Teenage girls who listen to the very good album on repeat Guts by Californian Olivia Rodrigo, just 20 years old, hear intelligent pop, super well produced and devilishly effective.
The forty-year-olds of my generation, the Xenniaux (neither millennials nor Green Day, pillars of these glorious 1990s, smoked and sprayed with CK One.
Born in 2003, popstar Olivia Rodrigo didn’t know this era of flannel, combat boots, film Singles and long hair parted right down the middle like Alanis Morissette. And yet, the pretty video clip for his latest extract, Bad Idea Right?sticks to the retro aesthetic of two notable teen films from the 1990s, Can’t Hardly Wait And Empire Recordswith Renée Zellweger and Liv Tyler, another icon of this decade torn between candy pop and rough grunge.
The 1990s, a source of inexhaustible nostalgia, will never leave us. The little life resurrected, A boy a girl also, just like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The most prominent barbers practice the modified Longueuil cut, Patrick Huard style at the start of their careers.
Gen Z is dressing like they’re at a Smashing Pumpkins show in 1995, period Bullets With Butterfly Wings.
Baggy, threadbare t-shirts, baggy cargo pants that drag on the floor, crew neck necklace (the choker !), these teenagers are putting on the clothes once worn by their parents, who weren’t all that cool.
In psychological suspense Eyes closedonline on the Tou.tv Extra, the author Anita Rowan set part of her plot in 1994 (Kurt Cobain!) and embellished it with Pearl Jam sweaters and the success Runaway Train from Soul Asylum.
At the Osheaga festival in the summer, the very successful looks of “ravers” from 1997 gave a look of age to all those who shopped for their evening outfits at Juan & Juanita, at Cours Mont-Royal, or who collected sweaters from the Montreal brand Fidel.
In the street, it is not uncommon to come across Zs, dressed as in Cluelesswho speak into a flip phone, the famous flipwhere writing a text takes forever, 2-555-555-666, hello!
PHOTO JON RAGEL, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox Arquette, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston, the actors of Friends, the cult series from the 1990s
These 1990s, which saw the birth Friends and the cult film Reality Bites, however, were not so rosy and trippy. However, there reigned a kind of carefreeness and candour, which allowed a lot of freedom.
We strolled for hours at the mall or McDonald’s, wandered through parks drinking Black Label from a brown paper bag without our parents geolocating us or setting off an AMBER alert.
Those were the simpler times, before the internet. No one filmed themselves in the parties. No one was uploading Instagram or TikTok every two seconds. We celebrated among ourselves, in a closed circuit, and no compromising photos or videos were circulated. You had to be there, liveas a guy would sayOD.
It is probably this disconnected aspect that people under 20 miss. Living without an electronic leash. Goofy, take your time. Have fun without documenting everything. Carry on a conversation by looking at the other person’s eyes and not their smartphone. And get rid of the pressure to live a perfect life on social media.
Now, if you still dream of spaghetti straps and short tank tops, a good old “crop top”, watch the documentary miniseries The Super Models on Apple TV+, which chronicles the phenomenal influence that four star models had 30 years ago: Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford.
Yes, these four gorgeous women were already walking the runways, but this is their spectacular appearance in the music video Freedom! 90 by George Michael, directed by filmmaker David Fincher, who catapulted them to the rank of global stars. Friends in real life, Naomi, Linda, Cindy and Christy were immense popular culture phenomena, who transcended the catwalks of Milan or Paris. The whole planet knew their perfect faces.
And these models were beautiful, intelligent, influential and savvy all at the same time. They defined the style glam and flamboyant from the first half of the 1990s, before the Kate Moss clones – with emaciated faces – knocked them off the podium.
This was the beginning of the unfortunate “heroin chic” trend (like drugs), which is also returning with its sunken cheeks and deep dark circles. In truth, we tolerate the return of Spice Girls-style platform shoes quite well, but extreme thinness is a no-no.
Just like the Tornade and Boomerang “beers”, stay in your century, thank you.
I levitate
With Kathleen Fortin in A criminal case
She is amazing in the role of the sister of Jasmin Poupart (Hubert Proulx), who was shot dead by police officer Laurence Malenfant (Alice Moreault). This type of poky character, who comes from a poor background, can often fall into caricature. But Kathleen Fortin succeeds in making this woman credible and real, with all her faults and very colorful language. Well done.
I avoid it
Canac radio ads
“Say “mom”, my beautiful boy! » “Ca-nac!” ” ” No mother” ! » “Ca-nac!” » “The baby says Canac, but not mom, it’s ridiculous,” complains the mother in this ad from the Quebec hardware store, which plays 27 times a day on commercial radio. “My love, what’s ridiculous is the prices at Canac,” replies the father, while the baby finally pronounces the word… daddy. OK, it’s fun once in a day, three at the most, but such a bombardment removes the taste of “canaquer”, a verb which means to save, for the uninitiated.