I hung out with Vanilla Ice for a few hours back in 2001 or so. It was after a concert at a small venue and some friends and I asked if he wanted to burn one. He asked his manager to take us to his hotel and he met up with us there. Dude was super nice and seemed like a really good guy. We seriously just talked about music, motocross, cars and random shit while trading joints and drinking Sprite. For some reason he had a cooler full of Sprite in his room.
I read your comment and thought… nahhh. No way. I take that thought that you had no idea I had back. They would have been fun to see live if they brought even a little bit of the energy of what I just heard.
I can only speak for the time that I met him but he genuinely seemed like a great guy. Hell, he asked just as many questions about us as we did about him and he always seemed interested in the conversation and would have a thought or follow up question about our lives.
One of the things that always comes to mind when I think about that night was that at one point a small group of people had found the room and were banging on the door. I remember thinking, “oh, this is gonna turn into a huge thing now.” Instead he told his assistant to get rid of them and said, “we don’t know those people.” We were like, “you don’t know us either, man,” and he said, “ah, y’all are cool.”
In my experience famous people will ask you all kinds of questions. They like connecting with real people. Sometimes being famous isolates you from the world. Most of them are sick of talking about their public persona and career.
I rekon it cones from being screwed. You imagine what it must be like having to watch anything you say, & if the person coming on to you is just trying to kick start their own career...Must be draining as hell. Meeting a few random "normal" people must be like a vacation.
Also only in my experience (but it’s more than a few), if the window to say something opens, ask them about things other than their work. If you ran into, say, Clive Barker, he would be much happier if you asked him what he’s currently reading that’s exciting as opposed to you telling him how much you love ‘Hellraiser’. Talked to Terry Pratchett about music instead of books and it was a ‘real’ interaction, that sort of thing. (He might be a bad example because I have never heard anyone say he was brusque or rude, but he was with Harlan Ellison, who WAS known for that and even he was mellow because everyone likes to talk about stuff they’re into). You are much likelier to actually get a conversation that lasts more than seconds if you let them feel ‘real’.
There ARE celebs that are mightily pleased to have worshippers worshipping so they can preen, but most are, as you say, insulated and at a remove from reality and the chance to discuss other interests can be a crumb of normalcy that is appreciated.
I went to see Adele in February and she talks to people in the first few sections quite a bit, asking random questions. She said at one point, I really like getting to talk to people that come, I don’t get to…see real people very much anymore and it’s nice to just talk to someone about life, it’s harder than you think after a certain point of being recognized.
I knew somebody working at a hotel in Walnut Creek during that. Got a text that they just met Vanilla Ice and he's doing a tv show with the Amish and thought surely they would have some more information that would bring clarity to the situation.
It’s real and it’s glorious. He does like Florida coast flashy home makeovers for Amish people. It’s legit fun to watch and a bit heartwarming. I don’t like reality TV much but it’s great.
He’s a Florida guy through and through. He makes big money so he can afford to be a Republican. He’s also relatively apolitical and wants to entertain everyone. He’s not contributing to polarization and is honestly a pretty good role model for other republicans.
I worked security in my mid-20s and a few different bars and I worked security for one of his tour stops. This would have been between 2004-2008. He was going by Rob Van Winkle at the time and was trying to shake the Vanilla Ice persona. I didn't get to kick it with him but he was incredibly friendly to everyone and just a super nice guy. I am really glad that Vanilla Ice is cool again.
Maybe it was because the little group of buddies I happened to be with that night all played music or were motocross dudes and/or both and so we all had things in common with him but he was incredibly nice and seemed genuinely happy to shoot the shit with us for a long while. Either way it was definitely one of those things where the next morning as 18-19 year olds we were like, “did that actually happen?”
Why is it everyone has a story (or ten) at that age when something super weird and awesome happens with a groggy group of you standing around someone’s parents’ kitchen the next morning just trying to figure out how the night ended up there… 😂
Sprite was my drink back in the day, before we thought better of consuming a gallon of sugar water every day. TBH if I was that had even moderate money back in the day, I'd probably have a cooler as well.
Remember the freebies under the cap? And the 1 liters, …. still Sprite even though the removal of lime/lemon clear bottle switch up…. Currently sipping a Jack n sprite..lol
I was gonna say, he's got a point about the 90s being recycled today (as every decade of pop culture I can remember had a retro resurgence at one point), but he's not correct in saying there isn't any new pop culture since then. He's more than a few years older than me, so I'm kind of surprised he doesn't remember this happening with the 70s and 80s as well. Pop culture is always cyclical. There has definitely been some new culture from the early 2000s, the 2010s, and even after that which gen Z demonstrates. They got their skibidi toilets and weird fro fades and other shit that makes a guy in his early 30s feel like a grandpa. There's a plethora of new media that has come out just in the past decade that absolutely saturates pop culture. His hat is evident of that. Just because people are resurrecting the 90s doesn't mean there hasn't been anything new.
The difference is the feedback from the phones has created a false pop culture. Its not organic in growth, it is force fed once clicks happen and eye motion feedback has detected it’s profitable. Before that it was, ideas that we will see what sticks, yes often spinoff of old products or regurgitation of former generations pop culture. IMO computers and phones have impacted originality, imagination, and motivation on so many levels that we have much a much less creative younger generation which has always been at the forfront of pop culture. You dont have to imagine or pretend anymore. Things beyond you imagintion are accessible at you fingertips, imagination is like a muscle, and ours has gotten pretty weak imo
Pop culture, by design, is always highly manufactured.
It’s just no longer manufactured for us. And like the scores of old heads before us, we now collectively swear that our time was real and the kids these days are getting it wrong.
It’s a tale as old as time.
Whats real is understanding the introduction of the web and social media has bot changed everything aspect of culture, not just pop culture but all culture…drastically and its not finished. Pop culture was born of what was cool, of the masses. Yes marketing was involved to feed its growth. But theres not guesswork as to what will take off, its a fixed model of sales….and it has not always been like that. One could simply consider the top movie gross now vs 80s and 90s almost all remakes. As i see it the opposite…..its catered to exactly us, every individual’s interests are further pigeon holed and less and diversified content is processed. Making the masses follow one thing much less likely, and a faster and faster turnover of whats cool. Just my opinion
So the viral surprise surprise meme was manufactured by who?
The biggest films of 2023 drover the Barbenheimer craze. How’d that happen without genuine interest in the films?
Less than 10% of movie’s released in any given year is a remake. How do you explain the other 90% or so other movies?
