The '90s Greatest

In the ’90s, a new generation is on the march — baby boomers come of age and come to power as they revolutionize everything from politics and pop culture to aging. This generation doesn’t want to grow up. Plastic surgery takes off. Madonna reinvents the stadium tour and invents a new type of phenomenon — all-access celebrity. Bill Clinton comes to power despite a multitude of scandals.

As ’90s technology advances, the boundaries between fantasy and reality have blurred, in a world where wars are fought like video games and video games like wars, and nobody seems to know the difference. But when Hollywood harnesses godlike powers of creation, building new worlds and spawning new beasts, reality will never be the same again.

The AIDS crisis forces America to talk frankly about sex. With the floodgates open, porn becomes mainstream. Evangelical Christians mount a nationwide abstinence movement called True Love Waits, while the president finds himself embroiled in the biggest sex scandal of the decade. The press frenzy that ensued fuels the public appetite for sex and changes America’s view of the presidency.

The ’90s is the era when real life mounts a TV takeover. The birth of reality TV blurs the boundary between fact and fiction, news turns into entertainment and everyday life plays out as high drama. From the brutal beating of Rodney King to the raw violence of the LA riots and the celebrity circus of the O.J. Simpson trial, every story unfolds in real time in front of the TV audience.

A look at the decade when fascination with celebrities, scandal and gossip becomes a dangerous obsession. An explosion of new channels, magazines and websites creates an unprecedented hunger for content, with no story considered off-limits. As the press delves into the private lives of public figures and paparazzi follow celebrities’ every move, it’s only a matter of time until tragedy strikes.

In the ’90s, the internet’s birth heralds a new age, but even tech gurus like Bill Gates almost miss how revolutionary it will be. The web expands, and celebrities Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s stolen sex tape will have an unexpected effect on how the internet is used. Warning of the net’s dark side is missed, and the rush to invest makes big winners and even bigger losers in the dot-com bubble.