Tomorrow

Over the years since starting Wasteland & Sky I've learned a few things. I must admit that they aren't things I expected to learn, but that's how life goes. They are takeaways, regardless. Times change, and so do thoughts and opinions. No one stays the same.

One truth remains and that is that there is no real end of history. The world goes on and on and eventually it will all end, but history itself doesn't. It's always going to be behind us, and we'll be taking it with us when we leave to wherever we have to go next. This doesn't mean the truth can't be hidden from us by parties with more power than we have, but it still doesn't change what actually happened and how it rolls out to affect the rest of the world. Regardless of if you believe the grass isn't green that doesn't suddenly mean it is now purple, even if you believe it is from the bottom of your heart. Wishes don't change anything.

The world is what it is, whether you take it or leave it.

As I've covered more than a few times here, there are plenty of people today who believe they are writing some grand narrative in their head that will refashion and alter reality to be the way they want it. Writers today are trained to do this. Whether it is by hating the audience and aiming for a fictitious replacement for them that exists only in their head, or by creating new "genres" out of their personal pet philosophies in order to conquer public discourse and warp minds, this isn't a new happening. It's just gotten far too accepted over the course of the 20th century. Keep the artist and the audience completely separate and don't be surprised when they have radically ideas of the definition of such simple terms such as "good" or even "reality." We're living in the ruins of such thought processes today in the post postmodern world.

Regardless, there was a time when art was created for the audience first and then everything flowed from there. Over time, however, as we've seen, slowly we've twisted definitions of words and group definitions to now make the customer the enemy, the original sources aberrations of the now "accepted" new canon, and the traditional morals and people that allowed all these things to be made to begin with as objectively evil and wrong groups who should be destroyed and spat on whenever the chance arises. In other words, everything is now backwards and we are just supposed to accept this new state of normality. All while depression, drug usage, and suicide, is constantly on the rise. It's a mad world, after all.

This is one of the reasons the 20th century is not going to be looked back well on at all in the future. When you look at all of this from a bird's eye view you can't see what is going on today as anything other than Clown World, where everything is stupid and falling apart at the seems. The main reason to not despair over this is the truth that Clown World can not continue on indefinitely. Despite how it might feel, and how long this inane modernity might be dragging on, the way things are will not last forever.

The times do seem to be getting worse just about every day in the modern age. You see it every day if you bother to watch the sensationalistic news or go near any of the corporate owned media franchises. It all consists of weaponry against normality and sanity, bent on making you a zealot for the here and now cause they decided at their whim. Hard to deny this if you've been paying attention for the last half decade or so. The people in charge hate and wish to control you, and will do just about anything to cause division with you and your neighbor and family in order to gain the authority position in your life. Things are getting nasty out there, and they are going to get nastier.

I'm certain you've heard much of the doom and gloom bathing everything, especially recently. For the last four years or so there appears to be a new crisis every few months. Aside from that hysteria, which is bad enough on its own, we can't even have any escapism to get away from it for even a few seconds. You see all sorts of comments from people with "power" and "prestige" the correct ways to create, despite they themselves not being able to create much at all. Even worse is some of the defeatism that comes out of even those who should know better to excuse the current state of things. These are people who will do anything to avoid moving on.

You've probably heard some of the following things said. No one reads anymore, so we shouldn't write. Everyone watches television movies in theatres streaming, so we should meet the audience where they are and pander to that. Video games are the future, but only certain types. Don't color outside the lines and do what is currently successful. Invest in something--as long as it's visual and Hollywood-like or on the internet, even though Hollywood is currently dying and the internet is being locked down as we speak. Whatever you do, you must keep up with the ever-changing modern world and meet the present where it is. Think about tomorrow by doing what is popular today.

But, that was yesterday.

The nonsense that has piled up over the last few years should prove one thing for most of us, and that is that the current way of things is already passing on. In an era defined by rushing to the newest thing at faster and faster rates throughout the past century, we've long since hit the wall. Nothing lasts for long, and everything is a flash in the pan. Everything.

Think of the last really popular new thing you know, by which I mean a phenomenon extremely popular among large swaths of people, and you won't find much, and what you do find is nothing that stuck around very long before the next new thing came around. We are always hunting for the next trend at faster and faster rates. We refuse to be satiated for even a moment.

This is not a sustainable way of creating art. It's just trend chasing for novelty and the next buzz. Nothing sticks for long because everyone is just looking for their next hit, the newest drug. If that is all art is going to be treated as, which is what it has been for some time now, then why bother making it at all? There is no point participating in a grinding conveyor belt machine of product meant for little more than another buzz before cranking out the next one.

I'm not talking about creating things quickly: the pulp era was a century ago and they worked fast. I'm talking about consuming it like it were alcohol then tossing it aside before instantly moving on to the next mug. Creating work meant to be disposed of and forgotten instantly after usage is not really creating: it's supplying. Art isn't a fix.

That isn't creating--that's supplying soma. There is no reason to be part of a system like that, especially when megacorps are already falling over themselves doing that for their personal streaming services and failing big bookstores. The big dogs are already pandering to the lowest common denominator as you read this. What is the point of independent and smaller works being created if they're just going to match this failing model that has no future?

We should think higher. Not in terms of high and low art, but in terms of what the art is meant to invoke in the first place. Consuming and disposing is not a purpose.

I know there are many artists of all mediums worried about relevance and success in the modern day, but they also appear to be missing the point of creating art to begin with. Much has to do with today's expectations, most of which are tied to the most popular pieces of their childhood from the 1970s through the 1990s. None of that takes into account that those years were an aberration on how art has worked throughout all of history, and that the era of your childhood is long over and currently a haunting specter over how everything works now. It appears a new perspective on this subject needs to be given: a perspective much older than any of us.

The first is a realization most probably don't want to hear. There is a very real possibility that you will never make much of anything off of your art in your lifetime, or that no one will read it as long as you breathe. It could very well happen.

This wasn't even that uncommon in the much imitated 20th century. H.P. Lovecraft died in poverty. Robert E. Howard's success mainly arrived decades after he had died. There are countless bands from the Velvet Underground to The Replacements that had no real success when they were around but became influential and known after they had already broken up. The JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series took multiple decades for it to crack success worldwide, mostly from a new anime adaption. Blade Runner was infamously a bomb in its original release before going on to become one of the most influential movies of the century. These are just a handful of examples.

In other words, obsessing over the here and now is missing the point, especially when one doesn't know what tomorrow will bring. Plenty of things do not take off how or when you wish they would. We work on God's schedule, not our own. You don't know what tomorrow will bring.

One of my favorite pieces on this subject is author John C. Wright's essay entitled "Your Book of Gold." It was one he had written years back that still sticks in my mind today.

The article states, in part:

"If you only write one book in your whole life, and only sell 600 copies or less, nonetheless, I assure you, I solemnly assure you, that this book will be someone’s absolutely favorite book of all time, and it will come to him on some dark day and give him sunlight, and open his eyes and fill his heart and make him see things in life even you never suspected, and will be his most precious tale, and it will live in his heart like the Book of Gold."

If even one person reads your book, or indulges in your art, for even a second, and they get something out of it: then it is a success. Do not concern yourself with numbers as you have limited control over those. Concern yourself for making your art all it can be. That is your job.

Art can do wonders to the soul, especially if it connects. Should you do your best to connect, then it is hard to imagine not being able to do so at least on some level.

This is, after all, the main point. Monetary reward is secondary. Yes, even with pulp writing. That doesn't mean it isn't important at all, but it is not first.

As an example, Weird Tales was a middling success when it was around. It did decently but had little in the way of budget and had to use tasteful nude covers to attract buyers. The market back then was tough, after all. Many authors left Weird Tales for higher paying markets like the splatter and shudder pulps to make more money. That was their prerogative--who knows how much they needed the money, after all.

However, Weird Tales is now looked back on as one of the most influential and important magazines of its time. Any author who ran in its pages is given automatic prestige today for being in it. Those higher paying magazines? All gone and forgotten: most never reprinted. But the work many thought would never get seen? It's highly sought after now. The magazine has such prestige that modern grifters think buying the name and slapping it against their modern stories gives them instant credibility. This wouldn't have happened without the passage of time.

You simply do not know the future. That is the point.

But Mr. Wright goes on:

"I write for that one reader I will never see, the one who needs just such a tale as I can pen, in just such a time and place, some rainy afternoon or dark hour, when providence will bring my book into his hands. And he will open it, and it will not be a book, but a casement, from which he will glimpse the needed vision his soul requires of a world larger than our own, or a star in a heaven wider and higher than ours, a star aflame with magic more majestic than any star mortal astronomers can name.

"I humbly but strongly suggest you write for that unknown reader also, and not for worldly praise, or influence, or self, or applause. The world flatters popular authors, and the clamor of the multitude of brazen tongues is vanity. It is dust on the wind. The unknown reader will greet your work with love. It is a crown of adamant, solid and enduring.

"You will never meet that one reader, not in this life. In heaven he will come to you and fall on his face and anoint your feet with tears of gratitude, and you will stand astonished and humbled, having never suspected."

The future is unknown, but one thing is for certain: what you do matters, even if you do not see the results tangibly in your lifetime, and even if it isn't much from your point of view. This all goes on after you are gone, after all. Everything you do effects someone else somehow in someway you will never see or experience in this world. This is what our art should reflect. That's just how the world is and always was.

And I take that seriously.

I had a dream not too long ago. In fact, this was being added to the post when I woke from it. This was not the sort of dream I tend to have, so I found it best to write it down here. It is very relevant to the changing world around us.

What I remember was bizarre because it came oddly clear to me. I was in the mall of my youth, most of the stores were now gone and replaced with either empty rooms or far inferior establishments with little to be seen in them aside from old paint jobs and sparse décor like a handful of white curtains on the walls (there were no windows). There were few to no people in any of the shops, it was so empty you could hear the footsteps echoing down the halls. The parking lot outside was also almost barren with around two cars to be seen. There remained an odd feeling of smallness as I looked over it all where it once seemed so big when I was a child.

Speaking of the outside, it was even more odd than the mall. Half the stores across the street were also closed, either being rebuilt or constructed, or simply taken down. The road itself hadn't been repaved recently, crumbling quite badly after decades of neglect. The people nearby were confused at the world around them, the one they knew so well and so long, appeared to be going away. And sure enough, in real life, it was and is.

The entire experience reminded me of the song "Sunstroke" by the band Less Than Jake. The subject is one I think is more relevant today than ever.

When did I become

A tourist in the city I got my name from?

How did construction sites

Rise up on streets with shoes tied to old power lines?

And I'll never question why

Or where I draw the line

I'm too stubborn to decide

It's like living on a fault line

And I'm too stubborn to decide

The old saying goes

You're only missed when you start to like being alone

I'm left here in a pose

With steel beams and the fact that I'm just flesh and bone

And I'll never question why

Or where I draw the line

I'm too stubborn to decide

It's like living on a fault line

And I'm too stubborn to decide

That song was about Gen X getting older and realizing the world they grew up in was physically gone, and only really exists now in their memory. It was more metaphorical when it was written nearly a decade ago. The difference today is that these things are vanishing a lot more quickly and are more noticeable in scope and frequency.

The thing is, the real life area of the above dream is not too far from actually looking like this. Most of the places near where I grew up are long gone and paved over. It's now a patchwork of badly-aged brutalist buildings both empty and barely functional, mid-20th century megacorp franchises that just won't die, and rusted steel and badly paved roads that haven't been touched up since I was a grade schooler. It's fairly dead, and it isn't ever coming back.

It's all part of yesterday. There is no tomorrow coming for them.

Outside of that dream, I had been thinking about several other areas just like it for some time now. I remember what these places were like when they were full of people, of actual life, decades ago, where now walks almost no one, empty lots of torn up pavement with grass growing through the cracks, and barred windows under old, unclean signs. The dream might not have been the exact reality, but it definitely represented what had happened to it quite well. At the rate we're going, the place I grew up in will be a ghost town within a decade.

This is the bigger point here. All the things that were prosperous so long ago are dying now. That era is over.

You never know what the future is going to hold. This is why the current obsession with trying to be big today, in the here and now, when things are at their bleakest and rot covers everything like a disease-infested blanket, is a losing game. Being king of the junkpile might feel good for a few minutes before you are dethroned by the next flash in the pan constantly being rotated in by our fast moving ADD culture. You are missing the forest for the trees trying to fit work of vitality and life into a climate that is on its death bed and falling apart at an astonishing speed. Aim higher than modernity's mediocrity. You're going to have to, at this point.

If your work is truly relevant in a culture of destruction then no one will pay it any mind today regardless. Most modernists are too busy consuming the things that are killing them to even notice. A smaller, more discerning group will be looking for what you offer--and they might not even find you in your lifetime. There is no way to know. But they will never find you if they're trying to get away from the dross that chased them away from your genre or medium to begin with, while you stay behind reveling in it hoping for kudos instead. This is backwards.

You're going to have to aim higher than this; there is no choice but to do it. Get better, go big, and do what you've got to do. Floating with the stream isn't going to get you ahead; you're going to have to risking sinking by swimming hard.

This is the way it's going to be in the roaring '20s. We no longer have much in the way of safety nets of reliable plans going forward. All the roadmaps are for roads that no longer exist and places long since torn down. The systems we thought would always be there are on their last legs. The world you knew is more or less over.

So many of us asked for this, and here it is: tomorrow. The page has been turned, and there is no turning it back. The sun has set on the old world.

What will you do, in the meantime? There is a lot coming down the turnpike, many of which will be ignored or forgotten out of the gate. Perhaps this new thing will eventually hit later, perhaps it will only hit a niche group. The point is that this material will be new, not rehashed or rewarmed leftovers from some stale zombie age that refuses to die. Will you cling to this moldy carcass forever, or will you finally let it go and bury it in the grave it belongs? Whatever our decision is, it will impact what comes next.

Let us then make it something to remember, then. Let us finally make a step forward and away from these endless mistakes of a century that won't die. We can do this. We just need to finally out the past where it belongs.

This was one of the reasons I assembled the free book on Generation Y. We are 25 years divorced from Cultural Ground Zero and the bottom is finally falling out of the old world. This book is the final word on this undying era, and it will hopefully let us move on to what awaits us ahead. Generation Y might be defined by the past, but we can use that to build a new future that expands on it, instead of living in the scraps of a world that has been over for a long time now. 