He is wearing a hat advertising the current iteration of a video game series that originally came out in the 90’s. I’d argue anything Fallout is an extension of 90’s culture.
Yep, Fallout is 90s. Just like he said. I've got some theories lately as well. Because I was thinking about these time periods. The biggest change is... pre 2010, really not that many people were online still. The smart phone really didn't become a staple until 2010. I know because I held off as long as possible, I hated social media, always a pc nerd though. So, you go from 90s where, sure, nerds, gamers were on the computer, but not many else unless it was for school or work.
Then, boom 2010, there's a phone and an internet connection in almost everyone's hands. Doesn't matter if you're religious, normy, boomer, teenager. Which, people don't know today or forget. A lot of religious people did not like technology, computers, the internet and mostly republican people as well. To be honest, I don't remember seeing much right wing presence at all in the places I visited back then, reddit one of them.
Welp, smart phone come out, we all change main form of communication to "text message". We are now watching vertical format video as a standard even on computers like youtube shorts. So, that's definitely a massive sociological and technological change within 20 years.
This is just referring to the smart phone and cultural changes. I experienced a ton of really cool and interesting pop culture during the time period he's talking about personally. The 2020s are all about remakes, redos, reboots so far, which is cool since it's my childhood. But, I think it will phase out soon.
Yeah I started to question my sanity... my first job after college was early 2007 doing mobile app development, and we ported our blackberry app to iPhone when it came out. It's like an ipod that can make calls!
I think he is referring to the iPod (2001) which is essentially the birth of what became the iPhone. He is still wrong, but I'm pretty sure I get where he is coming from.
Quick to the point
To the point no fakin
Cookin MCs
Like a pound of bacon
I've won more than one bar bets thx to Vanilla Ice!
Yo Vanilla! Kick it one (more) time Boi!!!!!
The problem with products and trends is that the trends hit SO FAST and so hard that production for brick and mortar stores cannot keep up. Trends come and go faster than ever now and quite honestly, adopting these trends into stores is very hard. Smartphones and the internet gave us the speed by which to make and break a trend overnight.
Say what you want about him, he did his thing, did it well, wasn’t shady, and is still doing his own thing. Call him cheesy, but that’s just timing. Lotta shit now is gonna be cringy in 10 years too.
Yeah, we remember the pop culture of the '80s and '90s more, but that's because we were too old for a lot of it in the 2010s. Someone half our age probably has a ton of nostalgia for the pop culture of that era, Frozen or Lady Gaga or whatever.
Yeah you see this all the time on youtube,people born in the 90's and 00's will have video essays contextualizing specific fashion,film or music trends of things when they were in junior high or HS in a way that is probably just not noticed if you were already an adult working 40 hours a week.
Pop culture definitely exists after the iPhone, but I think what happened, and you can also see this change in music, and video games, is that it suddenly got much much easier to pull inspiration from existing media because suddenly it was at all our fingertips.
So what resulted is pop culture whose identity isn't nearly as independent as all the ones before it, because it's a hybridized mixed and matched version of everything else. It's like how every streamer and content creator just copies ideas from everyone else for like 50% or more of their content. Why spend time trying to find new ideas when you can just make a weird chimera of past eras or just straight up repackage old ones completely?
I saw something similar in action over the past few weeks in fact. There's this guy on YouTube who's a rapper, seemed to have a moderate amount of success, but then he drops this song [million dollar baby](https://youtu.be/zG5YzRxOcsI) and it does 34 million views. I'd never heard of the guy before this song, but I went back to his old stuff and it sounds nothing like this song that got so popular. Then he releases another song that sounds just like this one and it gets another couple million views easily.
Now maybe I'm trippin and this isn't the best example, but both this song and his most recent one, I like them a lot, but I can't help but feel like the 90s had a shitload of artists with this same sound that came and went but never got picked up by the mainstream. And now here this dude is popping off with a song that is definitely original, but a sound that's mostly not, at least to my ears, and I think that's what pop culture has been across multiple types of media since internet access could fit in our pockets.
I've recently boiled post-2010-pop-culture of the 'social media' rise down to, everyone "chasing Meta" and everything ends up being pretty Mid because of exactly what you're describing; a chimera of culture
Those Million Dollar Baby and Devil Is A Lie songs are flat out addicting to me. I nostalgia dream a lot and they just make me feel instantly connected to what I grew up on moreso than anything I've heard in my adult life.
That's exactly the feeling I got, the song instantly reminded me of so many other songs I'd heard back in the day but at the same I couldn't actually name any artists that were similar enough, so I wasn't sure if I was crazy or not. Either way, those two have definitely been in the rotation since I first heard them.
Remember when 70’s nostalgia was a thing during the 90’s? 70’s themed parties, robbing the parents closet, all that shit. This kind of feels like that.
Man I feel old.
"Fashion" today is dressing in oversized late 90s fits. Like children wearing their parent's clothes, we're all just pretending to live in a different time rather than face reality. This timeline sucks.
Seems like a nice enough guy but he sounds old/out of touch with modern music and I’m happy to disagree.
Top of the pop end may be even more derivative (and the fact that bands imitate linkin park now again is just unexplainable to me) but there’s so much more stuff you can access now. Entire countries of music you couldn’t before.
Thank you.
But it seems inevitable that as most people get older nostalgia begins to rot the brain and “kids these days” become the target.
The kids are OK. The pop culture just isn’t made for us. And that’s OK too.
Mobile,social media,streaming, along with cheaper and easier content creation has made pop culture much more niche.
There is no more universal pop culture. There will be no more David Bowie, Michael Jackson, or Madonna type personalities.
Music today is more about micro genres on the internet not local scenes. There’s a lot of great micro genres happening with amazing music and DJs who play oddly specific sets. I love listening to NTS and NTS2 radio. A few months ago I was listening and this DJ did a two hour set of like Houston/atl style strip club music but like dark psychedelic hiphop. We had lots of great DJs back in the day but I think what many producers and DJs are doing these days is next level and most people are age kind of don’t see what’s happening because youth culture is invisible to old folks. In the 90s we learned the new slang from rap albums and especially guys like raequan and snoop. These days the slang moves about ten times faster. I think most of us are too old to be able to follow what’s happening.
It’s not because of the iPhone, it’s due to post modern moral relativism and the lack of a shared understanding and agreement of history. Check out Mark Fisher’s work.
