The Sundays Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (1990)
They Might Be Giants Flood (1990)
Sinéad O’Connor I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990)
Rosanne Cash Interiors (1990)
Franz Liszt Sonata in B minor (Pollini) (1990)
Erik Satie Erik Satie (Queffélec) (1990)
R.E.M. Out of Time (1991)
U2 Achtung Baby (1991)
Throwing Muses The Real Ramona (1991)
Johann Sebastian Bach Cello Suites (Rostropovich) (1991)
Elliott Carter The Four String Quartets (Juilliard Quartet) (1991)
R.E.M. Automatic for the People (1992)
Josquin Des Prés Missa “Ave maris stella”; Motets & Chansons (Taverner Consort & Choir/Parrott) (1992)
Aimee Mann Whatever (1993)
Liz Phair Exile in Guyville (1993)
Anonymous Adorate Deum: Gregorian Chant from the Proper of the Mass (Nova Schola Gregoriana/Turco) (1993)
PJ Harvey To Bring You My Love (1994)
Letters to Cleo Aurora Gory Alice (1994)
Johnny Cash American Recordings (1994)
John Dowland Complete Lute Works, Vol. 1 (O’Dette) (1995)
Alban Berg Wozzeck (Barenboim; Grundheber; Meier; Baker; Clark) (1994)
Dmitri Shostakovich String Quartets (Emerson String Quartet) (1994-1999)
Garbage Garbage (1995)
Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Emmylou Harris Wrecking Ball (1995)
Aimee Mann I’m With Stupid (1995)
Beck Odelay (1996)
Radiohead OK Computer (1997)
Sarah McLachlan Surfacing (1997)
The Sundays Static & Silence (1997)
Bob Dylan Time Out of Mind (1997)
Yo La Tengo I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (1997)
Garbage Version 2.0 (1998)
John Scofield A Go Go (1998)
Lucinda Williams Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998)
Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians (1998)
Wilco Summerteeth (1999)
Tom Waits Mule Variations (1999)
The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs (1999)
Jim Hall & Pat Metheny Jim Hall & Pat Metheny (1999)
Favorite 90s Books
David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest (1996)
Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things (1997)
Zadie Smith White Teeth (1999)
Daniel C. Dennett Consciousness Explained (1991)
Richard Fortey Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth (1997)
Philip Gourevitch We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda (1998)
Janet E. Browne Charles Darwin: Voyaging (1995)
Andrea Barrett Ship Fever: Stories (1996)
John McPhee Annals of the Former World (1998)
Norman Rush Mating (1991)
Tony Judt Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (1999)
Tim Riley Hard Rain: A Dylan Commentary (1992)
David McCullough Truman (1992)
Julia Cameron The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (1992)
Dennis Overbye Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Story of the Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe (1991)
Aljean Harmetz Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca–Bogart, Bergman, and World War II (1992)