There is no Star Trek utopia coming, no matter how much useless lore one spouts about it--the 20th century is done, as are its visions of utopia. We're going to need larger dreams moving forward. Better ones.

This doesn't mean that we throw the past away. Of course not since the past can't be killed. However, we are going to need new things to aim for, more than the temporal, more than the here and now, more than visions of unrealistic materialist utopias that will clearly never arrive, and more than corporate product. There is more to shoot for than the same mistakes of the bloodiest century on record repeated indefinitely forward.

Even though there is no end of history, times do in fact end. New eras begin as others fade into the past. We are at that point right now, and it is about time.

Tomorrow is here. I can't wait to see what this new day brings.

Have you been feeling down, pushed around

Feeling like everything has been done before?

Do I need to understand every word from every man

Or everything from every band?

Can I say it's all been done before?

Religion, science, similes to metaphors

Can it be that there's nothing new

When there's more ways of looking at the truth?

Of looking at the truth...

The more things seem to change

The more they just stay the same

But now it's called a different name

Can you say things are new

When you look at magazines

And things you've seen in the news?

And can I say it's all been done before?

Religion, science, similes to metaphors

Can it be that there's nothing new

When there's more ways of looking at the truth?

Of looking at the truth...

It's 4:00 AM

And I just passed the westside buildings, all the broken glass

As I try to shake the cold away, but anyways

It's late at night and I'm about to crack

And decide to just walk the tracks

That I just walked yesterday

But have I been thinking too much tonight

When I realize just how my life's gone by

I check the time!

It's 4:00 AM

And I just passed the westside buildings, all the broken glass

As I try to shake the cold away, but anyways

It's late at night and I'm about to crack

And decide to just walk the tracks

That I just walked yesterday

But have I been thinking too much tonight

When I realize just how my life's gone by

I check the time!

It's 4:00 AM

And I just passed the westside buildings, all the broken glass

As I try to shake the cold away

But I'm okay.

Check out these stories of adventure and rock n roll!

The Devil in Our DNA

Tomorrow isn't destined to come, and neither are you destined to be the way you are. However, sometimes it's tough to notice that, especially when you are young.

I've never met anyone who doesn't consider their teenage years the worst part of their life. It's a miserable time after the excitement and discovery of one's youth, and before the self-reflection and clarity that adulthood offers to put that mess in perspective. It's an in-between time that, especially in the modern world, feels like the time when lies are actualized in one's personality as a tool needed to forge a way in the uncaring world. I know I've seen many learn the hard lessons the wrong way and either went all in on sin and "success" or gave up hope that this life was worth the living, all from the life lessons they were taught during that second decade of their lives.

My generation of Gen Y either blames the Boomers or the Millennials for all of this, even if they don't say it. The former for pulling the rug out from under them at the worst possible moment, and the latter for sliding into their place as the golden child generation overnight. The main thing is that they were memory-holed overnight by a culture they were told would be there for them as long as they pulled up their bootstraps. Like everything else, it turned out to be a lie. What this did was create a lost generation of boys and girls fashioned to be cogs in a machine that switched to operating by microchips at the eleventh hour. We are the last generation to have an analog childhood, and it is still what defines us to this day. This goes beyond products. It's not something that can be easily conquered, especially in an atomized, uncaring world.

However, as much as we might claim that we love our time as children and worship the products and brands we were showered in back then, the truth of the matter is that our childhood years did not define us. Gen Y fights to reclaim those years, not because they were the best years of their lives, but because they know what came after them. The faceoff with reality that was their teenage and young adult years is what made Gen Y what they are today, and what they have spent the majority of their adult lives trying to avoid. They have rejected your reality and replaced it with their own.

Think about it. Why is it always '80s and '90s brands that get nostalgic play, despite it only forming a small segment of their lives? Gen Y was between the ages of ten and twenty when the year 2000 rolled around, and yet they never acknowledge what came later unless its already attached to a brand they grew up on. That was over 20 years ago, a full two thirds of their lives have gone by since then, but it isn't what they focus on. It only focuses on a small window. Sure, part of the reason is that Post-9/11 world of art was pure garbage, but it is still a denial of a large chunk of their past.

I would submit that Gen Y retreated to their childhoods because of what they experienced after they graduated from high school was nothing but lies and wild inaccuracies, and no one would admit this or offer a sensible explanation as to how to deal with this. So an entire generation simply rejected the world and retreated into their own.

My perspective might be a bit skewed since, outside of the usual Gen Y experience, my teenage years actually were the worst years of my life. Beyond typical teenage problems, my personal life melted down long before the Gen Y dream was shattered. Personally, I believe this ended up being a better thing in the end, to learn that you can't trust family, friends, and institutions, just because of their labels. However, it was also awkward dealing with a reality that known of my peers yet knew existed and were stubborn in that they knew better. By the time they realized the truth, it was too late to do anything about it. This is what drove me to experience Gen X art a few years early while my peers were telling themselves that Friends was good actually.

Most of the indie and underground art in the the late '80s through the late '90s was made by Gen X, and it is what I began to gravitate towards. To me, it looked like they understood the truth. The world was broken in some way I didn't understand, there was something wrong with me I couldn't quite grasp, and that no one seems to notice any of this. Things were simply getting better, even as they clearly weren't.

Of course, this was the mentality for the younger generations at the time. Without any real tradition or stability gifted to them from the older generations before them, confusion and searching bordered on and threatened to become nihilism and despair. Most of Gen Y just simply jumped to the latter once they learned they were on their own.

I listened to alternative music before any of my peers did. The first album I bought was Oasis' [What's the Story] Morning Glory? in elementary school and it only went on from there. I'd always been big into rock music, but the boomer rock my parents and relatives reveled in never did it for me. Alternative was exciting and new, so I stuck close to it, especially since it was being made by those just a generation older than I was. It felt like I had someone to connect to on a deeper level.

However, I must confess that I couldn't shake one thing. As a kid, the Stray Cats had introduced me to rockabilly and their lead singer, Brian Setzer, also introduced me to swing music as a teenager, and in the process sparked a love of pre-boomer rock and pop music that still flourishes today. Part of the tradition of rock music is that it is meant to make you move: to dance. While blues was introspective and slow, rock was meant to make you throw off your cares and move. As much as I dug alternative: it didn't make you want to dance. There was something missing in this music that I couldn't shake.

Luckily, I was also a gamer. Because even though I was big into alternative and older rock, I could never quite bridge that gap. That is, until I played a game called Street Sk8er in 1998. Inside, I finally met the genre that gave me what I wanted--a music that was both alternative, and wanted you to dance. Something that attempted to bridge that gap.

If you were around during that era then you know what I'm referring to. That would be ska music, specifically the Third Wave Ska Revival that was so hated by critics.

The game included three ska songs, The Pietasters' Out All Night, a soul/ska ditty from an album I still enjoy greatly, but it's the other two that stuck with me longer. This would be the two songs from Less Than Jake called Sugar in Your Gas Tank and All My Best Friends Are Metalheads that opened my eyes to this new genre. The former was a song that mashed moshing and dancing in a song I would later learn was considered ska-punk, but the latter was a bonafide power pop ska number with punk influence that ended up being the band's most well known song, and for good reason. They scratched an itch a lot of us didn't know we had.

If you know anything about the band or the genre, then you probably know this song. It was never a proper single at the time, for a reason that will become clear later, but that didn't stop it from getting radio play and inclusion in movies and video games. In fact, All My Best Friends Are Metalheads, along with Goldfinger's Superman, it is a song that received most of its popularity from being included in video games.

In many ways it was a signal of the changes to come in the entertainment industry. Underestimate gaming at your own peril. It was the last converged industry for a reason.

Near a million and a half views on youtube, for a reason

This isn't going to be a post on the genre itself, though. I more or less already made one. My love affair with third wave ska was short-lived as the genre was soon dumped by the major labels for the mistake that was nu metal, and the majority of third wave ska bands sold out to become emo, dropped their horns and pretended they could play tired pop punk, or just quietly walked way from music altogether. The industry said this music shouldn't be played anymore, and the bands nodded along to their masters. It was another wake up call.

And this wasn't just a problem with ska. Too many bands I thought were cool, independent, and edgy, ended up being poseurs trying to sell an image. Life was meaningless, man, but that doesn't mean we can't make a few bucks out of it, or tell you that you should pointlessly care about things anyway. Before the empty humanism of social justice and New Sincerity there was the carefully crafted rocker image designed to suck money out of your ennui and defeatist view of the world. It's a shame, but they wouldn't do it if it didn't work.

However, that isn't really what happened with Less Than Jake, a band that is getting ready to celebrate its 30th year together. They existed in this era, but they represent a better part of it. If a band can be stated to "evolve" without it sounding like an excuse to trend hop, it would be LTJ. To explain, I should start from the beginning.

The band formed in 1992 as a power pop trio with punk leanings (you can hear it in the song Big from their first album, which was the first one they ever wrote) but soon discovered the underground scene and the then-burgeoning ska music. They quickly brought on a sax and trombone player, got a new bassist, and were ready to go. And it should be mentioned, outside of their saxophone player who left and was replaced in 1996, and other additional horn players that came and left outside the original two, this was the same lineup they held for about 25 years. For any band, never mind a genre like ska, that is an impressive feat. Suffice to say, they believe in what they are doing.

While Operation Ivy was the first band to successfully combine 1980s punk with ska music, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones with metal and rock, Less Than Jake was a puree blend of power pop, punk, and ska, where they could go through all three, or only one, in a song, and have it sound just like only they could. They never really broke from this sound, despite clearly being egged on to do it.

After putting out some early EPs and 7'' records in the early '90s, they finally managed to scrape together enough support to put out a debut album. This is where they managed to solidify their sound, and they did it just before the genre exploded from the underground. In 1995, Pezcore came out, which is an album that grabbed them a lot of attention, including a record deal.

It doesn't mean they were polished or the best musicians since "punk" means you can't really be, but even early on you can hear they had good pop songwriting chops. A lot of hard work would eventually get them to success. Starting as a fledgling independent band, they were even told by punk "industry" clowns that they shouldn't quit their day jobs.

Suffice to say, they've outlived most of those hacks by now.

An example of their early work

But their hard work did yield success. LTJ would go on to release 1996's Losing Streak, still considered one of the defining albums of ska-punk, before finally mastering their power pop ska blend with 1998's Hello Rockview and yielding the biggest songs of their career. 1997 also saw them have a song on the Good Burger soundtrack called We're All Dudes, sung by the movie's star, Kel Mitchel. For all intents and purposes, they had made it. Remember, this was just before the recording industry killed itself. Less Than Jake got in under the wire.

But I don't think the lyrics the band attaches to their fast-paced and bouncy songs is really given near enough credit for their success. Written by drummer Vinnie, they aren't quite what you would expect from a power pop, punk, or ska, band. In fact, they feel more like general musings on life as a Gen Xer at the time they were written.

Take the above example in Time and a Half/Econolodged, which are two different songs the band later mashed together for live shows and in the edit I made above. These are two of their earliest songs, written in the early '90s, and this is what they say:

Time and a Half/Econolodged

It was a cold December on 2nd Ave and 6th Street (and 6th Street!)

Too cold to think about anybody passing me (passing me!)

When I overheard "I'm gonna tell you straight from the shoulder . . . (shoulder!)

"Boy . . . You better get running!"

On the corner of 2nd and 6th and out of time,

With a cough, feeling lost, and a bottle of cheap wine,

Just then I realized that I can't seem to understand,

When I saw that guy heading for the dopeman.

It's just the same old story on the same old street,

And it's just another worn down, worn out casualty,

On 2nd Ave and 6th Street.

On the corner of 2nd and 6th and feeling down (down!)

When I overheard "I'm gonna take a gun and take you out" (take you out!)

Just then I realized that I can't seem to understand (understand!)

How anyone can take the life of another man!

It's just the same old story on the same old street,

And it's just another worn down, worn out casualty,

On 2nd Ave and 6th Street.

Let's get it up,

My life spent round the clock,

Got me running on a treadmill with no time to stop,

And competition puts a price on time,

When I see the people who've been left behind,

Step on the people who've been left behind,

Competition puts a price on time.

Man, I'm all I've got, 

Like it or not, 

I'm all I've got (I'm just Econolodged!)

Man, I'm all I've got,

Like it or not, 

I'm all I've got (I'm just Econolodged!)

Man, I'm all I've got,

Like it or not,

I'm all I've got.

Suffice to say, I have been listening to this band for over 20 years and this, one of their earliest songs, is still one of my favorites. It captures a time and place, a feeling, and a mood, that could only have come from when it was written . . . even if what it was written about still exists today. Atomization and the cost of material success has lead to the imploding city in the first half of the song, working "Time and a Half" to get this state while being "Econolodged" in life with nowhere else to go because material success and individuality are the only escapes, both of which lead to the same place. Hard to believe they were barely in their twenties when that was written.

But they only improved from there was they went on, and the times changed. Even Gen X kids had to grow up eventually. Though that doesn't mean the song isn't true, because it is. But life is about more than the bad side, and LTJ realized that as they grew. There are things to be thankful for.

While it has been said the rest of the guys were the heart of the band, Vinnie was definitely the brains. Their catchy hooks bring you in the door, but their lyrics keep you there. Part of the point of rock music, which was inherited by blues, is that it is a way to blow off steam and recharge your batteries. Gen-Xers in the early '90s were still trying to understand the world melting down around them, which is how they managed to connect so easily with the younger generation who just didn't get it yet. Unfortunately, they lost that appeal when they started proposing solutions that were somehow worse than the broken things they were complaining about.

I noticed a disturbing trend in success in regards to Gen X music, and it has made me pessimistic on a lot of it looking back. Most Gen X music centered on "the world is bad" then eventually translated into being "if we fix the world we will be happy" as a conclusion. This meant bands even popular with Gen Xers never quite hit mainstream acceptance. For example, The Replacements, whose front-man, the Catholic Paul Westerberg, eventually posited what was wrong with the world was him . . . and the mainstream just doesn't take to that message very well.

Less Than Jake, being honest, soon found this road as well, and it might have led to their downfall, at least as far as mainstream or "industry" cool kid acceptance goes. Unlike most Gen X bands that are still going, they only managed to improve.