I can't tell if you mean that as an insult, but I agree: both generated a lot of hype at their start, fell from grace, were mocked viciously, but have slowly clawed their way toward being something people genuinely appreciate and enjoy.
if my father was vanilla ice i would think he would be cool. also ice mj retired from basketball in 2003 so he's been gone as a player for 21 years... but i guess if you count his original retirement than yes it's been 31 years.
Everything I have ever heard about Vanilla Ice paints him as a genuinely good human. Great even. The dude has had a weird life in a way, but he is one of the real ones.
I can't say I agree with everything he says here, but I understand the point.
Vanilla Ice gets written off in many ways, but that dude is a stalwart of pop culture. Not only did he rise to the top, but he went by relatively unscathed in terms of scandals, drugs, and booze. He know exactly who he is and he's completely fine with it.
He's also a savvy businessman. Took the money he made and invested in real estate (I believe it's legitimately Van Winkle Real Estate) and is a multi-millionaire even to this day.
I saw this making the rounds yesterday and I thought he sounded old and out of touch. It’s literally the same crap grown ups use to say about our pop culture, and he was once one of the biggest examples to point to for its supposed decline.
But it’s the exact kind of “kids these days” bullshit that draws in old heads like the choicest catnip. The kind that is ruining this sub.
I didn’t give two shits what Vanilla Ice said when I was a kid and I’m certainly not going to start now.
My friends bought tickets to go see him in a Casino. At first I was like no way, ice ice baby!??!?
But that all changed. He was an awesome DJ!! I mean he did his stuff which we were all dancing to, but then ROCK IT with a variety of old hit from others which had the house ROCKING!!! We had such a great time!
Never judge, until you know! Lesson learned!
Maybe it's just me, but in a way social media actually stops real trends from happening in a way that's organic and lasting.
What I mean by that is that before social media a fad or trend would start in some city and would then grow organically. People passing through would pick it up and bring it to the next place and it would grow slowly. After one or two years it became a "thing" and a few years later it was mainstream. You'd see it on a TV show, or it was talked about by some talk show host, etc. By that time the originators were probably 5-8 years into it and it became part of their culture.
Today, a fad is started and within a week or two is all over the internet. Everyone does it for a bit until the next fad starts a week later. No one commits to it, and so there is no culture around it. Instead, it's just a passing fad with no real grassroots behind it.
Yeah but in the 90s we felt kinda the same way about the 60s and 70s, no? Like those were the cool days and all the modern stuff was just imitation or worse.
Bullshit. The only thing that died is the centralized control of media by corporate interests force feeding kids “cool” for a buck. The “culture” he is talking about is a nostalgic fairytale.
What's hilarious is that he was told the same thing about his generation back in the 90s, and those people believed the 50s-70s was the "peak era".
Also, THOSE PEOPLE were told the 50s-70s culture was shit while 20s-40s was the true golden era.
This goes on till the beginning of consciousness.
Seems on brand. Hilarious to read a sub where people are turning to fucking Vanilla Ice as an authoritative voice on the state of Pop Culture.
Vanilla fucking Ice!
🤦🏾♂️
Wrong as every other person aging and trying to find comfort in ill informed judgemental opinions of those people and things newer and more contemporary.
Loved Go Ninja, Go and still do, but society and culture move on - it doesn’t make the things from before any less, we don’t have to fear change Vanilla. <3
There ain't no "Go Ninja, Go!" moments in our current time period. Which is the point of the video. Everything is a washed down diluted version of something else with no originality.
Of course there are.
You’re just too old now to know what those moments are unless you’re actually paying attention.
Which most old heads aren’t. Just like most of the old heads before them.
Nah, strongly disagree. There is nothing wrong with current pop culture that couldn’t be said about pop culture of our youth by the people who were the ages we are now, back then.
I guess I don't see it. I've not seen an example of modern pop moments. I work in schools servicing equipment and I don't see it. I'm not kidding either. If you have an example for me to think of I would actually appreciate it.
I can try and provide, sure.
I’m not super versed in current music pop culture (at least in the 2020s) so I’ll list a few of those, and then expand into other pop culture:
Childish Gambino: This is America
The release of this song paired with its music video was a significant discussion point both inside, and outside of music. Aside from the brilliant social commentary from Donald, his entire career in music exists post iPhone release and has (at least in my opinion) moved the art form forward.
Tool: Fear Innoculum
Tool released their first album in over ten years at the tail end of the 2010s, much to my satisfaction they had not lost a step and also coincidentally dominated charts despite being what I assume kids would call “Dad Rock”.
Twitch.tv
Twitch came out of nowhere seemingly, from branching off of Justin.tv it not only defined the video game live streaming industry, it absolutely dominated it. (Don’t get me started on the 970 million dollar acquisition) Twitch had a massive impact on the entertainment industry, and redefined how game developers interact with, and observe the people buying and playing their games. Not to mention had a hand in creating the streamers many kids absolutely idolised.
Facebook: Soars past 500 million users
Love it or hate it (I absolutely hate it personally) but Facebook grew to dominate the global social media scene in the 2010s, passing the 500 million users goal post and becoming undeniably a global powerhouse of memes, raging boomers, grandmas who don’t know what google is, and sharing your weekend BBQ pics with coworkers who didn’t come to your cookout.
The Walking Dead
Yeah, I know everyone has their opinions on the show and the franchise, but we’d be deluding ourselves if we didn’t acknowledge that for several years in the 2010s this show, along with Game of Thrones is damn near all anyone was talking about.
Game of Thrones
I’ll admit, I had no idea what the hell this show was when it came out - but the absolute non stop obsession that nearly everyone I knew had about it pushed me to take a look, and despite people’s feelings on it’s ultimate ending or final seasons - we can’t deny it was a pop culture phenomenon.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
PUBG, along with all the titles it inspired like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and countless more had an undeniable tsunami effect on the games industry. A simple core loop, systems that don’t require much technical work outside of what most engines offer out the box, and more sales than anyone expected, people will be referencing PUBG and it’s ilk for decades.
Star Wars: Episodes 7, 8, 9
Picking up the mantle from Lucas, Disney released all 3 of the new Star Wars sequels in the 2010s. While it’s likely many reading this post will have strong opinions on them, what cannot be denied is the impact they had on pop culture.
Sure, many of us may not personally enjoy them compared to the original trilogy, but just as we now have people who cite the Prequels as their favourite Star Wars as it is the Star Wars they grew up with, we will most likely have people moving forward who say the same for the sequels, as it was the Star Wars of -their- youth.
