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90s Music and Movies REALLY WERE Better – Here’s Why

Digging The Greats | October 10, 2026



Tune into DTG One, the 24/7 Radio Station at http://radio.diggingthegreats.com

Thanks to Revel Day, Chuck Klosterman, Be Kind Video, and everyone who took the 90s survey!

Revel Day: https://www.instagram.com/revel_day?obrf=MWdxNjFvd3I2Nzk0Zg==

Chuck Klosterman’s book “The Nineties” – https://a.co/d/03Ta19Fq

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Interview Channel – @DiggingTheTalks

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THANK YOU TO THE MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TIER ON PATREON
Sam Deka
Josh Nelson

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CHAPTERS
00:00 Were the 90s better?
01:28 The cost of a good movie
02:23 The most powerful force in the universe
02:51 The 90s were better!
03:44 Rewind
04:33 A Man and his Powerpoint
07:00 Mid-budget Stories
08:48 The Two Extremes
09:55 90s Movies are better.
11:15 What Happened to TV
12:36 Which one is fake?
13:55 Irony
15:09 2020s TV is better?
16:13 The Album in Final Form
18:42 Things Fall Apart
19:51 The Best it will Ever Sound
20:35 Is a hook a song?
21:28 Digital Deceleration
22:07 Short, Niche, and Backwards
23:12 The Formats are the Key
24:32 Wait, are the 2020s better?

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SOURCES
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735217963?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_0VA4SRAA7GA75XPY6RMM&bestFormat=true
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls064789094/
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls543195889/
https://youtu.be/yaXma6K9mzo?t=841
https://hmc.chartmetric.com/shorter-songs-trend-streaming-history/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1029864917698010
https://newsroom.tiktok.com/tiktok-and-luminate-release-latest-music-impact-report?lang=en
https://comicbookclublive.com/2025/07/27/avengers-doomsday-isnt-finished-being-written-three-months-into-production/
https://www.goldderby.com/video/alan-cumming-interview-the-traitors-emmys/
https://qz.com/1519823/is-spotify-making-songs-shorter
https://www.billboard.com/pro/hot-100-top-10s-30-seconds-shorter-2019/
https://www.billboard.com/business/record-labels/lil-boo-thang-tiktok-viral-artist-paul-russell-signs-arista-1235394491/
https://www.billboard.com/pro/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-shortest-hot-100-number-one-since-1965/

Written by Digging The Greats

Comments

This post currently has 26 comments.

  1. @sactownbull1

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    I'm 62 years old and think the 90s is the worst musical decade of my lifetime. Especially for funk/soul. Thank god we had gfunk and Maxwell's UHS or the whole decade would have been a waste.

  2. @g0stkid8_3

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    10:33 Hahaha you pulled out a deep cut right there. I got to take Shadow (Ben) to show and tell when I was in fifth grade. The lady who owned him was my grandma’s dog groomer. That movie is still great!

  3. @suavobaby90

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    Actually being a 1990 baby, I grew up in the 2000s remembering a lot from my kid/toddler years… A LOOOOOOOT I DO REMEMBER VERY WELL!!! Later on in the 2000s, I was a teen looking back on old VHS recordings of Yo MTV Rapz + early Rap City episodes my Pops had leftover thinking, "I wondered what it was like being a teen in 1990, bet that time was fun ASF and most memorable for those that were teens" 🤔
    9:55 Sticking to this statement 💯

  4. @darrenwilkinson1742

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    I agree with most of what you have to say especially regarding 90’s music and movies. However whilst streaming has launched more great TV shows it has also killed them too. The streaming services are obsessed with throwing massive stars at TV projects and if they do not immediately turn into block busters they kill them. This issue is so bad now that I refuse to watch a new show until there is a few seasons out due to the disappointment I’ve felt having a show cancelled mid way through a story…. They also tend to trend chase, genres like family friendly sci fi has taken a huge slide in this generation….

  5. @darkskinwhite

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    That author guy is so wrong about the 70s and 80s. They do the same thing. My mom is all about the 70s and my girlfriend’s dad hates everything that existed before or after the 80s. It’s the same as we do for the 90s

  6. @the-good-chad

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    Excellent video as usual. There’s something you touched on that I think is the bigger underlying issue than any perceived quality difference between decades: Curation. I don’t think media is inherently better or worse now than in the 90s. There’s just SO MUCH of it that it’s become very difficult to find the media you love the most. The barrier to entry for making and releasing art gets lower every day, and that’s a double edged sword. It’s easier than ever to produce absolute trash, but on the flip side it’s easier than ever for truly brilliant creatives to make and distribute their masterpieces. I think the worst AND the best art is being made right now. There’s just so much noise that we perceive it all to be inherently worse.

    I think another important piece is that profit has become pretty much the only motivation for mainstream media. It always has been a main incentive, but damn it is like nothing else matters at all today. Conventional wisdom says that the best thing sells. But today it seems that media companies are seeing that optimization sells more than quality. And good luck convincing any big media company that increased quality is worth sacrificing a single dollar.

    TL;DR: It is the best of times. It is the worst of times. Capitalism ruins everything.

  7. @jonstrocity

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    Nobody yearned for the 80s? That phrase with the "expert" lost me. That makes ZERO sense. People yearn for the music and movies from the 80s far more than the 90s. But yes, EARLY 90s hip hop is amazing. But the rest belongs to the 80s.

  8. @SkyVega-lp7rq

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    Everything is disposable today. Watch movies today and they're using so much music from the 90's to set the mood while 90's movies play original artists we still listen to today while in 15 years are we really going to still know the words and remember Drake or Taylor Swift songs written today.

  9. @JB2X-Z

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    16:00 On this point: I guess I never really got the cooler-talk aspect of it as most of the stuff I watched was seasonal anime, which in itself was already fragmented when it came to discussion groups. And when there was one on some open forum on the internet, it turned into a very close-knit community which I always engaged in.

    I guess it doesn't really help that I'm not what is considered socially normal as it is anyway, so there's also that.

  10. @JB2X-Z

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    The only point I will make when it comes to comparing the finale of Seinfeld to the finale of Game of Thrones: You can't really properly make that comparison as Seinfeld was broadcast on OTA TV and wasn't part of some premium cable channel like HBO back in the day. It would have been something to compare it to if it were comparing something like The Sopranos to Game of Thrones as both are premium subscription content. In comparison to how much money was potentially made between the two, Game of Thrones was likely to be far more profitable than Seinfeld.

  11. @unworthyServant08

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    Your love/hate graph was poorly drawn! If you loved J.Lo as much as you hated Office Romance, and you loved the male lead as much as you hated the movie, then you obviously love the actors more than the movie! So the movie was bearable, maybe even enjoyable for you! LOL

  12. @thetruthstand

    October 10, 2026 at 8:08 am

    I think it's relative. It all just depends. For those who grew up in the era, they're always going to feel it's better because it was connected to a more innocent, carefree time versus later in life when it's mostly about responsibility and work, and life becomes much more cynical as you get older. Because of course those who've grown up in the 2000s are going to think their time is better because it's newer, just like we probably thought the same way versus the 60s and the 70s. While yes there are definite advantages to this time, but there are trade-offs that balance everything out. There are things that are really bad about the way life is now, but are better in a lot of ways as well, but then there are trade-offs that are really negative.

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