While their early work was about trying to navigate a broken world, as early as their second album, Losing Streak, they began to question themselves as well. The very first lyric in the very first song is "I think I know it all," which turns into a song about living life on automatic and assuming things purely because it is easy, before the narrator wonders if he thinks he knows it all because he's trained himself to believe he has the answers. Later in the album comes the earlier mentioned Sugar in Your Gas Tank about how you can't fix the world if you can't fix yourself. The band was changing rather fast, and it only stands to reason that so would their sound. Losing Streak was their final ska-punk album before the band finally reinjected power pop into their sound.

With Hello Rockview they hit the peak of their powers. Every song is full of hooks, and they have shifted their sound to be more of a power pop/ska blend with some punk flair to keep it spiky and spicy. As a result, every track is memorable and easily distinguishable just from the opening bars. It is still their best album to this day, because you could tell they knew exactly what they wanted to achieve.

Lyrically, however, it is a breakthrough for Vinnie. He is someone who now fully understands much of what is wrong with the world is that we have an inner beast, a demon, that prevents us from fully changing everything for the better. The album is a loose concept album (with the songs out of order because you can't put the depressing or slower songs at the front) based on his life at the time. Heck, the album title comes from a childhood friend being then recently sent to Rockview Penitentiary. It's the meta-story surrounding the lyrics that make them even more interesting.

Hello Rockview is about someone who grows up in his small town and thinks that is what is holding him back from the greater things in life. If he could get away from the bad people and things, everything would just work out. He then goes out into the world and meets people all over with similar and worse problems than him, and comes to an understanding that everyone has their own devils they are battling. He would do better to go home and fix his own life instead of running from it and pretending the solution is to turn away from the way the world is. The conclusion to this journey is essentially the song linked near the top of the post with All My Best Friends Are Metalheads, their most popular song to date.

In case you need the lyrics, here they are:

Do you think its strange, 

That there's a way,

Of how you looked, and how you act, and how you think,

Pretend they're not the same as you.

Do you know about her strength in convictions,

Or how she puts all her faith in religion?

Did we take the time to really discover,

How little we know about each other?

Keep us from saying anything,

Can't separate from everything,

And all this really means is,

You're one in a crowd,

And you're paranoid with every sound,

You're not the friend you won't miss anyhow.

Yes, that was released in 1998. It reads like a message needed more in 2021 than it did back then, but the band had a way of writing lyrics that didn't feel like preaching but in trying to connect their ideas to the listener. Just like art is supposed to do. As a consequence, this is still one of my favorite songs of all time, and I'm not certain it will become anything else as time goes on. It has their catchiest hooks and their most striking lyrics. If the major labels didn't hate ska at the time it might have even been the hit single it should have been. But, no, it was up to video games to do that instead.

It only stands to reason that with this album that had hit the peak of their powers. They finally perfected both the sound and the lyrics they were trying to go for since they started. Clearly it was only uphill from this point forward.

But then the music industry imploded. 1998 was bad year for a lot of things. Ska was no longer allowed to be played on radio, autotune and sanded off guitars began to overtake rock music, and the slew of mergers killed many bands' careers overnight. Less Than Jake was almost one of these bands, though apparently they instead took their next album, Borders & Boundaries, to the independents themselves instead of having it put out by a record company that didn't seem to care about what they were doing. This might have proven a good idea, because Borders & Boundaries was not a good album so it being independent did not end up hurting their careers.

I know there are LTJ fans who love this album now, but the disappointment at the time existed for a very good reason coming after Hello Rockview. It's not even close to as good, and I think even those who like the album would admit that. There are a few problems which can be laid out with one main issue: It was an attempt at a glossy power pop album by a band still trying to play rough punk.

There is almost no ska on the album, and what is there is minimal. The album borders on being overproduced with screeching, smooth guitars dominating everything not unlike a major label rock song from the era. The songwriting is jerky, without the ska to bounce off of the band doesn't quite know how to stick a landing without throwing awkward distortion over it. The hooks are buried and muted because most of the songs are too fast and loose to be power pop and too smooth and produced to be punk. The album is a jumbled mix of pieces that do not fit together. It's an identity crisis put to wax, or disc.

And the lyrics, unfortunately, are also a step back. Actually, I can't even say they are a step back, because that would imply they receded to being as good as Losing Streak or even Pezcore. Those lyrics were about things that mattered to the person who wrote them. It isn't that Borders & Boundaries' lyrics are badly written, but that they aren't really about anything. The best songs on the album (Look What Happened, Magnetic North, Gainesville Rock City, and Faction) are about things Vinnie had already written about before, and feel like a step back emotionally and come very close to cliché. There is nothing on the level of a Short on Ideas/One Last Cigarette, Shindo, Lockdown, or Help Save the Youth of America from Exploding. Neither is there anything as fun and loose as We're All Dudes, Five State Drive, Liquor Store, or Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts. The album is just a misstep in every way that counts.

However, something strange then happened. The pop punk explosion occurred in the early '00s, led by Blink 182 and Green Day, and several bands that were signed to majors in the '90s suddenly got a second chance at the plate. Less Than Jake was one of them, and they signed up to a new label. This started a new era in their career. As usual, it didn't quite go the way you would think.

Less Than Jake's history after this point is bizarre, to say the least. The band's sound was definitely pushed to sound more commercial, but they instead leaned harder on their power pop side than ever before. While the industry wanted pop punk and emo, LTJ didn't really deliver it to them. Instead they finally buckled down and pushed their sound forward and finally reached what they were struggling to reach a few years before in 2000 with Borders & Boundaries.

As a result, they finally became the power pop band they essentially wanted to be way back in 1992. They also did this amidst a cultural low and an industry crash. Their works during this era, Anthem, B is for B-Sides, In with the Out Crowd, and the Absolution for Idiots & Addicts EP showed a band trying to push forward into new territory despite an industry attempting to push them the other way. It was an awkward time to be following the band because you could feel the tension in everything they put out, but like a good band should they used it to put fire into their songs.

For instance, B is for B-Sides exists because Anthem had more tracks than what ended up on the album, some of which were far better than ended up on said album. Why? Because they were ska. Did you forget that record labels hated ska, at this point? The label cut the horns out of radio singles, and even an entire sax part of the one ska song they were actually allowed to release as a single. On In with the Out Crowd, the producer made them slow the songs down and added a pop punk gloss on the production along with a song co-written with Blink 182's Mark Hoppus. As a result, a band that was clearly moving forward was also being held hostage by its own label. Remember when labels were supposed to help bands reach their potential? That era was over by the mid-00s.

Much of how the band felt during this period was expressed on the song We, the Uninspired from their Absolution for Idiots & Addicts EP.

Hey, Miss 'Die A Little'

Cuts and bruises will always heal

But you still pick your poisons

When you dream of alcohol and pills

Hey, Miss 'Die A Little'

How do you expect yourself to live?

Punch me awake, we're the uninspired

There'll be no white flags over the heads

Of the sick and tired

This world is for the living not the dead

But we're still the uninspired

Hey Mr. 'Always Wonder'

Why's the inside of your head so filled?

Lest you can't see your future

Through all the walls that you've ever built

Hey Mr. 'Always Wonder'

How do you expect yourself to live?

Punch me awake, we're the uninspired

There'll be no white flags over the heads

Of the sick and tired

Maybe it's the standing still that kills

What's alive inside us?

This world is for the living not the dead

But we're still the uninspired

March me in with the rank and file

Bury me in deep denial

I'll sit here and gladly smile

With the rest of the uninspired

Punch me awake, we're the uninspired

There'll be no white flags over the heads

Of the sick and tired

Maybe its the standing still that kills

What's alive inside us?

This world is for the living not the dead

But we're still the uninspired

We're the uninspired.

This era, as mentioned later by members, nearly killed the band. You can very clearly understand why that is. Sonically they were finding themselves, but the record label pushed against them the whole way and nearly knocked them off course.

However, one member that wasn't burdened by this was the lyricist. Vinnie, after stumbling a bit with Borders & Boundaries retreading of old subjects in familiar ways, made that next step in this era. He moved on from wondering about the state of the world then to himself into trying to help the younger generation to avoid the mistakes he made. As you can tell by the above lyrics, he was attempting to use his own experiences as a way to move past where he was stuck.

This is most prevalent in their biggest actual single and the song that kept Anthem on the billboard charts for a long time even when nothing else on it sounded like them. The Science of Selling Yourself Short is rare in that it was a ska song released in the '00s that was a hit and not smothered by the record company or radio. It literally proved them wrong about everything: audiences liked and wanted ska and that the only stigma that existed came from the industry itself. Essentially it proved what we knew: the labels had no idea what they were doing.

It was also the perfect song to show just how far the band had come, and show how much potential they still had. Vinnie used his misspent youth as a warning sign to the younger generation, and as a way to realize important things about himself.

If you've heard a second song by this band, it was probably this one. For good reason.

The Science of Selling Yourself Short

I've come to my senses,

That I've become senseless,

I could give you lessons on how to ruin your friendships,

Every last conviction, I smoked them all away,

I drank my frustrations down the drain, out of the way.

So I sit and wait and wonder,

"Does anyone else feel like me?"

Someone so tired of their routines 

And disappearing self-esteems.

I'll sing along,

Yeah, with every emergency,

Just sing along,

I'm the king of catastrophies,

I'm so far gone,

That deep down inside I think it's fine by me,

That I'm my own worst enemy.

I could be an expert on co-dependency,

I could write the best book on underage tragedy,

I've been spending my time at the local liquor store,

I've been sleeping nightly on my best friend's kitchen floor.

So I sit and wait and wonder,

"Does anyone else feel like me?"

I'm so over-dosed on apathy and burnt out on sympathy.

I'll sing along,

Yeah, with every emergency,

Just sing along,

I'm the king of catastrophies,

I'm so far gone,

That deep down inside I think it's fine by me,

That I'm my own worst enemy.

Let the meaning slip away,

Lost my faith in another day,

Self-deprecation seems okay,

I never thought I'd make it anyway.

I'll sing along,

Yeah, with every emergency,

Just sing along,

I'm the king of catastrophies,

I'm so far gone,

That deep down inside I think it's fine by me,

That I'm my own worst enemy.

I'm my own worst enemy.

During this period Vinnie had been making great strides in his lyrics, but most of his focus appeared to be on the question of what actually is wrong with him on a fundamental level. Is there a devil in your DNA that causes you to do bad, or do you have personal responsibility? Even if you do believe in self-improvement, why do we always end up at square one when we least expect it? Is there something inside we are missing?

Many of his lyrics include searching for truth or finding your way in a broken world, but he still has yet to find solutions, most of which he readily expresses in the songs. Since this is a period where most rock lyrics summed up to being "Bush bad, God bad", it is refreshing that someone maintained a clear picture of what really mattered.

They never fell to the embarrassing lows of Goldfinger or the sellout cashing in of NoFX in the '00s, but instead wanted to find the truth. They didn't take the easy out so many did by demonizing someone else to find an easy explanation for their problems. In fact, I can't think of a single Less Than Jake song that is a rant against anything other than your own mistakes, everything they write about is for something.

Needless to say, once the band's major label contract ran out, so did they in 2006. As The Hives said, the industry was basically already dead by that point in time, anyway. They had nothing left to offer bands anymore that they couldn't get on their own. Less Than Jake were actually almost dead from their experience there.

However, they quickly rebounded with a unique idea. How about a series of shows where they play all their albums front to back? They can even perform it in their hometown. So, they did. Over a week in 2006 they played a series of concerts playing the entirety of Pezcore, Losing Streak, Hello Rockview, Borders & Boundaries, Anthem, and In with the Out Crowd, as well as rare songs and fan requests for encores. They ended up playing over 100 songs and reigniting the passion they had for playing music. They remembered why they were doing this to begin with. The band followed this up with a new album that came out in 2008, their first true independent album since 1995.

Unfortunately, the resulting album, GNV FLA (named after Gainesville, Florida) has a very common problem that holds it back from standing up with their best work.

You see, when bands went from the majors back to the indies in the late '90s and '00s, they all suffered from a similar issue. The band would try to "go back to basics" and throw out everything they had learned at the majors, thereby creating an album that feels forced and more artificial than the ones the bands put out on said major labels. Think about any band you know that did this and realize that their first album after leaving the majors is never your favorite one. This is always the reason why. It's never a natural progression, or even a holding pattern. It's always an inorganic regression.

Less Than Jake didn't escape this curse. They attempted to make a ska-punk album not fully aware that they were no longer a ska-punk band, and hadn't been since 1998 or so, which makes the resulting album feel very by-the-numbers and standard. Vinnie later said the same in how it is his least favorite LTJ album because it doesn't really sound organic or natural. The problems, however, are all sonically, lyrically they are as strong as ever and some of the songs still stand out quite well. It's also not a bad album, unlike many similar albums from other bands. It's just not much better than okay.

Lyrically, Vinny attempts to go back to the past in a different way. The album is called GNV FLA, and that's what the lyrics are mainly about. People who live and grew up in Gainesville and where they are now and what they're doing. He also spares a song for the plight of Detroit, wondering just how it could get so bad. The album essentially about the lives of normal people going about their day. But the lyrical highlight comes in what might be his best set of lyrics so far.

One thing the band always excelled at was that the closing track was always a barnburner. Every album they put out, the closing track is among the strongest they've written, by far. Even on a weaker album like this, the power pop anthem Devil in My DNA still stands tall. Essentially nailing everything he had been trying to express since he started as the Gen X kid trying to make his way in this world, the song sums up everything he's learned since then quite aptly.

When is common sense too much to ask?

And then when did consequences get left in the past?

Is it just bad habits or a typical script?

Is it all big plans then a hit and a miss?

Can I say my influence comes by design?

Or is science and cigarettes my compromise?

I don't know but I'm blaming everyone else,

Just as long as I never put the blame on myself.

Cause I know, I've wasted way too many times,

Living way too many lies,

How can this be my fault? 

I'm always right!

There's a devil in my DNA,

Programmed parts from all the start,

Or is there no one else to blame?

For my tangled up gears and my turnstile jobs,

Fact is, I'm just a living sum of all my parts!

When do instructions come with a catch?

And when is self-destruction just proven as a fact?

Is it just blind faith or the family name?

Is it all by chance or completely ingrained?

Can I say it's an imbalance of the chemical kind?

Or is my environment my only disguise?

I don't know but I'm blaming everyone else,

Just as long as I never put the blame on myself.

Cause I know, I've wasted way too many times,

Living way too many lies,

How can this be my fault? 

I'm always right!