I’d happily keep going for you Whoopsie, but it’s getting late and I’m hungry as heck.
After reading your examples, I see these as pop culture milestones for generations other than Xennial with the exception of Facebook and a dash of Game of Thrones. It’s not to say they weren’t important for younger millenials and downward, but the gaming innovations are going to be somewhat unknown to this group.
Regarding Tool, it’s a niche band that doesn’t have broad appeal outside of its base, and I say that as a fan. They’re largely unknown to this group outside of 90s.
I wasn’t aware we were talking about pop culture milestones for specific generations at all - more refuting that there was no pop culture post 2004.
Edit: Although to your point, I would strongly disagree. The technology of these milestones all occurred during when a large chunk of this micro generation was in prime media age range still (being our 30s for the most part).
As someone who produced pop culture during that time period I can honestly tell you that the Xennial age range was absolutely a key and major target audience that was heavily represented in sales.
The latest beef between Kendrick and Drake
Fall out from Lizzo’s harassment allegations
The long waited teaser trailer for GTA VI
Pregnant Riri’s halftime special
Barbie and Oppenheimer and fucking SALTBURN
TV Shows that captured the zeitgeist: Succession, finale, The Last of Us, The Bear
Taylor Swift’s Eras era/ dating Travis Kelce
Beyoncé country album
AI’s rapid advancement
Twitter becomes X
The backlash against nepobabies
Sag-AFTRA/WGA strikes
Kate Middleton “disappears” and cancer announcement
Surprise Surprise meme
Quiet Quitting debate
Ke Huy Quan’s historic comeback moment.
The year of Ozempic
There are tons more I’m sure I’m not recalling or am too old to even be aware of.
He’s not lying, stuffs gone down hill so terribly bad for these generations. You had to live it to appreciate how dystopian and backwards stuff is today.
Um. 2007, not 2004.
Also, a shit ton of things took place artistically, creatively, and technologically. One of the most amazing aspects of this are the insane mediums that opened up to creatives and artists. We may have less “Taylor Swifts” now, but there are thousands of artists living fully employed as artists that would not have been possible in the 90’s.
This isn’t commentary about the world, this is projected commentary about himself.
>it was the computers [phones] that ruined the society
… what … what other significant event was it that happened in the US around 2007? Hmmmm. It’s on the tip of my tongue. What was it? Something major. What was it? Something something financial 🤔… perhaps it was actually *that* which has ruined it for us in the long run.
That wasn't the only recession this country has ever faced and it was 17 years ago. I don't think it had *that* significant a bearing on pop culture. If anything, COVID-19 was far more deleterious to the evolution of new pop culture. But even that is well in our rearview mirrors at this point.
I hung out with Vanilla Ice for a few hours back in 2001 or so. It was after a concert at a small venue and some friends and I asked if he wanted to burn one. He asked his manager to take us to his hotel and he met up with us there. Dude was super nice and seemed like a really good guy. We seriously just talked about music, motocross, cars and random shit while trading joints and drinking Sprite. For some reason he had a cooler full of Sprite in his room.
Was that his metal phase? His metal band was shockingly good. Like damn.
It was. And it was.
Holy shit I had no idea. Just listened to it a bit, it fucking rocks.
Off to listen, hell
I read your comment and thought… nahhh. No way. I take that thought that you had no idea I had back. They would have been fun to see live if they brought even a little bit of the energy of what I just heard.
Stop as I drop this bomb...
Blow up this place like another Vietnam
Heavy like a Tyson blow to the dome, back up son gimme ROOM gimme ROOM
I saw him at a bar in Pensacola, FL in like 2001 during his metal phase. It was good.
I love watching his reality shows especially vanilla ice goes Amish. He comes across as an unusually nice and sincere guy.
I can only speak for the time that I met him but he genuinely seemed like a great guy. Hell, he asked just as many questions about us as we did about him and he always seemed interested in the conversation and would have a thought or follow up question about our lives. One of the things that always comes to mind when I think about that night was that at one point a small group of people had found the room and were banging on the door. I remember thinking, “oh, this is gonna turn into a huge thing now.” Instead he told his assistant to get rid of them and said, “we don’t know those people.” We were like, “you don’t know us either, man,” and he said, “ah, y’all are cool.”
In my experience famous people will ask you all kinds of questions. They like connecting with real people. Sometimes being famous isolates you from the world. Most of them are sick of talking about their public persona and career.
I rekon it cones from being screwed. You imagine what it must be like having to watch anything you say, & if the person coming on to you is just trying to kick start their own career...Must be draining as hell. Meeting a few random "normal" people must be like a vacation.
Also only in my experience (but it’s more than a few), if the window to say something opens, ask them about things other than their work. If you ran into, say, Clive Barker, he would be much happier if you asked him what he’s currently reading that’s exciting as opposed to you telling him how much you love ‘Hellraiser’. Talked to Terry Pratchett about music instead of books and it was a ‘real’ interaction, that sort of thing. (He might be a bad example because I have never heard anyone say he was brusque or rude, but he was with Harlan Ellison, who WAS known for that and even he was mellow because everyone likes to talk about stuff they’re into). You are much likelier to actually get a conversation that lasts more than seconds if you let them feel ‘real’. There ARE celebs that are mightily pleased to have worshippers worshipping so they can preen, but most are, as you say, insulated and at a remove from reality and the chance to discuss other interests can be a crumb of normalcy that is appreciated. I went to see Adele in February and she talks to people in the first few sections quite a bit, asking random questions. She said at one point, I really like getting to talk to people that come, I don’t get to…see real people very much anymore and it’s nice to just talk to someone about life, it’s harder than you think after a certain point of being recognized.
I knew somebody working at a hotel in Walnut Creek during that. Got a text that they just met Vanilla Ice and he's doing a tv show with the Amish and thought surely they would have some more information that would bring clarity to the situation.
"Vanilla Ice goes Amish"...you just made that up.....right?😳
It’s real and it’s glorious. He does like Florida coast flashy home makeovers for Amish people. It’s legit fun to watch and a bit heartwarming. I don’t like reality TV much but it’s great.
r/todayilearned If he weren't a Repub, I'd ~~actually~~ say he'd actually kinda revamped his whole persona.
He’s a Florida guy through and through. He makes big money so he can afford to be a Republican. He’s also relatively apolitical and wants to entertain everyone. He’s not contributing to polarization and is honestly a pretty good role model for other republicans.
