’90s Style: Putting the Reebok Ventilator in Cultural Context

It’s impossible to imagine the state of animated television series without The Simpsons, but in 1990 the show was the newest addition to the TV lineup. After 48 one-minute shorts on The Tracy Ullman Show, Matt Groening got his shot at the big times and hasn't missed a season since. The show actually debuted at the very end of 1989, but that first season that inhabited most of 1990 would prove to be one of the most significant benchmarks in scripted television history.

After serving 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was finally freed in 1990. His freedom had been taken away due to his vehement objection of the racist system of Apartheid, specifically for inciting workers’ strikes. His release marked the beginning of the end of Apartheid in South Africa, bringing legal equality, and therefore, legitimate freedom to the black African majority of the country. Mandela died at the end of last year, spurring global grief and reflection on the way he changed the hearts of the world.

In 1990, the then new pop duo Milli Vanilli (Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan) won the Grammy for Best New Artist. They had just burst into the scene with their velvet voices, sculpted bodies, and super fresh dance moves. Women folded before them like reeds, and the industry kowtowed just as readily. It wasn’t until after they won the Grammy when they were discovered to be fakers. In the middle of a live performance of their hit song “Girl You Know It’s True,” the CD that supplied their singing voices repeatedly skipped, revealing that not only did the pair lip sync, but they used voices that weren’t theirs. Talk about knowing the truth. In fact, there were five vocalists (Charles Shaw, John Davis, Brad Howell, and twin sisters Jodie and Linda Rocco) on those tracks. Pilatus and Morvan never really recovered their careers, having lost the faith of the people, but leaving behind a fantastic cautionary tale.

After being in development since the ’70s, the Hubble Space Telescope was finally launched in 1990. The Hubble was not the first space telescope, but it was certainly the most advanced of its time, thus dubbed “the greatest advance in astronomy since Galileo invented the telescope.” Since its launch, it has enabled us to look deeper into space than we’ve ever looked before, which is owed in part to the fact that it is outside of our stratosphere (and doesn’t have to contend with the sun’s rays bouncing off the atmosphere). Countless advances in astrophysics have been made possible by what we’ve learned from this giant piece of rocket science. It’s scheduled to stay at full operation until 2020. The next space telescope, the James Webb, should launch in 2018.

In 1990, TIME magazine’s Man of the Year, and, incidentally, the President of the United States of America, George H. W. Bush, admitted that he doesn’t like all his vegetables. But he did it without apology. He said, “I do not like broccoli. I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m the President of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.” Talk about a power move. His other power move that year? Unveiling a $1.2 trillion budget, the largest by far in American history up until that point, as well as adding more to the American debt than any of his predecessors.

In 1990 a few guys got together to try out what they had dubbed the “WorldWideWeb” (it was all one word at the beginning). It was a network that allowed computers to talk to one another, which was nothing new, except that it wasn't private. Their idea was that this web would enable any computer that wanted to connect with any other willing computer. This is when the Internet was invented, and when it was turned on. And, yes, Al Gore had a part in it. As a senator, the future Vice President made funding available for developing the Internet with “The Gore Bill,” which was passed and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush. If you were an early adopter of the WordWideWeb, you might have been running on Windows 3.0, which was also launched in 1990.

If you’re a super stylish sneakerhead, then you might wear joggers. Sure, they came onto the market three or four years ago, but the grand daddy of all joggers was the hot statement piece in 1990. MC Hammer’s “Hammer Pants” captivated a nation and held the attention of our hearts and minds for most of the year. It was a confusing time for everyone, but the drop-crotch parachute pants were on point. They were, as it’s said, untouchable.

A lot of us spent our childhoods waiting for our parents to leave the house so we could run amok, raiding the fridge and watching TV as loudly as we wanted to without reproach. One of us got that wish, and ended up spending Christmas all on his own. His name was Kevin McCallister and he was left Home Alone in one of the greatest movies of all time. Home Alone had everything: Christmas-themed booby traps, old men salting sidewalks, and even polka playing in the back of a truck. He was eventually reunited with his family, only to lose them again in New York the following year. Get it together, McCallisters.

In the late 1980s Coca-Cola was looking to make a splash with a revised recipe of their beverage. It totally bombed. Coke was forced to put its old recipe back in circulation after only 77 days, calling it “Coca-Cola Classic” to make sure people knew it was the OG recipe, while naming the newer recipe “New Coke” and then eventually “Coke II” in 1990, before officially adopting “Coke II” in 1992. A decade later, Coke II would be pulled off the market entirely, and just a few years ago “Coca-Cola Classic” dropped the signifier and returned to just being “Coke.”

Let’s cut the pretense: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was one of the most significant contributors to the sneaker world. What Will Smith wore became cool in cities all over America. To this day we still discuss the impact that Will had on the sneaker world during those six years in Bel-Air, and it all started in 1990, when Fresh Prince premiered.