There's a devil in my DNA,

Programmed parts from all the start,

Or is there no one else to blame?

For my tangled up gears and my turnstile jobs,

Fact is I'm just a living sum of all my parts!

Cause I know, I've wasted way too many times,

Living way too many lies,

How can this be my fault? 

I'm always right!

There's a devil in my DNA,

Programmed parts from all the start,

Or is there no one else to blame?

For my tangled up gears and my turnstile jobs,

Fact is I'm just a living sum of all my parts!

There's a devil in my DNA,

Programmed parts from all the start,

Or is there no one else to blame?

For my tangled up gears and my turnstile jobs,

Every one of my fears and for my fatal flaws,

Everything that I've battled and haven't I chased,

Cause you know there's a devil in my DNA.

As far as nailing yourself and what causes you to do the wrong thing, it doesn't get a whole lot more accurate than this, though there is a realization to come beyond it. We'll get there next.

Now this is when it gets interesting again. Most of the band's activity after this was relegated to live shows. It took 5 years for them to put out another album, the longest gap they had between albums up to that point. They put out some EPs, but most of it is fairly tossed off material. Then in 2013, Less Than Jake dropped their eighth album, the appropriately titled See the Light. It took some time, but it was worth the wait. This was their strongest album since Hello Rockview, for a multitude of reasons.

The first is that sonically they have finally found their footing. It's a power pop ska album with spikes of punk here and there. This was where they were destined to head after Hello Rockview and it is good to see them finally embrace the sound. The second is that they have gotten better as performers and musicians, which makes the power pop work where it struggled on a decade earlier on Borders & Boundaries. Every song save perhaps the rather stock opening track has a unique hook to it that will get into your head. Lastly, and definitely not least, are the lyrics. They are Vinnie's best to date.

The title See the Light is not ironic or joking, it is exactly what it says it is. The album is about finding faith from a generation that never had any, and the question of how can they achieve it.

The album starts with a declaration of what Gen X believed as kids in that it was about looking out for yourself and how that was good enough to get them by. However, as the album goes on and the songs pass you see how that attitude has left an entire generation broken and empty with nothing to aim or hope for. It has left them without any light. The album deals with getting older, realizing youth fades, and that there is still more to hope for beyond youthful poses.

The songs, even though they are near a decade old at this point, feel very relevant to today. Sunstroke deals with the neighborhood of his youth being demolished and paved over, effectively erasing a part of his identity. American Idle and Bless the Cracks deal with facing down that the way you grew up wasn't right or normal, but it is something that needs to be accepted and moved on from. Give Me Something to Believe In is about going through the motions of a dead life because you are frightened about what might happen if you stop and believe in something instead. My Money is On the Longshot is given away with the title. The album is about having faith and having trust despite coming from a place where you are unable to do that because of past experience.

But the crowning jewel on See the Light is John the Baptist Bones, a song about Vinnie's relationship with God. It literally opens up a contradiction in his old worldview that he realizes, and is what caused him to understand how faith might actually be more important than he thought it was as a kid. How much had he missed out because he sabotaged himself and never took those trying to help him seriously? Professional reviewers all but ignored talking about this one, for reasons I can only speculate about, but it is easily the most powerful song he has written, and it must have been hard for him to write. Listen to it yourself. It really should be heard.

John the Baptist Bones

Somebody said it's time for me to go,

No matter what's above or down below,

I've always known it, feel it my chest,

I've always only known the half of it.

I believe all these lines and phrases,

Are part of a plan that just never changes,

I always bite the hand that helps me up.

Somebody told us back when we were young,

Have faith in things that you will never touch,

I've always thought this, maybe I'll confess,

I think there's no plans, only accidents.

I believe all these lines and phrases,

Are part of a plan that just never changes,

I always bite the hand that helps me up.

The hand that helps me up.

I believe all these lines and phrases,

Are part of a plan that just never changes,

I've read through all these words on pages,

They make me believe I don't know what faith is,

I always bite the hand that helps me up.

The hand that helps me up.

This is a long way from the kid who said "Like it or not, I'm all I've got" nearly 20 years earlier. The song starts with him accepting that death is coming for him and realizing he has never really contemplated the bigger questions of if this is all for something. When he was a kid he rejected the idea given to him from his boomer parents, but as time has gone on he has realized that there is more to this than he originally thought. Just as he realized there is a devil in his DNA that disrupts his own plans and life beyond his own faults that there also exists another, greater plan that is far above what he knows or understands, because his own nature and lack of faith has always prevented him from seeing anything aside from his mistakes. But now that he sees what he's been missing, he can make the next step forward.

As the whole album is about coming to faith with the world and understanding your place in it, this is the key song on the album. It is even placed dead in the center, but reviewers mostly ignored it. Then again, it isn't as if the band was given that much attention by 2013, unfortunately. It's shame because it is a highlight of the album and one of their best songs, period.

I wish I could tell you where the band went after this, but it gets awkward from this point on. LTJ released an EP, and then in 2018, after over 25 years in the band, Vinnie left Less Than Jake. Wherever he was going next lyrically we'll never know because See the Light ended up being the last album he was involved with, though the songs Bomb Drop and Years of Living Dangerously on their 2017 EP is as good a departing shot as any. Nonetheless he was tired of touring and had a family to raise, so it was probably the right call.

He went on to form a multimedia project with some other old ska guys called The Inevitables. There is a whole backstory, comic project, and aesthetic behind it. Aside from it being a ska project, it isn't very similar to Less Than Jake. Nonetheless, if it gives him time to be with his family then it is worth checking out.

You can hear one of their songs here:

But Less Than Jake didn't stop there. In 2020 they released their ninth album, 25 years after their first, and first without Vinnie, Silver Linings. How did they do without him? Well, better than you would think.

Sonically, it is one of their best records. They have fully embraced their power pop ska sound and have turned their lyrics into positivity for the future. The entire band contributed lyrics to try and make up for Vinnie's absence, and while they don't reach his highs they do nail the feel and his intent. You can tell that even though Vinnie wrote the lyrics that the rest of the band believed in what he wrote, too. As a consequence, the album continues in the trajectory of moving forward. Now that they have all the pieces they can finally be who they are. If this was their last album I wouldn't be disappointed. It is a very good place to end things.

As an aside, I compiled a youtube playlist of around 50 of Less Than Jake's best songs spanning around 30 years from the formation up to when Vinnie left. It starts from a bunch of scrappy Gen X punks into the power pop ska band they would become. You can listen to it here.

The tracklist is here:

And that's where I'll also leave off.

Gen X has more or less left their past behind them and have moved on from their worst days. They are an example to follow. While Gen Y still swims in the past, the rest of the world has marched on without them, forgetting their presence. The generation before us even left blueprints to help us out, this despite their own troubles.

I don't even really listen to alternative much anymore, moving on from most of the things that just didn't move forward with me. You can die hundreds of times in life, it is called failure. But what is important is taking that failure and learning from it to forge a better future. Life is a constant uphill climb. If you're not climbing, you're sliding back down. The key is to never stop. Those who swim in the past are doomed to remain trapped there.

I abandoned most of my bad Gen Y habits years ago when I decided to search for something better than what was left around me. In the last five years alone I have released 5 books, not including short stories and non-fiction pieces, and I have no intention of stopping now. It's our duty to slay the devil in our DNA, take stock in our own talents, and push forward with all we've got. We can't allow the world to beat us, not when we have so much on our side to fight for.

We don't have to be a repeat of the Lost Generation, and we don't have to be passed over for the Millennials who are destined to run everything sooner than later. We can show our own worth right now.

It's a pulp future. Better get used to it. We may have started off on the wrong foot, but we don't have to stop there. As long as you keep going, who knows what might happen next?

Less Than Jake's most recent single

For more on changing the culture for the better, check out Pulp On Pulp!

Cultural Ground Zero

This is going to be a long post, so be sure to settle in. It's been a long time coming. There is much to discuss and go over.

There has been a lot of talk in the last few years about the end of pop culture, the loss of community, the stagnation of just about everything, and the death of creativity, in the modern world. It feels as if we are trapped in a limbo state that refuses to break.

Nowhere is this more self-evident than in the arts. Every year we are faced with bastardized and Frankenstein versions of old things created decades ago, or new things with Corporately Acceptable Aesthetics yet with nothing under the hood and storytelling as bad as an episode of Captain Planet & the Planeteers. There is a divorce here that didn't use to exist.

But it isn't just in storytelling, as mentioned earlier, it is a lot wider spread than that. The music industry has been a void of creativity for decades, video games have given way to stale AAA madness, and OldPub is about ready to collapse in under its own weight. Then you have Hollywood's string of bombs and sinking box office receipts. In a year where a pandemic has shut down most of these industries, many are realizing . . . they aren't missing all that much.

So what happened? How did we get here?

The people in charge are stuck between trying to be your high priest, and your meth dealer. They want you hooked on product that will also inform your life and make you a Good Citizen. They don't want anything from you except your soul. They are willing to lose as much money as it takes to do this.

Was it always this way? Yes, and no. It didn't happen overnight, but it was acerbated by a generation of spiritually dead cosmopolitans who were raised on The Best Toys Ever Made as an exchange for having no familial relations, community, or roots, to fall back on. They got this way because those in charge let these spiritually dead people in, unaware that these young up-and-comers are living off the fumes of a long decaying corpse.

You could find millions of articles proclaiming why culture is dead written by progressives, conservatives, paranoiacs, normies, pop cultists, and everyone and everything on the fringes and in-between, but the one thing that unites them all is that they are always declaring one era or another is The Defining Point--the moment where Things Went Wrong. Whether it's the wavy gravy '60s or the materialist typhoon of the '80s, everyone has an opinion on what to go back to, and what to demonize. You could spend hours discussing such things. It causes passionate stirrings in many.

However, little is talked about the era where no one wants to go back to, regardless of background or beliefs. For even people who love the decade, few will ever acknowledge the late '90s as anything but an abysmal, embarrassing, and creatively stagnant time with little to offer. But even fewer acknowledge that these same loathed years have defined the 21st century as a whole, so far. Everything you hate, everything you can't get away from, and everything that refuses to go away--all of it metastasized in the late '90s.

Ironically, the period that few like has ended up being the one to define the current state that no one likes. It's odd, and that can't be avoided.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying the source of all of evil is in the late '90s. You would have to go back centuries, even millennia, for that. What I am saying is that the root of most modern day ills could easily be remedied by admitting that we have not culturally moved on from the late '90s, and finally decoupling ourselves from that burning car. It's a problem that stems from a lack of reflection.

The reason that you are swimming in nostalgic movements from other time periods is because you are dealing with a culture that is dying to move on from being as stagnant and stuck as it is. So they've instead chosen better times to fashion their culture around. In other words, the modern world is waiting to move on.

The question then becomes "Why the late '90s?" What is it about that time period that caused all this to happen? Well, it's hard to explain. Hence, this monster post before you.

From my research, I've concluded that cracks split the foundation in 1996, the house crumbled in 1997, and the last splinters were swept away in 1998. By 1999 there was nothing left of the culture people recognized from even a few years earlier in the decade. Western culture froze, before melting into the puddle it is now. We've been living in the dried out remains ever since. This post exists to chronicle all the changes that occurred between 1996 and 1998 and show, once and for all, why this time period is so ubiquitous and deserves more attention.

First, let us deal with some complaints and charges sure to unfurl from this. We cannot talk about the subject until we clear up a few things.

I am not some Gen-Xer who grew up in the 1980s and merely miss better times so I need to tear apart the 1990s. I am a member of Generation Y. I was 12/13 in 1997, in my prime nostalgic years. Due to personal issues, I was far more plugged into the culture than was healthy at the time, and even then I realized something was wrong and was questioning why things were going the way they were. I am a '90s kid. It was only years later that I realized the problem I was seeing was far more widespread than I originally thought.

Also, you might have personally had a great 1997. It might have been the best year of your life. Good for you. That's not what this post is about. There are people who had a great 2001, but it doesn't change what happened in the world in that year. There's nothing wrong with being nostalgic for your personal situation at the time or the good times you had. But to look at it from an objective sense, 1997 was an awful year, and I'm not chronicling your life, but what was happening in the wider culture at the time. Please keep that in mind when you read this.

Lastly, I certainly have missed things. Be sure to leave them in the comments. But no matter how many good albums the Spin Doctors released, it does not change the overall picture of the time period, at all. The changes from this era remain what they are.

Whether it is positive or negative can be gleamed by what it led to.

Without further ado, let us begin our descent into the quagmire of the past. Each year will list important happenings worth talking about in the wider culture, accompanied by a short description of said event. You might want to keep a tab open or a bookmark ready. This is going to be long.

We will start with the first black mark: 1996.

1996

1996 was a transitional year. Most people usually think of 1996 when they describe the highlights of the 1990s, though in retrospect, it is where a lot of the problems to come first set in. Mega corporations, fandom, and the wider death cult, first found their footing here. These all exists beforehand, but 1996 is when they pushed to the forefront, blocking out all else.

Without 1996 you wouldn't have a lot of the madness to come, but there was still much good to be found. I can't say the same for the following years.

• War on fansites spurred on by furries harassing creators

A prominent furry, still active in the scene to this day, sent crazed fan messages to a voice actress on Tiny Toon Adventures, effectively helping to end the show. This, paired with the rise of fansites, put creators and consumers at war with each other, for the first time. The growth of the internet helped make this all possible. Before this, fanatics were harmless letter writers. Now they were important voices to be listened to. I wouldn't be surprised if said furry was given a consulting position on the upcoming reboot.

• US FDA approves Olestra, banned in other countries

You wonder why people sue McDonalds for making them fat or for not putting the lid on their coffee right? The health crisis stems from mistrust over things such as this. Olestra caused abdominal cramps, and inhibition of vitamin absorption. Mixed messages spurred on by bureaucrats looking to make a few extra bucks. Again, not the first instance of this sort of thing, but it's definitely not the last.

• Scream releases

Scream changed the landscape for horror movies permanently. By making them all parodies, stepping back from the high concepts, and forgoing practical effects, it started the slasher revival that still plods on to this day. Scream might be decent, but nothing it influenced did anything to help the genre. In 1996, horror was already bad off. This dealt the final blow.

