The 1990s: A Visual History of the Decade

A visual celebration of a seminal decade. As the Cold War ended and a new millennium approached, grunge, hip-hop, and rave exploded in popularity as teens and twenty-somethings sought something real, something more meaningful. Ostentation went out of style. Authenticity was in vogue.

And so, we had the first signs of reality television, the O.J. Simpson trial, the rise of surveillance culture, and the internet. We had the first warnings about the world of social media with The Truman Show and The Blair Witch Project, which exploited the emerging visual language of DIY video content. We heard the rallying cry of “Girl Power!” from the riot grrrls and the Spice Girls. We argued about East Coast versus West Coast rap, and Biggie versus Tupac. Ice-T went from “Cop Killer” to TV detective, and Will Smith from the Fresh Prince to a man in black. Cults, crop circles, and conspiracy theories spread as The X-Files and The Matrix lifted the curtain on fictional hidden truths. It was the end of history, and the last great moment of print media... or so we thought. This book explores history, art, film, music, and culture in a unique, immersive, and visual narrative of a conflicted and momentous decade. A fascinating ecosystem of influences between high and low culture, this stimulating volume makes sense of the decade's recurring motifs, trends, and themes, from supermodels to airport style, and from the fall of the Soviet Union to the end of the world.