As for the 90s, the decade started out with the zenith of the alternative music scene. Not only the grunge bands, like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, but other alternative acts like the Smashing Pumpkins, the Indigo Girls, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees did pretty well, and some, like REM, became so successful they were mainstream, to their disconcertment. The indies, having shown that they were profitable, were beginning to get studio financing, but that meant they had more resources, and that greater innovation began to affect Hollywood. By the middle of the decade, someone like Quentin Tarantino could leap from being a clerk at Blockbuster, to selling a script for a moderately successful movie, to directing his own script as an indie, to being seriously bankrolled (Pulp Fiction). Pedro Almodovar suddenly had a big hit with his campy import Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, followed by Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down. Wim Wenders had a big hit with Wings of Desire. Various foreign films were doing serious box office, on a comparative basis. In the states, David Lynch became one of the most talked about directors with Blue Velvet, and later invaded tv with Twin Peaks.
Now, this not only demonstrates a dynamic cultural environment, but it also has another peculiar feature: one's familiarity with such things may have been determined by educational level or social class, but ideology was a poor predictor. I was a reception for a conservative conference once, and someone excused himself because he needed to get dinner on in time to watch Twin Peaks. At another forum, Irving Kristol startled everyone by mentioning that the only tv show he watched regularly was Northern Exposure (one of my favorites), a left- leaning but intellectually stimulating comedy. Although some Buchanan supporter types were put off, and murmured ominously, a large fraction of the audience applauded.
The New Republic, a bastion of liberalism, actually hired a couple some moderates, and occasionally published unorthodox (critical) pieces about contemporary liberalism. National Review, on the other hand, occasionally invited Democrats and socialist like Christopher Hitchens to contribute to brewing controversies.
All in all, my perception of the 90s is that it was not remarkably subject to group- think, or close- minded, that it was a time of ferment....... |