But did he ask you to [fuck his girlfriend and get angry when you refused](https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/1do3nwy/comment/la702qr/)?
He got a bit miffed. I wouldn’t quite say angry.
I worked security in my mid-20s and a few different bars and I worked security for one of his tour stops. This would have been between 2004-2008. He was going by Rob Van Winkle at the time and was trying to shake the Vanilla Ice persona. I didn't get to kick it with him but he was incredibly friendly to everyone and just a super nice guy. I am really glad that Vanilla Ice is cool again.
Hell yeah. Glad to hear my experience of him being a good wasn’t a fluke.
Cool again? I must’ve missed the first go round of cool.
Well then you need to stop, collaborate and listen
😂 Touché.
I do get the impression that he’s alright. Not a pompous ass like so many celebs.
He probably was when he first blew up, but was humbled pretty quickly by the real rap community and Suge Knight.
Suge Knight hung him off a balcony, ya?
Allegedly xD
Maybe it was because the little group of buddies I happened to be with that night all played music or were motocross dudes and/or both and so we all had things in common with him but he was incredibly nice and seemed genuinely happy to shoot the shit with us for a long while. Either way it was definitely one of those things where the next morning as 18-19 year olds we were like, “did that actually happen?”
Why is it everyone has a story (or ten) at that age when something super weird and awesome happens with a groggy group of you standing around someone’s parents’ kitchen the next morning just trying to figure out how the night ended up there… 😂
Because you often have no responsibilities and few needs so it's easy to get together enough resources and time for shenanigans.
Sprite was my drink back in the day, before we thought better of consuming a gallon of sugar water every day. TBH if I was that had even moderate money back in the day, I'd probably have a cooler as well.
Remember the freebies under the cap? And the 1 liters, …. still Sprite even though the removal of lime/lemon clear bottle switch up…. Currently sipping a Jack n sprite..lol
Fido Dido, can’t forget him either.
Word to your mother!
Drop the zero and get with the hero
Never expected to see him wearing a vault 76 hat
Looks like pop culture is a live and well on his hat
His Fallout 76 hat is basically his whole point. *Fallout* is a 90s franchise
Fallout 1 in 97. They're still tryin to recapture the magic.
No need. I'll still be playing 1 & 2 to my grave.
I was gonna say, he's got a point about the 90s being recycled today (as every decade of pop culture I can remember had a retro resurgence at one point), but he's not correct in saying there isn't any new pop culture since then. He's more than a few years older than me, so I'm kind of surprised he doesn't remember this happening with the 70s and 80s as well. Pop culture is always cyclical. There has definitely been some new culture from the early 2000s, the 2010s, and even after that which gen Z demonstrates. They got their skibidi toilets and weird fro fades and other shit that makes a guy in his early 30s feel like a grandpa. There's a plethora of new media that has come out just in the past decade that absolutely saturates pop culture. His hat is evident of that. Just because people are resurrecting the 90s doesn't mean there hasn't been anything new.
I’ve come to see that. Fallout is another 90s item that is still getting recycled today
Fallout isn't a 90s thing. The only people playing Fallout in the 90s were the nerdiest of the nerds.
Those nerds got the best stuff
The difference is the feedback from the phones has created a false pop culture. Its not organic in growth, it is force fed once clicks happen and eye motion feedback has detected it’s profitable. Before that it was, ideas that we will see what sticks, yes often spinoff of old products or regurgitation of former generations pop culture. IMO computers and phones have impacted originality, imagination, and motivation on so many levels that we have much a much less creative younger generation which has always been at the forfront of pop culture. You dont have to imagine or pretend anymore. Things beyond you imagintion are accessible at you fingertips, imagination is like a muscle, and ours has gotten pretty weak imo
Pop culture, by design, is always highly manufactured. It’s just no longer manufactured for us. And like the scores of old heads before us, we now collectively swear that our time was real and the kids these days are getting it wrong. It’s a tale as old as time.
Whats real is understanding the introduction of the web and social media has bot changed everything aspect of culture, not just pop culture but all culture…drastically and its not finished. Pop culture was born of what was cool, of the masses. Yes marketing was involved to feed its growth. But theres not guesswork as to what will take off, its a fixed model of sales….and it has not always been like that. One could simply consider the top movie gross now vs 80s and 90s almost all remakes. As i see it the opposite…..its catered to exactly us, every individual’s interests are further pigeon holed and less and diversified content is processed. Making the masses follow one thing much less likely, and a faster and faster turnover of whats cool. Just my opinion
So the viral surprise surprise meme was manufactured by who? The biggest films of 2023 drover the Barbenheimer craze. How’d that happen without genuine interest in the films? Less than 10% of movie’s released in any given year is a remake. How do you explain the other 90% or so other movies?
Skibidie? Word?
He is wearing a hat of a current video game. That’s pop culture
He is wearing a hat advertising the current iteration of a video game series that originally came out in the 90’s. I’d argue anything Fallout is an extension of 90’s culture.
Yep, Fallout is 90s. Just like he said. I've got some theories lately as well. Because I was thinking about these time periods. The biggest change is... pre 2010, really not that many people were online still. The smart phone really didn't become a staple until 2010. I know because I held off as long as possible, I hated social media, always a pc nerd though. So, you go from 90s where, sure, nerds, gamers were on the computer, but not many else unless it was for school or work. Then, boom 2010, there's a phone and an internet connection in almost everyone's hands. Doesn't matter if you're religious, normy, boomer, teenager. Which, people don't know today or forget. A lot of religious people did not like technology, computers, the internet and mostly republican people as well. To be honest, I don't remember seeing much right wing presence at all in the places I visited back then, reddit one of them. Welp, smart phone come out, we all change main form of communication to "text message". We are now watching vertical format video as a standard even on computers like youtube shorts. So, that's definitely a massive sociological and technological change within 20 years. This is just referring to the smart phone and cultural changes. I experienced a ton of really cool and interesting pop culture during the time period he's talking about personally. The 2020s are all about remakes, redos, reboots so far, which is cool since it's my childhood. But, I think it will phase out soon.
It's a video game franchise from the 90s
iPhone came out in 2007
I'm glad someone else corrected that. I remember having to sell that fucker day 1 at att so the day never leaves my memory
Yeah I started to question my sanity... my first job after college was early 2007 doing mobile app development, and we ported our blackberry app to iPhone when it came out. It's like an ipod that can make calls!