• Sabrina the Teenage Witch begins

TGIF was the most successful family block on television, focused on the whole family. It made its name by being family friendly and for having some of the most popular sitcoms of the time on (Perfect Strangers, Full House, Family Matters, Boy Meets World, and Step By Step, to name a few), as well as airing on a Friday--typically seen as a ratings dead zone. With the release of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the block deliberately made a hard turn into targeting teenagers and preteens at the expense of everyone else. From this point on, the block would decay until its cancellation by the decade's end. But it started here, in 1996.

• Independence Day and Twister released

The return of the Hollywood Event Movie began here in 1996 with these bloated, overblown movies. The focus on the growing trend of CG, mindless carnage over characters or story, and the usage of loud film-making all overtook the action movie and the summer blockbuster that the 1970s and '80s had created so long ago. You want to know why all movies are peal and thunder signifying nothing? You can thank the influence of these movies.

• The Rock released

But I repeat myself (get used to it). This is considered Michael Bay's best movie, and it is his last one before he abandoned the action genre entirely for mindless blockbusters for decades to come. You can thank the success of the previous 1996 movies for that.

• Telecommunications Act of 1996 passed

This Act, among other things, lifted the restriction of national radio station ownership, effectively clearing the way for what the music industry would do in the years to come. 1996 is the year FM radio died, and it is why not long into 1997 that you stopped hearing anything outside of the same sounds anymore. The conglomerates owned the airwaves. This Act also contains the very controversial Section 230, the effects of which are still being felt today. This was the first major Act of its kind since 1934, shaping the decades to come.

• Marvel Comics files for bankruptcy

I shouldn't have to tell you why this matters. Had Marvel gone bankrupt like they should have, you wouldn't have cape movies or the current state of the Hollywood blockbuster. The comic industry wouldn't also be in the zombified state its been in since this happened, instead forced to innovate. But though this happened in 1996, it didn't really effect them or the industry until the next year.

• Last Malibu Comics produced

Malibu Comics was the last comic company to rise out of obscurity, but the comic crash stopped them dead. They were acquired by Marvel where their creations sit in obscurity to this day because the megacorp doesn't want to pay a few dollars to those who created these characters. It wasn't the last of these. 1996 was not a good year for comic books.

• Tupac Shakur killed

The tragedy of the gangsta lifestyle in rap should have been a wake up call. Tupac's death sent ripples throughout the culture. Yet, here we are a quarter of a century later, and nothing has changed. Rap is still as bad now as it was in 1996. Nothing has changed, both musically or culturally.

• First Backstreet Boys album released

The group that broke the corporately owned boy-band into mainstream culture first came out in 1996. Even though boy-bands themselves aren't really a thing anymore, their influence is. Record companies now own all of their artists, lock, stock, and barrel, from their sounds to their songs to their very voices. The first instance of this practice is right here, and the industry would never be the same.

• Tickle Me Elmo introduced

You would have to have been there for this one. Essentially the peak of holiday shopping madness, it has never quite recovered from the mess it was here. Sure, we have online shopping now, but the consumer culture that birthed Tickle Me Elmo is still alive today. Try taking the last roll of toilet paper off the shelf in 2020 and see what that gets you. It peaked in 1996.

• DVDs first launched in Japan

DVDs are still around now, still being produced 25 years after their creation. They've outlived VHS, Beta, Laserdisc, HD-DVD, and every other attempt to replace them since. Blu-Ray is essentially just DVD+, not really offering anything new and has still yet to kill off the older format despite being used for well over a decade. As far as the physical medium goes, nothing is as influential as DVD still is to this day.

• Oprah Book Club started

Putting aside all the controversies, the Oprah Book Club was instrumental in popularizing fad books that contributed a net negative to culture except to use them as a decoration for your coffee table. Using books as a force for "Social change" instead of entertainment or knowledge really began in earnest with this push from a pop cult multimillionaire. And of course OldPub supported this the whole way.

• The Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64 releases 

Though the PlayStation and Sega Saturn released in 1995, it didn't signal much in the way of change until they went up against the Nintendo 64. The advent of 3D gaming changed the field entirely, more or less beginning the age of AAA games with Super Mario 64, where the single mammoth title was appreciated more than a healthy library of games. 2D gaming was also targeted by executives like Bernie Stolar and game journalists for execution, prioritizing the new flash over the gameplay. It took nearly 20 years for 2D to return to consoles again, but it was still treated as lesser and never regained the focus it had. Meanwhile, the industry still prioritized AAA over all else, which is leading to its current crash.

• Pokemon game releases

The original Pokemon game was a megahit that created a subculture of anime fans, gamers, and collectors, overnight. Despite the sudden explosion, the end of the fad never really arrived. 25 years later and Pokemon is still around and still just as big a megahit. Kids from 1996 and kids from 2021 still watch the same show and play very similar games.

• Quake releases the same year as Duke Nukem 3D

1996 was a banner year for PC gaming, with the release of many high profile hits. The two that perfectly emphasize this is Duke Nukem 3D, a 3D game built in a 2D space, and the first fully 3D action game with the original Quake. This would begin the constant revisions and updates of game engines that continue on to this day. Meanwhile, Duke Nukem 3D attained controversy for being very politically incorrect, something that was then becoming a more common complaint.

• Resident Evil and Tomb Raider release

Speaking of 3D gaming, two of the biggest franchises created in 1996 were Resident Evil and Tomb Raider, a Survival Horror and a 3D adventure game. Thought of as revolutionary and game changing, these two series would inspire many copycats that would go on to define that gaming generation. 3D gaming was here, and you needed to get in or get out. Oddly enough, both franchises are still kept alive by brand name alone, neither of which playing anything like they did when they began way back in 1996.

• In ten months internet users go from 1 million to 10 million

The internet exploded in popularity in 1996, its first step to consuming public attention. The rest would come later, but this needs to be noted for upcoming entries.

• Ken Williams sells Sierra On-Line

To understand how important Sierra is would be to go in depth with their history stretching back to the early days of PC gaming. Suffice to say they created the first graphic adventure game, the first color PC game, and created countless other inventions, as well as being a top notch maker of adventure games. They were pioneers. Unfortunately, in 1996 Ken Williams made the mistake of selling Sierra, a disaster which would become clear in the following two years. More on this later.

• First version of Java released

If you know anything about computers from programming to software specifications then you know how important Java was to getting so much off the ground. Its first release was here in 1996.

• MSNBC and Fox News Channel launched

The ubiquitous and never-ending presence of political posturing and arguing was fostered by the 24/7 news-cycle. Guess when it began? That's right: 1996.

• Rocko’s Modern Life and Ren & Stimpy end

Nickelodeon was the last maverick in children's programming, billing itself as the edgy choice over Disney. By 1996, all the original cartoons that had made their name ended. From this point on they would be going in another direction. These last two finished running in 1996.

• The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and Roundhouse end

Ditto for their live action series. Aside from Spongebob Squarepants (released in 1999 and headed by ex-Rocko's Modern Life guys), Nickelodeon would never reclaim the popularity they had at their peak. But they d still milk their past.

• The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon ends

By 1996, the original run of popularity for TMNT was at an end. There wouldn't be a reboot until 2003. That said, the property had run its course and was allowed to rest. What came up in its place? Well, that's why we're in the predicament we are now. The answer is nothing.

• Captain Planet & the Planeteers ends

The biggest punchline in cartoons finally finished its run in 1996. I'd like to say that's where its influence ended, but Hollywood and OldPub insist on replicating its formula in everything they make now. From the stereotypical characters to the hokey writing to the hammer over the head moral messaging, Captain Planet is still around and even worse than it was back then. And you just know someone will unironically reboot it within the next decade.

• Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ends

One of the biggest sitcoms of the era, and one of the last big ones, Fresh Prince was what launched Will Smith into the stratosphere . . . and somehow still remains his most popular project even 25 years since its finale. It's still in syndication today. This era of Prime-time TV was undergoing heavy shifts, and this series ending opened the door for NBC to become the monstrosity it would soon become not even half a decade later.

• Radio Disney goes on the air

In a strange bit of irony, that day I put this post up Disney announced that Radio Disney is disappearing in 2021, 25 years after its start. Instrumental in bringing in the tween pop era, its influence carries over to the modern day.

• Murder, She Wrote ends

Speaking of Prime-time TV ending, Murder, She Wrote was the last megahit mystery series and still remains in syndication to this day. This adult-oriented yet still family-friendly sort of series, a staple since the medium began, was quickly becoming a rarity even in 1996. This series ending cleared the way for the cesspool of nihilism to come.

• Tales from the Crypt ends

Much like Are You Afraid of the Dark? which also ended this year, Tales from the Crypt, itself a relic of the 1980s, was the last vestige of that decade being wiped away from the landscape. Horror anthologies vanished from television after it did, never to return. This was the period where the 1980s were being declared uncool by talking heads, which was easy to do with it no longer having accessibility in 1996.

• 21st Century Film Corporation disestablished

1996 was the year the 1980s died, basically. The last of Cannon Films' productions, made years earlier, were finally released, and the last trace of Golan and Globus' presence in the cinema world was now extinguished. With this, B-movies would never be the same.

• The final produced Cannon Films movie, Chain of Command, is put out

As I said, it was the end of an era. Not a year before did Speed release, the last big studio action movie to use practical effects and stunts as a selling point. Now strain your brain to think of a big traditional action movie in that vein to come after Cannon's last film in 1996. There weren't any. The genre was abandoned, and soon enough, it would be dead.

• Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and V.R. Troopers end

The most famous child trend of the early 1990s was the appearance of tokusatsu shows from Japan unexpectedly blowing up. But by 1996 steam was running out, and both the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers series and V.R. Troopers ended. Power Rangers did continue (it's still on today), but it never reclaimed that level of popularity it had in the early '90s during its original run. Neither did another tokusatsu series ever get another shot like this in the west again.

• First Taiwan presidential election

I shouldn't have to explain how this changed things, and in ways it didn't considering who was elected, but it still happened.

• Taliban captures Kabul and declares Fundamentalist Islamic State of Afghanistan

In case you thought this sort of thing began in 2001.

• The Dunblane School Massacre

A madman walked into a Dunblane elementary school and killed 16 students and teachers, injuring 15 others. This led to the 1996 Cullen Report and banning most use of guns in the United Kingdom. It is still the largest mass shooting in British history.

• Paris Subway bombing

An IED detonated on the southbound tracks of the Gare de Port-Royal Reseau Express Regional in Paris. There were four deaths. It resulted in Vigipirate, allowing the police to put up security in sensitive areas, spot checks, and increased patrolling. No one ever claimed responsibility for the bombing ever since it happened in 1996.

• Over 100 churches in Mississippi are burned to the ground over an 18 month period

No, the mainstream never reported this, and yes, this happened. If you're still enamored with the "Satanic Panic" canard that the media was trying to sell you then you might not like some of the entries coming up. This was still going on in 1996, and was no less serious.

• Australian Martin Bryant shooting spree in Tasmania on April 28th 

Between two days in April of 1996, Martin Bryant killed 35 people and injured 23 others in the largest shooting spree in Australian history. It had a heavy effect on Australian gun laws and registration. Odd side note: The media controversy shaped around manipulating footage to make Bryant look more terrifying or deranged than he was. The case remains one of Australia's most notorious to this day.

• 17 Greek tourists killed by gunmen in Cairo

Four Islamists carried out a mass shooting spree in 1996 on 88 Greek tourists while they were on vacation. Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya claimed responsibility, thinking they were Israelis. 17 tourists were killed in the attack. Again, in case you thought any of this was anything new.

• End of the First Chechen War

From December 1994-August 1996, a number as high as 30,000 soldiers and civilians were killed in the conflict between Russia and Chechnya. This conflict, of course, goes back much further than even 1994. The second war would start in 1999.

• Manchester and Canary Wharf Bombings

The PIRA sets off a bomb in the Manchester city center. It is the biggest to go off in Britain since WWII. Amazingly, no one was murdered. 212 were injured. This is after injuring 200 and murdering 2 with a bomb in Canary Row months before.

As stated, 1996 was more of a transitional year, one of endings and sowing the seeds that would later sprout poison flowers. In the following years, we will see just how much has actually changed since the Good Old Days. You'll be surprised at how little.

So let us continue.

1997

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is released (US version in 1998)

I shouldn't have to explain this one, especially to readers. Harry Potter was the final literary phenomenon, inventing an entire subgenre that consumed kids but didn't invent new readers or expand the field beyond its success. "Read Another Book" indeed.

• The Simpsons officially becomes the longest running prime-time animated series

The Simpsons hit its peak in 1997 with season 8 ending, and season 9's start signaling the end of the classic run. It should also be mentioned that most of the new writers that would come in over the next two years are still running the writing room to this day.

• Titanic becomes the biggest movie of 1997

As mentioned before, James Cameron joined the movement to destroy action movies and turn them into empty blockbusters that started in 1996. On top of that, it becomes the first "blockbuster" to win best picture. Pop has forgotten its place, and 1997 turned it upside down.

• The explosion of bad blockbusters started by Independence Day (1996) continues, consumes box office with movies such as The Lost World (1997)

It's much more obvious today, but 1997 was a really bad year for movies. Even Spielberg put out one of his biggest turkeys with this sequel to Jurassic Park. There isn't much that has held up to scrutiny. This is one of the first indications that Hollywood has lost touch with its audience.

• Batman & Robin destroys superhero movies

Here's another indication of the bad state of film. Reminder that Batman's first movie only released 8 years prior to this, and this is what they came to by 1997. Again, a horrific year for movies.

• X-Men cartoon ends

Some of the last cartoons that took adventure storytelling seriously. It is difficult to state its influence at the time, never mind the 1997 end point. It has been rebooted multiple times since, but none of them attempted anything new like these did. Instead, they are endless reboots.

• Microsoft bails out Apple with 150 million investment

Imagine a landscape without Apple around. Well, we almost had it in 1997.

• Steve Jobs returns to Apple

We all know what happened after this.

• Mini-Crash in the stock market (1997), beginning of the end of the economic boom

The 18th biggest point loss in the history of the Dow. Consumer confidence and economic growth slowed and never recovered to the heights they were at before. A signal of things to come.

• TSR absorbed by Wizards of the Coast, creating a monopoly

If you're into gaming then you know that TSR and Wizards of the Coast were the two biggest names in Role-Playing Games. When TSR went bust and was absorbed by WOTC, the field turned into a monopoly in 1997. This is the moment it became what it is now.

