Look Back To The 1990s: The Whole Decade

The last decade where the whole country watched the same thing at the same time, and the one everybody now says felt different.

Below is the decade in sections, and a link to every single year from 1990 to 1999.

The music

• Bryan Adams spent sixteen consecutive weeks at number one in 1991 with '(Everything I Do) I Do It for You' - a record that still stands.
• Wet Wet Wet's 'Love Is All Around' held the top spot for fifteen weeks in 1994, and the band eventually deleted it themselves to stop it.
• The Britpop chart battle in August 1995 - Blur's 'Country House' against Oasis's 'Roll With It' - made the Six O'Clock News. Blur won that week.
• 'Candle in the Wind 1997', released after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, became the best-selling single in UK chart history.
• The Spice Girls had three consecutive Christmas number ones from 1996 to 1998 - a feat only matched since by the Beatles' run decades earlier.
• Mr Blobby was Christmas number one in 1993, which remains the decade's least explicable fact.

The news

• Margaret Thatcher resigned in November 1990 after eleven years as Prime Minister.
• Tony Blair won a landslide general election in May 1997, ending eighteen years of Conservative government.
• Diana, Princess of Wales, died on 31 August 1997, and her funeral drew one of the largest television audiences ever recorded in Britain.
• The Good Friday Agreement was signed in April 1998.
• The National Lottery launched in November 1994; the Channel Tunnel opened in May 1994.
• Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, was announced in 1997 having been born in 1996.
• The total solar eclipse of 11 August 1999 crossed Cornwall, and a large part of the country travelled to see it.

On screen

• Only Fools and Horses drew 24.3 million viewers on Christmas Day 1996 - the highest audience for a British sitcom episode ever.
• Live & Kicking ran from 1993; SM:TV Live arrived on ITV in 1998 with Ant, Dec and Cat Deeley and eventually beat it.
• Father Ted began in 1995, Teletubbies in 1997, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 1998.
• Titanic, released in the UK in 1998, became the highest-grossing film of the decade.
• Trainspotting in 1996 and The Full Monty in 1997 were the two British films of the decade.
• Toy Story, in 1995, was the first fully computer-animated feature film.

Everyday life

• Mobile phones went from a business item to something teenagers had, and text messaging changed social arrangements entirely.
• Dial-up internet arrived in homes late in the decade, tying up the phone line while you used it.
• The Sony PlayStation launched in the UK in 1995 and brought adults into gaming in large numbers.
• Tamagotchi in 1996 and 97, Furby in 1998 and Pokemon from 1999 were the three great playground crazes.
• Channel 5 launched in 1997, which meant retuning every video recorder in the country.
• Britpop, lad culture, the Spice Girls and Cool Britannia all happened in roughly the same two years and got treated as one thing.

Year by year

• 1990 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1991 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1992 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1993 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1994 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1995 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1996 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1997 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1998 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1999 - see the full page for that year, linked below.

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How to write it so it lands

• Each year has its own page with the charts, the news and the everyday detail.
• For a party, pull three facts from one year and run it as a guess-the-year round.
• For a card, use the year they were born rather than the decade.

Where to shop next

• Look back to 1999
• Look back to 1998
• Look back to 1997
• Look back to 1996
• Look back to 1995
• Look back to 1994
• Look back to 1993
• Look back to 1992
• Look back to 1991
• Look back to 1990
• 1990s party playlist
• 90s kids' TV shows
• 90s quiz questions
• Toys of the 80s and 90s
• Video shops and late fees
• Saturday morning TV
• Phones before mobiles
• The 2020s so far
• The 2010s: the whole decade
• The 2000s: the whole decade
• The 1990s: the whole decade
• The 1980s: the whole decade
• The 1970s: the whole decade
• The 1960s: the whole decade
• The 1950s: the whole decade
• The 1940s: the whole decade
• The 1930s: the whole decade
• The 1920s: the whole decade
• Decade calendar: every year from 1920
• Decade trivia: fun facts by era
• Decade trivia game: play for points
• Decade guides: books, films and TV by era
• Decade recipes: dishes and food trends by era
• Decade travel: destinations and holidays by era
• Decade tech: gadgets and computers by era
• Decade films: best movies and directors by era
• Decade art: artists, styles and trends by era
• Decade books: best novels, authors and reading trends
• Music by decade: albums, artists and songs
• Decade fashion: clothes, hair and accessories by era
• Nostalgia gift shop
• Retro party supplies
• Nostalgia birthday party by decade
• Nostalgia hamper and gift ideas
• Guess the year quiz
• Care home reminiscence quiz
• Reminiscence gifts for grandparents
• Milestone birthday cards
• Shop birthday cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Sympathy and bereavement cards
• Sympathy cards guide
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What was the best-selling single of the 1990s?

'Candle in the Wind 1997' by Elton John, released after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. It is the best-selling single in UK chart history.

What record did Bryan Adams set in 1991?

'(Everything I Do) I Do It for You' spent sixteen consecutive weeks at number one in the UK - still the longest unbroken run at the top of the chart.

Who won the Britpop chart battle?

Blur. 'Country House' outsold Oasis's 'Roll With It' in the week of 20 August 1995, though Oasis went on to sell far more records overall.

Why do people say 90s Christmas felt different?

Because the shops genuinely shut, nothing could be delivered, and everybody watched the same television at the same time - 24.3 million people watched Only Fools and Horses on Christmas Day 1996.

Do you sell anything to do with this decade?

We make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK, including milestone birthday cards. The pages themselves are free to read and free to copy.