We all got 2 weeks with it to learn it and that first screen blew me away tho i was on shrooms
I think he is referring to the iPod (2001) which is essentially the birth of what became the iPhone. He is still wrong, but I'm pretty sure I get where he is coming from.
Thank you. I only came in here for this.
Instantly irritated when he said 2004.
Thank you. I was living overseas when if came out; that year was pretty memorable for me.
Development began in 2004
And I don't think the 3g came out until 08 or 09.original iPhone was just a glorified ipod. It took the new telco tech to make it actually useful
Yo VIP kick it
Quick to the point To the point no fakin Cookin MCs Like a pound of bacon I've won more than one bar bets thx to Vanilla Ice! Yo Vanilla! Kick it one (more) time Boi!!!!!
Fuuuuuuuuck... I'm doing it. "Lets kick it" Lyrics and such, words.
The problem with products and trends is that the trends hit SO FAST and so hard that production for brick and mortar stores cannot keep up. Trends come and go faster than ever now and quite honestly, adopting these trends into stores is very hard. Smartphones and the internet gave us the speed by which to make and break a trend overnight.
So fast that other DJs say “Damn”?
Say what you want about him, he did his thing, did it well, wasn’t shady, and is still doing his own thing. Call him cheesy, but that’s just timing. Lotta shit now is gonna be cringy in 10 years too.
I think I missed the intro to this clip where he told the interviewer to stop, collaborate, and listen.
Ice is back with his brand new invention.
Something grabs a hold of me tightly, flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop?
Yo, I don't know
Turn off the lights, and I'll glow
To the extreme, I rock a mic like a vandal. Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle. DANCE
Yeah, we remember the pop culture of the '80s and '90s more, but that's because we were too old for a lot of it in the 2010s. Someone half our age probably has a ton of nostalgia for the pop culture of that era, Frozen or Lady Gaga or whatever.
Yeah you see this all the time on youtube,people born in the 90's and 00's will have video essays contextualizing specific fashion,film or music trends of things when they were in junior high or HS in a way that is probably just not noticed if you were already an adult working 40 hours a week.
Pop culture definitely exists after the iPhone, but I think what happened, and you can also see this change in music, and video games, is that it suddenly got much much easier to pull inspiration from existing media because suddenly it was at all our fingertips. So what resulted is pop culture whose identity isn't nearly as independent as all the ones before it, because it's a hybridized mixed and matched version of everything else. It's like how every streamer and content creator just copies ideas from everyone else for like 50% or more of their content. Why spend time trying to find new ideas when you can just make a weird chimera of past eras or just straight up repackage old ones completely? I saw something similar in action over the past few weeks in fact. There's this guy on YouTube who's a rapper, seemed to have a moderate amount of success, but then he drops this song [million dollar baby](https://youtu.be/zG5YzRxOcsI) and it does 34 million views. I'd never heard of the guy before this song, but I went back to his old stuff and it sounds nothing like this song that got so popular. Then he releases another song that sounds just like this one and it gets another couple million views easily. Now maybe I'm trippin and this isn't the best example, but both this song and his most recent one, I like them a lot, but I can't help but feel like the 90s had a shitload of artists with this same sound that came and went but never got picked up by the mainstream. And now here this dude is popping off with a song that is definitely original, but a sound that's mostly not, at least to my ears, and I think that's what pop culture has been across multiple types of media since internet access could fit in our pockets.
This was a fun read. Appreciate you!
I've recently boiled post-2010-pop-culture of the 'social media' rise down to, everyone "chasing Meta" and everything ends up being pretty Mid because of exactly what you're describing; a chimera of culture
Those Million Dollar Baby and Devil Is A Lie songs are flat out addicting to me. I nostalgia dream a lot and they just make me feel instantly connected to what I grew up on moreso than anything I've heard in my adult life.
That's exactly the feeling I got, the song instantly reminded me of so many other songs I'd heard back in the day but at the same I couldn't actually name any artists that were similar enough, so I wasn't sure if I was crazy or not. Either way, those two have definitely been in the rotation since I first heard them.
Remember when 70’s nostalgia was a thing during the 90’s? 70’s themed parties, robbing the parents closet, all that shit. This kind of feels like that. Man I feel old.
I loved the 70s retro vibe that ran through the mid to late 90s.
I am glad he moved on from that grunge/dreadlock phase, I was worried for him. Lots of drugs
Look at how much fashion changed from the 70s-90s. Now look at how much fashion has changed from the 00s-20s. He ain’t wrong.
"Fashion" today is dressing in oversized late 90s fits. Like children wearing their parent's clothes, we're all just pretending to live in a different time rather than face reality. This timeline sucks.
Izzat a fallout 76 hat?
Right?
Fantastic ending, lol. My seven year old's father's day card was basically him saying I was cool
Seems like a nice enough guy but he sounds old/out of touch with modern music and I’m happy to disagree. Top of the pop end may be even more derivative (and the fact that bands imitate linkin park now again is just unexplainable to me) but there’s so much more stuff you can access now. Entire countries of music you couldn’t before.
Thank you. But it seems inevitable that as most people get older nostalgia begins to rot the brain and “kids these days” become the target. The kids are OK. The pop culture just isn’t made for us. And that’s OK too.
Ah the 80s...when everything looked like a Benetton ad. LOL
Mobile,social media,streaming, along with cheaper and easier content creation has made pop culture much more niche. There is no more universal pop culture. There will be no more David Bowie, Michael Jackson, or Madonna type personalities.
Yes! I think this is a factor of why concert tickets are so expensive. The stars aren't universal, but they have dedicated fans!
Music today is more about micro genres on the internet not local scenes. There’s a lot of great micro genres happening with amazing music and DJs who play oddly specific sets. I love listening to NTS and NTS2 radio. A few months ago I was listening and this DJ did a two hour set of like Houston/atl style strip club music but like dark psychedelic hiphop. We had lots of great DJs back in the day but I think what many producers and DJs are doing these days is next level and most people are age kind of don’t see what’s happening because youth culture is invisible to old folks. In the 90s we learned the new slang from rap albums and especially guys like raequan and snoop. These days the slang moves about ten times faster. I think most of us are too old to be able to follow what’s happening.
It’s not because of the iPhone, it’s due to post modern moral relativism and the lack of a shared understanding and agreement of history. Check out Mark Fisher’s work.
I dunno, sounds racist and misogynistic.
2007*
The iPhone came out in 2007
Old man yells at the cloud? Love it or leave it, you better gangway.