• Woolworth's closed its remaining stories

One of the biggest retail chains closes its doors in 1997 after over 100 years in operation. One of many businesses that either went under or merged with someone else. It then changed its name and became a sporting good store.

• Incredible Universe stores close

One of the last gimmick stores, it was a consumer electronics location. All 16 stores were bought out by Fry's in 1997.

• Lionsgate Pictures forms

Formed by a banker in 1997 from Cinepix, it quickly began buying and absorbing other movies studios and libraries. Cinepix was already moving in this direction, but now it was made official. Its highest grossing films are the Hunger Games movies. However, it has been recently started hurting like the rest of Hollywood. It recently laid off a bunch of staff.

• Princess Diana dies, media obsession explodes

You might have had to be there to understand this, but this was a news story that was everywhere. A bunch of paparazzi chased Diana and her husband, leading to a car wreckage that ended up being a media event for years afterwards. Trust in the press hit a new low for the time period. Since it originally happened in 1997, however, no one really talks about how she died, especially in the media.

• The Beanie Baby explosion and obsession

Fueled by the speculator market, this weird period in rampant consumerism is not going to make sense outside of its 1997 context. Nonetheless, you could not escape these things for what felt like forever, but turned out to be less than a year. This was before they moved on to a new fad. Just hopping from product to product. At least they're not Funko Pops.

• Hong Kong handover from Britain to China

Should you want to take a dip back in time to see something that truly hasn't aged well, I suggest reading articles about Britain's handover of Hong Kong to China when it happened in 1997. As to how it relates now, well, I don't think it needs to be said. Needless to say, Hong Kong and China are not the best of friends.

• Multimedia Entertainment disestablished after existing since 1968

One of the many production companies absorbed, leveled, or outright bought around this time period. 1997 was the end of many. Some examples of series ME ran: Sally Jesse Raphael, Donahue, Rush Limbaugh, and Jerry Springer. All were over by or in 1997.

• Boss Film Studios special effect company closes doors

One of the key special effects studios since 1983 and working on projects such as Die Hard, Ghostbusters, Monster Squad, Heat, and Big Trouble in Little China. Due to the rise of competition and expenses on CG effects. Independent studios such as Boss Film could no longer compete, and by 1997, they were gone.

• 62 people are gunned down by Islamic Terrorists in the Luxor Massacre

Six gunmen with knives descended on the Mortuary Temple of Hatshesput in 1997. After killing two guards, they sealed the people (the majority of which were tourists) inside. They then massacred those inside, mutilating the corpses beyond recognition. This attack turned public opinion on Islamic terrorists in Egypt, and attacks even subsided for awhile. That obviously didn't last.

• Kyoto Protocol Agreement conference

This was an attempt to create an agreement for all involved countries to, as they said, "lower greenhouses gas" effects all over the world. All countries involved must follow the same standards. This was agreed upon in 1997 before finally being activated in 2005. This, eventually, through a long string of events, led to the Paris Agreement in 2015. 

• Dow Jones Industrial Average closes below 7000 for the first time

It was temporary, but for a few months, the Dow closed at under 7000 during a period of what was supposed to be an economic boom. It was later raised back up by Boeing (more on them later) and other blue-chip issues. This was, essentially, the end of the economic growth period. The cracks were first shown here, in 1997.

• The GIA massacres villagers in Algeria

400 civilians were killed in Relizane, around 150 miles southwest of the capital. This was an attempt to overthrow the Algerian government and install an Islamic State, and was their bloodiest campaign yet. They stormed many villages and towns, murdering many. The GIA was very active through the '90s, killing over 70,000 people since 1992, but their activities only ramped up throughout the decade.

• Scotland votes to create its own parliament after 290 years of union with England

This is pretty self-explanatory. Though this was the first time Scotland had voted to do something such as this in its history. It isn't that out of joint for 1997, though.

• Wales votes in favor of devolution and the formation of a national assembly

In a close vote, Wales also does something unprecedented and votes for Devolution, leading to the forming of a National Assembly. The Government of Wales Act later passed in 1998 followed by the National Assembly of Wales in 1999. The number of votes this passed with in 1997 to change their future? 6,721.

• Civil jury declares OJ Simpson guilty

It didn't even matter if he was guilty or not, this course case was inescapable in the 1990s, and was a media circus. When the verdict was finally read the public could finally go back to their normal lives. It's easy to make jokes about how he did it now, but back then it was a very divisive issue. In 1997, this only added fuel to the fire.

• Biggie Smalls fatally shot

Whether this was reprisal for the fatal shooting of Tupac Shakur remains unknown, because this case is more of the East coast Vs West coast rapper feud that ended up permanently staining the genre as one for low life gangbangers who care as little about other lives than they do about fixing the streets where they came from. It's no coincidence gangsta rap has been unchanged since the early '90s. It's no different now than it was when Notorious BIG was shot in 1997.

• Dolly the sheep cloned

It's easy to make jokes about this now, since it didn't lead to anything in 1997, but the ethical issues brought up were tremendous. An era of science gone amok was starting, foretold by those such as Michael Crichton, warning scientists to keep an ethical head. In an age where Harvard hires people who think babies have less rights than pigs, this was a sign of things to come.

• Bird Flu first appears in Hong Kong on May 19th, 1997

1997 wasn't a good year for Hong Kong. 18 people were infected by chickens, six victims died. That was the start of the Bird Flu breakout. There was then a country-wide slaughter of over 1.5 million chickens by December to get the disease under control. This was the first known case, but it certainly wasn't the last.

• Mother Teresa dies

I hope I don't have to tell you all the good work Mother Teresa did despite getting slandered by someone who thought Josef Stalin was motivated to slaughter millions of innocents because of Christianity. Nonetheless, she was an important figure and one many found inspiration in. That she died in 1997 isn't all that surprising.

• Andrew Cunanan goes on a cross-country killing spree

Cunanan killed 5 people including Gianni Versace and Lee Miglin over three month span before killing himself. This was shocking at the time, and more of an anecdote now, but still no one knows exactly what caused this. There is no known motive. 1997 had some strange killing sprees.

• Teenage Satanist spree shooting

Teenage Satanist Luke Woodham fired at 10 people in a spree shooting, killing 3. The pre-Columbine school shooter that was memory-holed rather fast. This would have been shocking when it happened in 1997, had the media spent half as much focus on this as they would on Columbine. In case you're curious: no, he wasn't a gamer.

• Teenager murders Christian prayer group

14-year-old Michael Carneal open-fired on a Christian prayer group, killing 3 and wounding 5. He’d stolen a pistol, two rifles, two shotguns, and 700 rounds of ammunition to shoot up his school. No one was talking about an epidemic of school shooters in 1997, even though apparently Bill Clinton sent Janet Reno to gather a report. Obviously, that never happened. As for Carneal? I don't think he was a gamer, either.

• Dr. Satan caught in Chicago

Occult fanatic Michael Swango, “Dr. Satan”, was caught in Chicago in 1997 after killing 30 people since 1981. His favorite method of murder was poisoning. Estimates state that he most likely killed over 60 since he began his serial murders. We will never know.

• The Order of the Solar Temple commits mass suicide and murder between 1994-1997

For some reason, 74 members of the OST cult committed suicide over a period of three years which ended in 1997. One strange case in Quebec had three members kill themselves and burn their home down while a bunch of teenagers were found drugged and unharmed in the shed behind the house. By 1997, 74 people had been killed by the cult. No further suicides or murders were ever recorded.

• Heaven’s Gate cult mass suicides

The Heaven's Gate cult who committed a mass suicide to be let on a space-ship coming overhead to take them from oncoming disaster. This happened in 1997 and has never fully left public consciousness. Probably because it's so bizarre and oddly prescient about things to come.

• Lottie Williams is the first person hit by space debris

This is a case of an innocent woman going for a walk with friends in 1997 who managed to get hit by debris from 1996, the first ever in recorded history. It was from the 1996 Delta II rocket. Incidentally, she lived. There might be a lesson somewhere in this story, but who knows?

• The Cosmopolitan becomes the #1 drink after its popularity on Sex & the City

Perhaps a sign as to where popular culture was heading, and influencing the real world, this drink purely became popular in 1997 by being featured in a book and little else. 

• Cost of a new PC from HP and Compaq dropped below $1000 for the first time

One of the first steps for computers being affordable for the common man, prices fell to affordable levels in 1997. It might not have mattered much at the time, since the internet was still not quite there, but for the first time it felt like anyone could own one of these things.

• 56k modems became standard

Then again, the internet was there. 56k was the standard for the time and though now looked at as a joke today was the first instance of easy connectivity online for the common person. It made a difference. The internet was made easy in 1997.

• Facebook, Netflix.com, and Craigslist come online

Once again, as the internet and computers become affordable for normal people, so too do the things that would take most their online activity in years to come. 1997 was a big year for computers and the internet. It all began here.

• Google.com becomes a registered domain name

Speaking of: the future purveyors of doing no evil first came into existence in 1997. To mention what they would become is a waste of time. What a year!

• The television rating system goes into effect

Due to parental advocacy groups, in 1997, the FCC regulated that all television shows had to be given ratings to match their content. In an odd bit of coincidence, several other countries all over the world gained a similar ratings system to this at the same time. Welcome to your focus-group tested future.

• The infamous Ellen episode is broadcasted

It might be hard to understand today, but Ellen DeGeneres' '90s sitcom was one of the most popular of its time. It was then announced that the main character would come out as homosexual, which happened in the 1997 season. After an initial pop in ratings, they soon tanked and the show has since been forgotten to the ages.

• The Disney Channel moves from subscription model to normal broadcast

Disney began much of their restructuring in 1997 which would begin their path going forward. One was setting up a channel purely for their own brand to reach younger audiences. There was more to follow, but the Disney Channel would shape their original programming going forward.

• Toonami debuts

After the destruction of Saturday Morning cartoons thanks to the ACT and Peggy Charren, the only place most kids could get their fix of action cartoons was on the Toonami block which began in 1997. Because of the lack of competition, Toonami took the landscape by storm. It has since been revived as a pale imitation of itself, but then so has everything first made before 1998.

• TV ads for prescription drugs began showing up on mainstream TV

Since no one watches TV anymore it is hard to say just how awkward this was, but Big Pharma soon bought their way onto the airwaves to sell their products. Standards became laxer as the rating system was invented in the same year.

• DVD players, digital cameras and flavored vodka all began being sold on the marketplace

Once again, the new technology of DVDs were rushed out quick, as were the players. Digital cameras were also slowly being positioned to take over for the old style. As for flavored vodka? It makes a good drink for the madness of 1997.

• Ally McBeal starts

This isn't known so well these days, but Ally McBeal was the Gen X yuppie series of 1997. That blasted dancing baby fad is probably the first cursed meme, too. Nonetheless, it set the blueprint for just about every young adult drama on television today.

• Auto-tune debuts

It should not be understated what auto-tune did to the music industry. Essentially a program that can tune anyone's voice with computers to be good, it allowed record labels the option to instead create their own stars instead of relying on talent working up to success. This practice became very apparent in the years to come. 1997 is regularly marked as the year the music industry died, and this is one of the premier reasons. Auto-tune changed music.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer starts

Joss Whedon's writing on Buffy is the most imitated in the modern world to such an extent that no one else comes close. It started here in 1997 but would soon hit critical mass with Marvel movies in the decade to come. Aside from those examples, just about every modern urban fantasy writer takes from this series. Its influence carries on to this day.

• Gargoyles ends

The Disney Afternoon's first 100% original series ends after a fantastic run beloved by many. It would also turn out to be the final series made exclusively for the block aside from an aborted attempt at a '90s sitcom with Quack Pack.

• The Disney Afternoon ends

Right after Gargoyles ended, so did this. TDA technically wrapped up as the title was dropped and was turned into a block to re-air Saturday Morning fare. Because of the Disney Channel, Disney no longer required The Disney Afternoon or syndication to make money. The Saturday morning dumping ground  it became would be gone not long later.

• The edgy era of family sitcoms ends 

Series such as Roseanne and Married with Children ended in 1997, making way for the young adult yuppy Gen X series to come. Family sitcoms mostly died after this, becoming either made exclusively for boomer parents or ironic hipster types. Series that were made for the entire family soon went extinct.

• TGIF dumps family sitcoms for the teen market

As just mentioned, TGIF dumped their demographic just as everyone did in an attempt to be hip in 1997. Sabrina the Teenage Witch became their new flagship series, and their family shows disappeared to be replaced by this new fad. Incidentally, TGIF would be gone by the end of the '90s. Not bad considering how popular it was at its peak.

• Beavis & Butthead ends

The show that epitomized the Gen X era ended in 1997. What would come in the genre after it would be completely different in tone and approach. Just as with the death of the edgy family sitcoms, TV totally changed after this went off the air.

• Unsolved Mysteries taken off of NBC after 9 seasons

Though it returned on CBS for two seasons after this, Unsolved Mysteries, one of the most groundbreaking and influential series of the 1980s ended for the first time in 1997. It was a sign of things to come as series such as this with a wider scope would soon be replaced by reality TV in the years to come. Series like Unsolved Mysteries soon stopped being made.

• Goosebumps TV show and original book line ends 

Goosebumps had a rocky 1997. After a contract dispute and slowing sales, Goosebumps had its show end despite good ratings. The follow-up book series soon stop being promoted before ending entirely in 1999. What was once the biggest book series of the '90s disappeared virtually overnight. It didn't survive the jump to the '00s.

• South Park begins

Despite being made by Gen Xers, South Park is a series that doesn't have much in the way of what we know as '90s humor. Though controversial, it began the trend of more topical humor and obscure quirks being the focus of the comedy. A rash of imitators soon followed. Nonetheless, it started in 1997 and is on the air to this day.

• Seinfeld ends

Seinfeld was the final megahit sitcom. Its popularity is difficult to emphasize today, but it has remained in syndication for over twenty years after ending for a reason. Because of its demise it allowed Friends to take its spot and climb to super popularity and taking the genre off the rails not long later. In essence, it ending more or less was the end of the sitcom form's popularity.

• "Wannabe" by Spice Girls hits #1

Before Wannabe, manufactured bubblegum pop was a joke that died quickly after New Kids on the Block did. Things were moving back to rock and r&b sounds. In 1997, when this song hit #1 it started the trend of bubblegum pop swarming the charts and choking out every other genre. There are more reasons for that change, but we will get to that.

