T H E NARCISSISTIC NINETIES

The 1990s, a time of hedonism and spiritual crisis, brought us a long way in terms of tolerance.

Following the end of the Cold War, a period of relative peace and prosperity allowed people to focus on more personal pursuits. Celebrities commanded huge salaries and media attention while the AIDS crisis and the Internet transformed everyday life for millions. Fashions were slick and edgy, irony was in, and postmodernism had crept from the ivory tower to art, architecture and cuisine. At the same time, the New Age movement blossomed, from esoteric therapies and alternative health treatments to aromatherapy candles, crystals and yoga. And success was the goal of many in the 1990s-the age of cell phones, power breakfasts, and twentysomething dot-com millionaires. The Internet transitioned from a few networked computers to a true World Wide Web accessed by tens of millions every day to email friends, read the latest news, chat, or find love. Subcultures and special interest groups found kindred spirits unfettered by distance. News (and rumours) could spread almost instantaneously, and people professed their deepest love to partners they had never met. Cyber sex was safer, and sometimes more romantic, than the real thing. This revolutionary technology brought a new set of perils. Sensational headlines trumpeted tawdry cases of stalkers, even killers, targeting victims via the Internet. Internet paedophiles became the latest fear for parents. And an irrational exuberance gripped investors who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Internet startups. AIDS, once a rare, stigmatised disease, became a worldwide health crisis. Another movement of the 1990s was semantic: politically correct language. Sensitivity to cultural and racial diversity, stemming from liberal, multicultural concerns, went mainstream, after decades of the acceptance of racist and sexist slurs. Multiculturalism also found root in a new breed of backpacking travellers-hundreds of thousands of twenty-somethings started taking time off in between their studies to roam the world. Celebrity was never more celebrated. Breathless reportage followed stars' breakthroughs, breakdowns, and breakups. Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Jackson and Jennifer Aniston provided grist for the mill. The union of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise perhaps epitomised the decade, as they adopted children, pursued their acting careers and endured tabloid gossip, but would prove to last only a decade. Illicit affairs, divorce and revelations plagued the British royal family, their exploits meticulously covered by the press. Princess Diana admitted to an affair, as did her husband Charles, and "Fergie," the Duchess of York, was caught having her toes sucked by a Texan. Manufactured, shrewdly marketed pop, in the form of boy bands and girl bands, dominated the charts with the Spice Girls leading the way. Celine Dion burst in on the scene, Whitney Houston burned brightly and then faltered, and rap went from a subculture of the street to a multibilliondollar industry. Grunge, an alternative rock style that came out of Seattle, briefly influenced haute couture and forever changed music. Club music thrived in the form of house, trance and industrial styles. As the dance drug ecstasy swept through clubs in the world, in Britain the "E" Generation was the biggest youth movement since rock 'n' roll. All-night open air raves playing techno and house music were banned by the British government and the yellow smiley face became the symbol of "Acid House" music.

THE SILVER SCREEN

Movies seemed to come in two flavours: Hollywood blockbusters and offbeat art-house gems. Pedro Almodovar, Todd Haynes, Tim Burton and Jane Campion directed stunning and original films, while Titanic, Jurassic Park, Independence Day and A Few Good Men raked in box-office bucks.

BETWEEN THE PAGES

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey started a book club, catapulting select literary works to bestsellerdom. Other standouts of the decade included John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes and Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story caused a scandal in England, revealing Prince Charles as a heartless husband and Diana as a vulnerable, suicidal anorexic, but the biggest revelation was that the Princess had collaborated with Morton.

PEOPLE