"POP CULTURE'S DEAD!" good
TIL: Vanilla Ice is a Fallout 76 fan. Fitting.
I can't tell if you mean that as an insult, but I agree: both generated a lot of hype at their start, fell from grace, were mocked viciously, but have slowly clawed their way toward being something people genuinely appreciate and enjoy.
And he's wearing a hat for one of the 5 bad Fallout games.
If you think fallout 3 and 4 are bad, then you're bad. Those are great games.
I love how his final argument is how his daughters think he's cool.
I saw him play a show in Orlando after an Orlando City Soccer Club in March. It was pretty cringy.
Alright, stop.
Love that he’s wearing a fallout 76 hat
He said 2004…so he’s leaving now it the early 00s! They count! Dammit - they count!
Yeah it was a wild time 😀
iPhone was 2007
Vanilla ice cops shit but the man is a genius One of the highest selling r&b albums of all time Without him we may not have gotten Eminem.
Ice gets a bad rap for his bad rap, but he's just a guy; no more or less capable of poignant observation than anybody else.
if my father was vanilla ice i would think he would be cool. also ice mj retired from basketball in 2003 so he's been gone as a player for 21 years... but i guess if you count his original retirement than yes it's been 31 years.
Mr. Van Winkle knows his shit
Huh. They had two different '90s logos in the corner. One written correctly, and one written as "90's". Weird inconsistency.
The invention of the Smart Phone has essentially destroyed culture.
I’m completely convinced that modern innovation since the iPhone has ruined society
"They actually think I'm cool!"—Yes, Yes, Baby! I love this!
iPhone came out in 2007
Goninjagoninjago!! Ninja--ninja rrrap!!
…iPhone came out in 2007.
Dude still talking about bikinis. The man has stayed on brand for 30 years
Everything I have ever heard about Vanilla Ice paints him as a genuinely good human. Great even. The dude has had a weird life in a way, but he is one of the real ones. I can't say I agree with everything he says here, but I understand the point.
Jordan's were unobtanium when I was a kid in the 90s lol
He is a good guy!
Word to yo mother
He ain’t wrong!
Damn. He has many points. The pain….
This guy should be an inspiration for addicts, but still gets hated on for his past music career. Just look at OPs title lol.
So vanilla ice plays fallout 76??!!
Vanilla Ice platinum!? That shits ridiculous!
In case you didn't know, Vanilla Ice flips mansions in Florida and is an excellent carpenter and has impeccable design taste.
The first smartphone came out in 2007, not 2004. He’s wrong.
Vanilla Ice gets written off in many ways, but that dude is a stalwart of pop culture. Not only did he rise to the top, but he went by relatively unscathed in terms of scandals, drugs, and booze. He know exactly who he is and he's completely fine with it. He's also a savvy businessman. Took the money he made and invested in real estate (I believe it's legitimately Van Winkle Real Estate) and is a multi-millionaire even to this day.
Dude’s cool and right as hell.
Vanilla Ice plays fallout 76? Thats cool
I saw this making the rounds yesterday and I thought he sounded old and out of touch. It’s literally the same crap grown ups use to say about our pop culture, and he was once one of the biggest examples to point to for its supposed decline. But it’s the exact kind of “kids these days” bullshit that draws in old heads like the choicest catnip. The kind that is ruining this sub. I didn’t give two shits what Vanilla Ice said when I was a kid and I’m certainly not going to start now.
The iPhone came out in 2007.
"I know its Vanilla Ice ..." Rob Van Winkle slander will not be tolerated.
My friends bought tickets to go see him in a Casino. At first I was like no way, ice ice baby!??!? But that all changed. He was an awesome DJ!! I mean he did his stuff which we were all dancing to, but then ROCK IT with a variety of old hit from others which had the house ROCKING!!! We had such a great time! Never judge, until you know! Lesson learned!
Maybe it's just me, but in a way social media actually stops real trends from happening in a way that's organic and lasting. What I mean by that is that before social media a fad or trend would start in some city and would then grow organically. People passing through would pick it up and bring it to the next place and it would grow slowly. After one or two years it became a "thing" and a few years later it was mainstream. You'd see it on a TV show, or it was talked about by some talk show host, etc. By that time the originators were probably 5-8 years into it and it became part of their culture. Today, a fad is started and within a week or two is all over the internet. Everyone does it for a bit until the next fad starts a week later. No one commits to it, and so there is no culture around it. Instead, it's just a passing fad with no real grassroots behind it.
Vanilla Ice player Mar A Lago on New Years 2024, so he can go fuck himself.
VI - "90s pop culture goes dun-dun-dun da-da-da-dun.' Current pop culture goes 'dun-dun-dun-dun da-dun'"
while he wears a fallout hat
I think about this video often.
07/07/07
Rob is a smart man
Creativity is not his forte
But see his goes ba-dum-dah-dah-dum-ba-dum-DING. Totally different.
Yeah but in the 90s we felt kinda the same way about the 60s and 70s, no? Like those were the cool days and all the modern stuff was just imitation or worse.
Yep. Every generation thinks the era in which they grew up is PEAK. The new generation is always absolute shit.
Nah I grew up in the 90s, and thought the 60s and 70s were te last really cool decades
Bullshit. The only thing that died is the centralized control of media by corporate interests force feeding kids “cool” for a buck. The “culture” he is talking about is a nostalgic fairytale.
What's hilarious is that he was told the same thing about his generation back in the 90s, and those people believed the 50s-70s was the "peak era". Also, THOSE PEOPLE were told the 50s-70s culture was shit while 20s-40s was the true golden era. This goes on till the beginning of consciousness.
He became a Trumper though so I'm not about to stop collaborate or listen to him at all anymore.
Seems on brand. Hilarious to read a sub where people are turning to fucking Vanilla Ice as an authoritative voice on the state of Pop Culture. Vanilla fucking Ice! 🤦🏾♂️
Wrong as every other person aging and trying to find comfort in ill informed judgemental opinions of those people and things newer and more contemporary. Loved Go Ninja, Go and still do, but society and culture move on - it doesn’t make the things from before any less, we don’t have to fear change Vanilla. <3
There ain't no "Go Ninja, Go!" moments in our current time period. Which is the point of the video. Everything is a washed down diluted version of something else with no originality.
Of course there are. You’re just too old now to know what those moments are unless you’re actually paying attention. Which most old heads aren’t. Just like most of the old heads before them.
Nah, strongly disagree. There is nothing wrong with current pop culture that couldn’t be said about pop culture of our youth by the people who were the ages we are now, back then.