• Limp Bizkit’s first album releases

At the same time Wannabe hit, nu metal was being positioned as the replacement for grunge which was the replacement for hair metal. This wasn't clear at the time, but one of the bands that would be pushed incessantly over the next few years into the '00s was Fred Durst's pet project. These angry sounds were inescapable. 1997 was a very rocky year for music.

• Clear Channel destroys radio 

No one mentions it now, but at the time everyone was up in arms over this. Clear Channel acquired the bulk of its broadcasting properties following the Telecommunications Act of 1996 mentioned earlier, which lifted restrictions on national radio station ownership. During the late 1990s, the company was diversifying beyond the broadcasting business by acquiring billboards in major metropolitan markets. By 1997, the company ranked as the second-largest outdoor advertiser in the United States. In addition to its domestic radio and television stations, Clear Channel also operated broadcasting properties in New Zealand and Australia. It created a monopoly that has since destroyed radio and the music industry.

• Diamond Distribution becomes the monopoly in comic book distribution

1997 was the year Diamond Distribution became the sole distributor in comic books, creating a monopoly that has existed until this day. From this point on, comics became locked to hobbyist shops that rapidly shrank over the years while also preventing any growth whatsoever, even with a superhero movie boom that took Hollywood by storm.

• Milestone Comics shut down

Milestone, like Malibu, was one of the last new comic companies to emerge before the 1990s popped the comic book bubble. As the decades have gone on, Milestone became just another IP farm for DC as the industry has done nothing but shrink while only Marvel, DC, and to a lesser extent Image, remain in tact. 1997 was not a good year for comics, but it was one that defined them to the present day.

• Marvel cancels many books over the next few years

Marvel's 1996 bankruptcy was mentioned earlier, but it was felt by readers in 1997 as they were driven further away. In many ways this was the end of Marvel, as they would ditch their Marvel Method of creating comics and begin a "Writer's first" path that would lead them to where they are now. In many ways, 1997 was the end of Marvel Comics, which is why they never regained the relevance they lost here.

• Orion Pictures sold to MGM

In this age of mergers it is easy to forget how things were before the mess of overstuffed corporations bled competition dry. Orion wasn't as memorable a company as Cannon Films, but their library contained some of the best of its era. Excalibur, Platoon, Malone, Robocop, First Blood, Caddyshack, The Terminator, Sharky's Machine, Return of the Living Dead, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Dances With Wolves, and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, are just some of the highly regarded films Orion produced. Since it was bought and absorbed in 1997, what has become of Orion? It was revived as a brand for random films in 2013. Because of course it was.

• New World Pictures and countless syndication stations sold to Fox

Continuing our merger madness, New World Pictures was another highly regarded film company, and Fox became one of the Big 4 major networks due to moves such as this. With this purchase, Fox became a real competitor with the others. Co-founded by film legend Roger Corman, New World quickly became one of the stops for B-movie excitement, even when a new regime took control. They had movies such as Death Race 2000, The Stuff, Tuff Turf, Rock n' Roll High School, Star Crash, Black Moon Rising, House, House II: The Second Story, Vamp, Battletruck, Slumber Party Massacre, Hellraiser, Deathstalker, Space Raiders, Hell Comes to Frogtown, and Warlock, among many others. If you know anything about B-movies then you know at least some of those names. So what happened to New World since it was sold in 1997? Same as Orion. It now only exists as a brand name.

• Chris Farley dies

A lot of Gen Xers will talk about how Kurt Cobain's death affected them, but for their younger brothers in Gen Y, Chris Farley's death in 1997 hit harder. Much like John Candy, Chris Farley was a larger than life character who loved to entertain and had a natural "good" charisma about him that you just can't fake. That he died of an overdose after we could all see him physically deteriorating over the year was a real shocking moment, especially when we later learned he suffered depression due to his overwhelming loneliness. It was hard to imagine then, but little did we know how big a social problem this would become in the decades to come. Please say a prayer for Chris Farley, because he deserved better than modernity.

• Star Wars “Special Edition”

The first zombie rose from its grave in 1997, instantly sparking so many creative problems, anti-customer attitudes, and corporate decisions, that still exist in Hollywood today. Suffice to say, the space battle movies were dormant and left as nostalgia pieces since the early '80s. It was this moment where the lifestyle brand zombie franchise that exists today comes from, with all the historical revisionism to come along for the ride. This was the first indication that the creativity well in Hollywood might really have run dry. In 2020, it's blindingly obvious in retrospect.

• Oasis releases "Be Here Now"

Britpop was the last big British musical movement. Essentially a revival of their mod scene, it was a rock-based subculture that took the world by storm. British flags, peppy horns, anthemic choruses, and walls of noise, brought excitement back to the musical landscape as the sludge of grunge was taking over the Yanks' musical landscape. Unfortunately, it also meant a rise in egos and drug use. The best indication that the scene was over was when Oasis released their third album, Be Here Now, in 1997. Though initially received quite well, further listens proved a creative dud was hidden underneath the gloss and the big sounds. It was a sign of the end, as rock music faded to be replaced by the Spice Girls and the bubblegum nonsense that would soon swallow the British music scene to this day.

• First NSYNC album releases

Almost on cue, as rock began its descent from the charts did bubblegum acts come out of nowhere to seize control of the music industry, where they've been in charge ever since. Even if you don't recognize NSYNC these days, you will recognize their sound as well as their lead singer, Justin Timberlake. They've never truly gone away. It all began here in 1997.

• Britney Spears signs recording contract

Much like the above, it feels as if the record companies had been planning this 1997 takeover of the music industry for quite a while. Starting with Britney Spears' Madonna-aping act, the age of the singer songwriter was replaced with the manufactured sex-starved schoolgirl. Over the next few years she would be inescapable, as would her sound which exists to this day.

• The McDonnell Douglas takeover / Boeing 737 crisis

The two biggest names in global aviation merged in 1997. The resulting mix of corporate cultures and methods eventually led to internal discord, peaking 20 years later with the crashes of two 737 jets and 346 lives, on top of a cost of over 10 billion. Progress and better product has been waylaid for cutting costs and looking for the cheapest solution to every problem. Sound familiar? The corporate merger age has been an unmitigated disaster for the human race.

• Duke Nukem Forever starts development

Duke Nukem Forever, the first AAA game to be endlessly delayed and gone over budget began in 1997. Before this game, the industry had delays and expensive games, but never to the level this one created. A sign of things to come, now all AAA game budgets are bloated in a way that not even selling a couple million copies will break even. In fact, games sell about as much as they did back in the '90s. They just cost more to make now, which means their budgets are out of control. It all started with this game.

• Raven Software bought by Activision 

Raven Software was one of the most popular developers of first person shooters, following after id Software's lead. Responsible for such titles as Heretic, Soldier of Fortune, CyClones, and Hexen, they were then bought by Activision in 1997. Unfortunately after a single bomb due to rushed development brought on by their publisher, they have since been gutted and exist as a Call of Duty support team now. Raven no longer exists, despite all they were responsible for creating. This is where the industry is now.

• Final Fantasy VII releases

The game that changed RPGs, whether you want to admit it or not. Taking then burgeoning anime tropes, depressing psychological issues, and wrapping it in a pseudo-cyberpunk aesthetic, ended up becoming the biggest RPG of the generation, and quite possibly of all time. Its influence remains now, even though 1997 is a distant memory, by even having a recent remake that outsold the previous mainline game in the series. RPGs, and even non-RPGs, are still being influenced by this game today. Its influence is inescapable.

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night popularized "Metroidvanias"

Though Metroid perfected the 2D free-form open world (IE, not stage-based gameplay) adventure genre, it wasn't until Castlevania: Symphony of the Night came around that this subgenre had an unofficial name and a template that everyone could crib off of. While action-based 2D games were almost made extinct throughout this time period, the "Metroidvania" style of game persists to this day, unchanged from what it was in 1997. It is still one of the most popular games for 2D game designers even now so far from this game's release.

• Diablo releases

Blizzard Entertainment was fairly unstoppable in the '90s, and this, their second-to-last new big '90s franchise was the biggest dungeon crawler of all time at its release in 1997. Though the franchise's popularity more or less went on a downhill slide into its current irrelevant state, Diablo set off a chain of "clones" not unlike how DOOM did years earlier. The main difference is that none of them came close to the original. Just about every "loot" game has its roots in this one. Its influence still exists in gaming today.

• Sierra Entertainment resignations and scandals begin to consume company

Sierra On-Line became Sierra Entertainment and fell apart not long after Ken Williams resigned from the company after its sale. Though his wife Roberta would stick around to finish off her last game, King's Quest VIII, the corporate culture that ejected what made Sierra work crumbled almost instantly after their 1996 purchase. 1997 was fraught with even more resignations and emerging corporate scandals that would put many of these executives in jail. For all intents and purposes, 1997 was the end of Sierra. Over the next few years, Sierra would dissolve into nothing but an IP farm for Activision.

• GoldenEye 007 releases

GoldenEye 007 was a revolution for first person shooters and console gaming in 1997, showing just what could be done with this new 3D technology. It also caused a boom in James Bond video games followed by even more licensed games attempting to be just like it. It also eventually left developers to make "console shooters", by dumbing down elements of the genre that even GoldenEye 007 didn't dumb down, peaking in a little series called Call of Duty. Though the two games have nothing in common, the mentality that led to the state of the genre blossomed from GoldenEye 007's release.

• Grand Theft Auto and Postal release

I don't think I should have to say how the 1997 release of both Grand Theft Auto and Postal would eventually change that gaming landscape in years to come, though they wouldn't look much like they did when these games first came out. Nonetheless, open world, explicit, mature-rated games were becoming a force in the industry, and these games led the way for them. Within mere years they would release some of the most popular and influential games of all time. It began here.

• Gran Turismo releases

Gran Turismo doesn't quite enjoy the clout it once had, though in 1997 it successfully created a phenomenon that turned racing games into simulations. It's difficult to say how much of its influence remains today, as the only real popular racing games are Forza and Mario Kart, but it did successfully steer the genre further from its arcade roots, eventually ending up killing the genre's wider popularity, not unlike EA did with sports games. Perhaps it was too good at what it did? Who knows. But the era of Rock n' Roll Racing, Pole Position, and OutRun, was now over.

• Uyghyr Bus Bombings

28 people were injured and 9 killed in a series of bus bombings in China by the Uyghyr separatists in 1997. This was a response to the execution of 30 suspected separatists during Ramadan. This culminated in the Gulja Incident which killed 9 further protesters. As can be gleamed, China and the Uyghyrs do not have a friendly relationship with each other. They still do not to this day.

• Island of Peace Massacre

A Jordanian soldier opened fired at a group of Israeli school girls, killing 7, wounding 5, and also injuring their teacher. It was said he had mental problems, which was the only motive given. After the 1997 incident, the perpetrator spent 20 years in prison before being released in 2017.

• The Albanian Civil War

Entirely contained in 1997 to a period of six months, the Albanian Civil War was an odd one. Essentially, victims of a pyramid scheme began protesting for justice to be done and a reimbursement from the government. The prime minister resigned and the President declared a State of Emergency. The leader of the Socialist Party became the next prime minister, leading to even more protests. Order collapsed, causing a rise of criminal gangs and rebels. The UN sent in 7,000 troops which eventually aided in quelling the rebellion. The looted weapons were eventually made available to the Kosovo Liberation Army which became part of next year's Kosovo War. Death estimates are unknown, but low-balled to 2000-3000 and up to 5000 wounded. Essentially this all sparked from the first democratic elections of Albania in 1992. All of it spilled out here in 1997.

• Las Abejas' Acteal Massacre

In 1997, a massacre of 45 Catholics including women and children took place at a prayer meeting. This was supported by the Mexican government though that wasn't admitted until 2020. This occurred because the people were sympathetic to rebel causes and were slaughtered as law enforcement looked the other way. It would be nice to say that such a thing is rare in Mexico, but it really is not.

There is much more I did not mention, because this post is long enough. Nonetheless, 1997 was the end of much, and the start of many modern trends that still exist today. Many more events occurred as they always did oblivious to the rules of "progress" and utopianism that first worlders were still enamored by. That illusion would shatter permanently in just a few years. However, despite that bubble, the world spun on regardless.

As we end, we will check out 1998 which consists of the final sweep up of the changing landscape. This is where the remains of the previous decades crumbled and the final creatives were birthed that are all still enjoying success to this day. For all intents and purposes, 1998 is just a sweeping up of the smashed glass the previous two years caused.

By 1999, it was all gone.

1998

• Armageddon releases

The Michael Bay movie that put the final nail in the coffin for traditional blockbusters. You couldn't escape the song, the stars, or quotes, for a long time. But you have to remember that was also released in 1998. It had less staying power than Deep Impact, if that's even possible.

• There’s Something About Mary re-launches gross-out comedies

Comedy had a rough transition period from its 1980s popularity peak. Starting with There's Something About Mary in 1998, gross-out comedies made their big return to the cinema. Eventually they transformed into soppy Gen X dramas with crass jokes like the Judd Apatow movies where the gross-out stayed but the comedy gave way to improv and wacky situations. It's never really gone away, but audiences have.

• Bad Robot Productions forms

This might appear innocuous if you don't know what it is. Bad Robot is J.J. Abrams' production company responsible for . . . just look at every modern Hollywood "blockbuster" these days. His style of flash over substance and mindless mystery over coherence is seen all over the modern Hollywood landscape. And it started here, in 1998.

• Sony Pictures Entertainment Group formed from the ashes of Tristar and Columbia Pictures

Sony Pictures has been an outright disaster from the get-go, unable to get much in the way of hits, and even screwing up obvious moneymakers like Spider-Man. They combined Tristar and Columbia Pictures into a monstrosity named the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group. They are known as a punchline today, especially after the 2016 leaks, but they did form from two much better companies. Just like all mergers, it meant less jobs and less content being produced. 1998 just continued the trend from the past two years.

• Carlos Castaneda dies, his cult followers disappear overnight

Carlos Castaneda was a guru-type cult leader, not unlike the Oprah-backed John of God, who disappeared from public life in 1973 to his LA mansion. He was so popular that he was featured in Time Magazine and his books were the topic of every free-love advocate out there. To explain everything about him would be to write a full post, so we shall leave it there. After he died in 1998, several of his followers vanished. No one to this day really knows what he was doing in seclusion for 25 years. Near a decade later the remains of one of his disappeared followers was found in the desert.

