On a personal level—imagining for a moment—1996 was the year of the Tamagotchi, the Tickle Me Elmo, the first DVD player. It was the year you might have watched Friends on a Thursday night, or listened to Jagged Little Pill on a portable CD player that skipped if you walked too fast. It was the year pagers buzzed with numeric codes that meant “I love you” or “call home.” It was the last full year before Harry Potter was published, before Princess Diana died, before everything changed again.
All of a sudden, music changed. The Macarena infected weddings and school dances. Tupac was alive—until September. Wonderwall played on every radio, and the Spice Girls told us what we really, really wanted. Oasis vs. Blur wasn’t just a chart battle; it was a cultural civil war. And in a small studio in Norway, a keyboard riff for “Barbie Girl” was being written, unknowingly preparing to haunt the next two decades. All of a Sudden -1996-
All of a sudden, it was 1996. Not a year that announced itself with fireworks or fanfare, but one that arrived quietly—then roared. On a personal level—imagining for a moment—1996 was
All of a sudden, the world shrank and expanded simultaneously. The Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The bombing in Centennial Park. Mad cow disease in Britain. The first cloning of a mammal (Dolly the sheep, though announced in ’97, was conceived in ’96). The Taliban captured Kabul. Bill Clinton won reelection against Bob Dole, and Monica Lewinsky was still a White House intern nobody had heard of. All of a sudden, music changed