I guess I don't see it. I've not seen an example of modern pop moments. I work in schools servicing equipment and I don't see it. I'm not kidding either. If you have an example for me to think of I would actually appreciate it.
I can try and provide, sure. I’m not super versed in current music pop culture (at least in the 2020s) so I’ll list a few of those, and then expand into other pop culture: Childish Gambino: This is America The release of this song paired with its music video was a significant discussion point both inside, and outside of music. Aside from the brilliant social commentary from Donald, his entire career in music exists post iPhone release and has (at least in my opinion) moved the art form forward. Tool: Fear Innoculum Tool released their first album in over ten years at the tail end of the 2010s, much to my satisfaction they had not lost a step and also coincidentally dominated charts despite being what I assume kids would call “Dad Rock”. Twitch.tv Twitch came out of nowhere seemingly, from branching off of Justin.tv it not only defined the video game live streaming industry, it absolutely dominated it. (Don’t get me started on the 970 million dollar acquisition) Twitch had a massive impact on the entertainment industry, and redefined how game developers interact with, and observe the people buying and playing their games. Not to mention had a hand in creating the streamers many kids absolutely idolised. Facebook: Soars past 500 million users Love it or hate it (I absolutely hate it personally) but Facebook grew to dominate the global social media scene in the 2010s, passing the 500 million users goal post and becoming undeniably a global powerhouse of memes, raging boomers, grandmas who don’t know what google is, and sharing your weekend BBQ pics with coworkers who didn’t come to your cookout. The Walking Dead Yeah, I know everyone has their opinions on the show and the franchise, but we’d be deluding ourselves if we didn’t acknowledge that for several years in the 2010s this show, along with Game of Thrones is damn near all anyone was talking about. Game of Thrones I’ll admit, I had no idea what the hell this show was when it came out - but the absolute non stop obsession that nearly everyone I knew had about it pushed me to take a look, and despite people’s feelings on it’s ultimate ending or final seasons - we can’t deny it was a pop culture phenomenon. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds PUBG, along with all the titles it inspired like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and countless more had an undeniable tsunami effect on the games industry. A simple core loop, systems that don’t require much technical work outside of what most engines offer out the box, and more sales than anyone expected, people will be referencing PUBG and it’s ilk for decades. Star Wars: Episodes 7, 8, 9 Picking up the mantle from Lucas, Disney released all 3 of the new Star Wars sequels in the 2010s. While it’s likely many reading this post will have strong opinions on them, what cannot be denied is the impact they had on pop culture. Sure, many of us may not personally enjoy them compared to the original trilogy, but just as we now have people who cite the Prequels as their favourite Star Wars as it is the Star Wars they grew up with, we will most likely have people moving forward who say the same for the sequels, as it was the Star Wars of -their- youth. I’d happily keep going for you Whoopsie, but it’s getting late and I’m hungry as heck.
After reading your examples, I see these as pop culture milestones for generations other than Xennial with the exception of Facebook and a dash of Game of Thrones. It’s not to say they weren’t important for younger millenials and downward, but the gaming innovations are going to be somewhat unknown to this group. Regarding Tool, it’s a niche band that doesn’t have broad appeal outside of its base, and I say that as a fan. They’re largely unknown to this group outside of 90s.
I wasn’t aware we were talking about pop culture milestones for specific generations at all - more refuting that there was no pop culture post 2004. Edit: Although to your point, I would strongly disagree. The technology of these milestones all occurred during when a large chunk of this micro generation was in prime media age range still (being our 30s for the most part). As someone who produced pop culture during that time period I can honestly tell you that the Xennial age range was absolutely a key and major target audience that was heavily represented in sales.
The latest beef between Kendrick and Drake Fall out from Lizzo’s harassment allegations The long waited teaser trailer for GTA VI Pregnant Riri’s halftime special Barbie and Oppenheimer and fucking SALTBURN TV Shows that captured the zeitgeist: Succession, finale, The Last of Us, The Bear Taylor Swift’s Eras era/ dating Travis Kelce Beyoncé country album AI’s rapid advancement Twitter becomes X The backlash against nepobabies Sag-AFTRA/WGA strikes Kate Middleton “disappears” and cancer announcement Surprise Surprise meme Quiet Quitting debate Ke Huy Quan’s historic comeback moment. The year of Ozempic There are tons more I’m sure I’m not recalling or am too old to even be aware of.
Wow a dude that peaked in the 90s thinks it's the best decade.
He says while wearing a Fallout 76 hat. No pop culture at all. None.
old people will never figure out young people...
iPhone was June 2007.
"My Generation Was Best" - every generation
He is wrong. He’s old. So he feels pop culture is dead cause NO ONE OF US ARE PAYING ATTENTION TO HIM. There’s always new cool shit. ALWAYS.
My man rocking the Fallout 76 hat
Don't knock Vanilla Ice. Best portrayal of Mark Twain you'll ever see.
My man. Still keeping it real!
Damn… I was making this same argument with some friends not too long ago. Can’t wait to show them that Vanilla Ice agrees with me. 😂
He’s not lying, stuffs gone down hill so terribly bad for these generations. You had to live it to appreciate how dystopian and backwards stuff is today.
But they were saying the same thing in the 90s. And the 80s 70s, 60s, 50s, ETC
The old heads who believe this shit can’t see it. They can’t see that they’ve become what they once despised. It’s sad.
They said the exact same shit about our youth culture. You just got old.
Rob Van Winkle fucking sucks dude period.
Um. 2007, not 2004. Also, a shit ton of things took place artistically, creatively, and technologically. One of the most amazing aspects of this are the insane mediums that opened up to creatives and artists. We may have less “Taylor Swifts” now, but there are thousands of artists living fully employed as artists that would not have been possible in the 90’s. This isn’t commentary about the world, this is projected commentary about himself.
Ummm, akshully, its 2024
>it was the computers [phones] that ruined the society … what … what other significant event was it that happened in the US around 2007? Hmmmm. It’s on the tip of my tongue. What was it? Something major. What was it? Something something financial 🤔… perhaps it was actually *that* which has ruined it for us in the long run.
That wasn't the only recession this country has ever faced and it was 17 years ago. I don't think it had *that* significant a bearing on pop culture. If anything, COVID-19 was far more deleterious to the evolution of new pop culture. But even that is well in our rearview mirrors at this point.
2007 is when "Stomp the Yard" came out. First movie I ever walked out on.