• California bans smoking in all restaurants and bars

The first of many to come, 1998 showed the first western country to ban smoking from their property which soon spread everywhere.

• The Wide World of Sports canceled after 37 years

In this culture of sports as a lifestyle brand it is easy to forget when it was a more casual hobby. The Wide World of Sports was the program everyone went to when they wanted to indulge a little and relax. Since its ending, entire networks, websites, and subcultures have formed around the once innocuous hobby to blow it up to absurd levels. In retrospect, it is coincidental that this went off the air when it did in 1998. Perhaps it just wasn't obsessive enough for what was to come.

• Sex & the City premieres in 1998, based on the 1997 book

This phenomenon of older women obsessing about their degenerate sex-lives, due to not having anything else worth discussing, was the start of a trend that still exists today. Where it was fringe it is now mainstream. Instead of being relegated to cable, however, all the major networks air shows with this same aim and even more extreme content. The series itself might be forgotten, but its influence remains.

• Will & Grace begins

The same as the above. This is a series more well known for what it pushed than what it actually was, which was a bottom tier sitcom with the worst writing to be found on television. If it wasn't about a controversial topic, no one would remember how awful it actually was. 1998 was a fairly lousy year for sitcoms, with this being symbolic of the end of the format.

• That ‘70s Show starts

Third time is a charm. This is another series more well known for the edgy content it pushed than it was for the typical content it had. 1998 was a year where the sitcom died, being used as little more than magnet for controversy, leaving behind its roots of family entertainment forever. That said, this one was at least better written than the above two were, though it is no more memorable. Several of its stars' later fortunes can't help but raise some eyebrows, however.

• Shari Lewis dies 

The creator of the Lamb Chop puppet phenomenon, she passed away suddenly in 1998. Since her death children's entertainment is no longer the product of those who love children but of corporation-driven initiatives, mass market merchandising, and focus testing groups. Before that, it was the territory of normal people. She was very much the last of her kind.

• Pokemon anime premieres

The Pokemon games were a big hit out of the gate, but it was the anime coming out in 1998 that brought it to a whole new level of popularity, including creating many other kids shows just like it in the process. However, the anime series itself that started over 20 years ago is still on the air now and still exceedingly popular despite its age.

• Choose Your Own Adventures ends

This book series which took tabletop gaming into prose form way back in the 1970s was finally shelved in 1998 around the time many other male-friendly kid books were. For those who grew up in the '80s and '90s, these books were staples of every library, used book store, book fair, and child bookshelf. Their success was something to behold. They were short, pulpy, and popular. And by 1998, they were gone.

• Total Request Live starts

At the same time the record companies were unleashing their carefully constructed pop stars on the world, MTV joined in with their own teenybopper program to hype up these new acts. Within a year, TRL would become a monster hit with its host Carson Daly soon getting a career of his own. 1998 was the year of bubblegum, and it is one that has still never ended, even long after TRL was shelved after serving its advertising purpose for the recording labels.

• Dawson’s Creek begins

I'm not certain what it was with the late '90s and the obsession with raunchy young adult programming, but its peak came in the 1998 melodrama Dawson's Creek. No longer would younger audiences get adventures, but soap operas with plenty of sex, drugs, and moral lessons, that were as vapid as the era itself was. Though the show itself has been forgotten, and its stars went on to much bigger things, its influence has never truly died.

• Murphy Brown and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman end

These were programs for older women that ran their course at just about the same time. What is odd is that these were huge juggernauts at the same time and had much cultural impact, but as shows themselves were forgotten rather fast. They would also be replaced with series for hip, "younger" urbanite demographics to cash in on the Friends fad that was exploding at this time. Nonetheless, they were still the last of their kind.

• CBS’s "Friday Night Block Party" family block canceled after one season

Another sign of the death of family programming on TV was CBS's one attempt to rival ABC's TGIF block. It only last one season, and they even poached two of ABC's flagship family sitcoms for their own Block Party Friday night block. However, they did not support it well and the two other series that were on the Block Party were canceled rather fast with the other two making it to the end of the season. Family Matters and Step By Step were two of the biggest sitcoms of the '90s, but they were quickly memory-holed by CBS without even so much as a send off despite all their success. 1998 was the end of the sitcom, and family programming as a whole.

• Milton Bradley closes, becomes brand

One of the biggest board game manufacturer's closed down in 1998. With the decline of board games in the ensuing years it lingered on as little more than a brand name to sell newer releases of old product. The old Milton Bradley was known for quality, not the cheap cardboard and pathetic plastic the current editions are made of. But it isn't remembered for much else these days.

• The Secret World of Alex Mack ends

One of Nickelodeon's last originals concerned a young girl who got superpowers and had to hide from the people who created her. Much like Are You Afraid of The Dark?, this was an anomaly, and future Nickelodeon live action shows would solely be sitcoms produced by skeevy characters with shady connections. In other words, this was one of the last attempts the network made to compete and differentiate itself from the competition. Adventure shows as a whole were more or less dead by 1998 as it was.

• Spider-Man cartoon ends

The 1990s Spider-Man cartoon was the first real attempt to adapt the comics to the screen and was fairly successful at doing it. However, much like X-Men ending, it showed a change in focus was coming for these franchises. Their next attempts at these franchises would all be focus-tested and aimed at demographics that didn't really respond to them as they had with these early series. But this was the climate by 1998.

• Animaniacs ends

The end of WB's "Silver Age" of animation came to a close with the end of the popular Animaniacs in 1998, the last original. A series of shows and spin offs that started with Tiny Toon Adventures at the beginning of the decade, gained massive popularity and are still looked at fondly. However, after the end of Animaniacs, the older style of gag cartoons more or less died with it. There has never been a "Bronze Age" for WB, let's put it that way.

• Babylon 5 ends

Despite its rocky final season and network interference, the ambitious Babylon 5's attempt to create a space opera story with a finite length went over big with audiences. Though it was influential for much that came later, network TV never really attempted a new series like this after 1998. In many ways it was the start of a new era while also the end of another one.

• "OK Computer" by Radiohead releases

With this album, Radiohead changed the landscape of alternative rock, turning it into a despairing sadsack genre of music with a post-modern obsession on sound over songcraft and internal concerns over the external. What is odd is that despite how popular this album was, and how much it sold, your average normal person would not even know who they were or what their most popular song is. OK Computer came out in 1998 and succeeded in turning alterative rock insular permanently, and towards a hipster demographic that created sites such as Pitchfork and insufferable youtube channels. Combine this with the rise of corporate bubblegum, and you can just see the industry splitting at the seams.

• Gladstone Publishing shut down

Gladstone was a company that focused on selling Disney comics, one of their few ventures whose popularity is entirely due to overseas sales as opposed to their own homeland. After a publishing implosion all of their comics aside from two ceased publication and the publisher shut down. Today Disney has other avenues of comics, but their original comics have never quite gotten the focus or attention they did everywhere else. And after 1998, they probably never will.

• DC Comics consumes Wildstorm

Much like Marvel, DC was on a rampage consuming companies. One of the most promising was Wildstorm, which carried lines such as Cliffhanger that attempted to do more than superhero comics. After being absorbed, the properties were all relegated to the backburner or outright forgotten, much like everything else that the Big Two consumed throughout the '90s. One can't help but wonder if things like this would have happened in 1998 if companies like Marvel had been allowed to go under. We will never know.

• Penny Arcade begins

1998 was the beginning of the age of webcomics, a topic one could make endless jokes about, but I will refrain. One of the early examples was Penny Arcade, a comic on the gaming subculture that became a template for the burgeoning medium going forward. Penny Arcade would grow tremendously over the years, eventually starting their own gaming convention years later. It all began here with this straightforward, innocuous webcomic.

• Phil Hartman murdered

Where Chris Farley's death was saddening, it was Phil Hartman's 1998 murder that really hit many younger audience members hard. His mentally ill wife shot him before turning her weapon on herself during a particularly bad argument. You see, Phil Hartman had a natural charisma, much like Chris Farley, that drew people to him. Unlike Farley, Hartman was doing well, on a popular show, starring in hit movies, and was fantastic in everything he did. His death came out nowhere like a splash of a bucket of cold water. To this day there is no one like Phil Hartman who did what he did, and there never will be. Especially not out of Hollywood.

• Fraud discovered at Sierra

This was the period where Sierra Entertainment's stock crashed and they were thrown towards bankruptcy. It is hard to believe that the company was only sold two years prior at a creative and commercial peak, only to end up on death's door in 1998 with only a handful of products to be squeaked out the door over the next few years. This sort of closure would never happen today, of course, though that's part of why this list even exists.

• StarCraft releases

After Diablo, StarCraft cemented Blizzard Entertainment as the #1 PC developer of the time. StarCraft was a strategy game phenomenon, eventually taking the world by storm, especially with its eventual sequel. Little did anyone know that it would be one of their last original IPs, one that they would just let die off without much in the way of support, or a sequel, decades later. But 1998 is seen as the peak of PC gaming for a reason. StarCraft is one of those reasons. 

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time releases

The N64's second biggest game was also one of the biggest of 1998, still making best of all time lists to this day. Though it is essentially just the SNES's A Link to the Past in 3D, a lot of technical firsts were made with this game that carried over into the wider industry from game design to mechanics. You'll still find elements of its design in AAA games today.

• Half-Life releases

What Half-Life is known for is taking the level-based approach of the First Person Shooter action genre, and turning it into an immersive world with a focus on story. It was the first game to rely on story over game design, with everything supporting the story and everything else coming second. Though it worked for this one, it is an approach the industry would adopt in the years to come to far less impressive results. By 1998, the older style of shooter was becoming extinct.

• Metal Gear Solid releases

The second game from 1998 to put story first. Metal Gear Solid put Hideo Kojima's name on the map, taking him from a producer of visual novels into a game designer that put story and CG cinematics at the forefront of the game. Where once your reward in games was high scores or more gameplay, Metal Gear Solid changed it into seeing the next overblown and exciting cutscene. This would be the approach the AAA game industry would take video games, forgoing the old ways entirely in the decades to come.

• Westside School Shooting

Two children, age 13 and 11, walked into Westside School and shot four children and a teacher dead and wounded ten others. No motive was ever given for the event. As mentioned before, then President Bill Clinton supposedly put Janet Reno on a task to find out the causes of the recent school shootings. However, nothing was ever done, and the Columbine massacre occurred the next year in 1999. Columbine was merely one event in a long string of them, as horrific as it was, but the problem was never addressed. Instead, schools merely became worse prisons to incarcerate children into. Something could have been done in 1997 or 1998 before things spun even further out of control, but nothing ever was. They weren't gamers, by the way.

• US Embassy Bombings

Over 200 people were killed, and 4000 injured, in two separate truck bombings in East Africa on the US Embassy. The perpetrators were Al Qaeda, and Osama Bin Laden. This attack ended up putting him on the FBI's most wanted list. It was believed to be a reprisal for a skirmish that happened in Albania two months previous, and was scheduled for the eighth anniversary of the US's arrival in Saudi Arabia during the early stages of the Persian Gulf War. This event in 1998 was the first public mark Bin Laden would make, but it wouldn't be the last.

• The Kosovo War

Kosovo was mentioned earlier as part of the Albanian mess, but they would have problems of their own in 1998 that stretched into 1999. It was fought between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army which had support from NATO. Eventually a treaty was signed after many bloody campaigns and massacres. Over 13,500 casualties are reported, and NATO's involvement remains controversial even in 2020. The ethnic conflict, however, still continues to this day.

• The Troubles officially end

At the same time Yugoslavia was being bombed to bits by NATO, the Troubles in Ireland were officially coming to an end. The conflict in Northern Ireland between the Catholic Nationalists and the Protestant Loyalists lasted near 30 years before the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 "officially" brought them to an end, though sporadic attacks still exist. Over 3500 civilians were killed since they began, not including combatants.

And now I must bring this post to an end. I hope you got something out of this massive catalog of what we call Cultural Ground Zero, the moment culture became what it has been for over two decades of stagnation.

The reason I wanted to make this post is because this is a thought that has bothered me for a long time now. Why has so little felt like it has changed? Why is it that bad things remain unchanged and unwilling to "progress" along with the good things that have vanished? Why is it that we accept things being the way they are despite knowing they aren't what we want them to be, or what they should be? Why does it feel like we're still in the late '90s?

The 2000s were a dud, a relative nothing in the grand scheme of things except a downhill slide into the pit that was dug in 1997. I have stated there will be no mass nostalgia movement centered on the 2000s for the simple fact that you can't have nostalgia for something that has never gone away. Everything that came to be in the late '90s is still around today. There was '80s and '90s nostalgia fairly quick in the early '00s, indicating there was something wrong long before anyone noticed it. But the '00s ended a decade ago and there has been no mass movement for nostalgia over it. Heck, '90s nostalgia rarely includes things made post-'97, just for that reason. I hope this post successfully explained just why that might be the case.

Of course there are also things I didn't cover that started long before, and continued long after, 1997, mostly because they were irrelevant to the thesis. I can't list every Islamist attack, especially the countless ones in India over the decade. I would run out of space. Discussing the atrocities in Colombia or Sri Lanka at the time is counter productive when the conflict started long before and continued long after, as if the passage of time didn't even matter. That is a different sort of Cultural Ground Zero than the one that was happening in the west.

I don't want this to be a defeatist post or a celebration of anything, but to instead be a marker of an era that should be looked into more than it has been. Something happened in the 1990s that led to the death of culture, creativity, and any sense of progress or hope, before 9/11 came along to deliver the final blow. In order to get beyond this stagnancy we will have to face it, and find a path forward again. We cannot keep putting it off and ignoring this reality.

The world that existed before 1997 doesn't exist anymore. Instead we're living in a perpetual state of endless repetition of the same trends, the same fashion, and the same events, over and over again. Nothing is happening in the present, the past is vilified, and there is no future beyond degeneracy and mindless hedonism. We're about to enter 1997 part 24 next year of the same cycle we've been trapped in since the end of the 20th century. It's about time to move on, don't you think? There is nothing left to salvage from this nightmare that hasn't been corrupted or destroyed. It's time to wake up and move on already.

What we can do is remember what we lost and take it forward with us as we look toward a brighter future. We can do better than the current state of cultural decline, and we will.

Nothing stays the same forever. Eventually, the sun sets, and then it rises again. Eventually you have to walk out of the other end of the tunnel.

It'll just take some time, and effort.