‘The nineties were not an age for the aspirant…’
I was born, in the year of our Lord, 1987, and so, I grew up in the ’90s. As I was steeped in popular culture from a young age, I was very much aware of britpop and cool Britannia and all the rest of it. I just missed out on The Word, but I was an avid viewer of TFI Friday. Since leaving the ’90s, however, rather than facing forward towards a bold and exciting future, I have increasingly found myself turning back to the decade that made me for… what? Comfort? Familiarity? It’s difficult to say. Regardless, The Nineties – A Book, by Chuck Klosterman, is perhaps the definitive text on the decade. Obviously, I loved it…
Klosterman, an essayist and author, has published several non-fiction books on pop culture as well as writing for Esquire and The New York Times. In The Nineties, he covers music, cinema, television, art, politics, sports and fiction in a sprawling and Adam Curtis-esque deep dive into a decade that the world at large has become increasingly fascinated with. Klosterman’s dandelion mind can move from the concept of ‘selling out’, to the significance of Michael Jordan to the baffling success of country musician Garth Brooks, often within the same paragraph, and this scattershot approach ensures that The Nineties remains compelling throughout. He also examines how the modern perception of the decade is different to what people actually thought at the time in such a way that Klosterman convinces as an authority on the subject of the ’90s. His analysis here enabled me to view many events from that decade that seemed set in stone in my mind through a different lens – a fascinating and occasionally uncomfortable process.
The Nineties is more than just a nostalgia exercise, it’s a wide-ranging and comprehensive analysis that feels innovative and fresh whilst still reaching into the past.