Being born mid-way through the 80’s, I guess my influences on who I am today mainly come from the following decade, making me very much a “Child of the 90’s”.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not restricted in my influences. I never like to be pigeon holed or labelled so it is with trepidation that my own opening sentence of this blog brands me a “child of the 90’s” but sometimes there is no getting away from the things and the people that influence you the most.
I would always argue that perhaps the biggest influences anyone can have in life are your Mother, Father and family. Mine raised me to experience and welcome the plethora of cultures life has to offer but always remember where you came from, a lesson that transposes itself to the music they were influenced by that has then passed down to influence me.
If you were to browse through my iPod (other mp3 devices are available!) then you would understand the eclectic nature of my musical tastes. Scrolling A-Z would lead you on a journey from Alanis Morrisette and the Beatles, through Fatboy Slim, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Matchbox Twenty, all the way down to Oasis, Panic! At the Disco, Queen, Rihanna, Stevie Wonder and the Travelling Wilburys! Naturally that is a small list in the grand scheme of things but you will find all manner of other genre’s, artists and musical collections that complete the alphabet that have and continue to influence me to this day and will no doubt do so my entire life.
Alas though, this blog post is not about my musical tastes (I know it may seem that way so far) and even in writing these short sentences I am inspired to write more about musical influences and the part it plays in our lives so watch out for that soon.
Instead, this post is all about a cultural hit from the 90’s that stays with me (and I’m sure millions of others) on a daily basis nearly 20 years on!
As a decade, it is far too easy to define 90’s culture as “The era of BritPop”, a time when “Girl Power” was rife, political power switched from Tory to Labour and a time filled with people worrying that computers wouldn’t cope when it ended and we reached the year 2000!
Looking at it from a different angle, the 90’s represented a time of technological accessibility on a larger scale than previously known. Much like the way laptops, smartphones and tablets have firmly integrated the world wide web in to modern culture, in the 90’s TV’s were now commonplace, with families often having TV’s in bedrooms as well as the traditional single TV in the main family room. Not just that but video recorders became the norm from the early 90’s too, once again with more than one often being found in households from the mid-90’s onwards.
It was these two pieces of equipment that have really helped cement many aspects of 90’s popular culture in to my life.
However, the biggest influence (or six biggest influences if you count their individual impact on me separately) on me from my “child of the 90’s” label would have to be the American sitcom “FRIENDS”.
Like it or not, FRIENDS crossed over from being “just another TV show” and firmly placed itself into popular culture very quickly and many aspects have stayed there ever since.
A new haircut dubbed “The Rachel” was being requested on both sides of the Atlantic. The on/off, will they, won’t they relationship of Ross and Rachel gripped audiences all the way up to the final 2 episodes! People began wanting to live the lives of these characters, finding their way through life with each other for support, quite often found whilst sitting drinking a large cup of coffee! This led to a surge in demand for coffee shops, with chain after chain springing up to try to catch a piece of the market. Even the “Central Perk” brand was developed and coffee shops throughout the world adorn this name still today.
Joey’s numerous catchphrases made their way into modern vernacular, none more so than his guaranteed pick up line “How You Doin’?!” which took off quicker than I’m sure the writers would ever have hoped and can probably still be heard uttered in deep nightclub corner recesses on Friday and Saturday nights!
If you were a fan of the show, and have ventured to our capital city of London in the past 15 years, then I guarantee you will have uttered the phrase “London Baby!” but more than that, I have an inkling that you will have also wished that you could find your way around the city (or any city for that matter) by placing the map down on the floor and stepping in!
FRIENDS also provides me with some of the happiest memories of my childhood.
I remember being 8 years old, every Friday night my sister (11 years old at the time) & I would be allowed to venture up the garden, over the little fence and join our neighbours children (2 sisters, each one year older than my sister and I respectively) to sit in their kitchen and all watch a new TV show on Channel 4 that didn’t start until 9pm. After the show was over we would politely thank our hosts for their hospitality and return back over the fence and down the garden to get some rest before my hectic weekend of playing football in the garden!
Don’t get me wrong, at 8 years old I wasn’t particularly aware of some of the content or the humour at the time, but it sparked an affinity with a show that came from being allowed to join my sister and her friends to stay up past 9pm on a Friday night.
The Friday night tradition carried on well in to series 2 before our neighbours moved (I don’t believe our weekly visits to be the catalyst for their move but it is still unconfirmed to this day!) but by this point FRIENDS was firmly implanted in our minds and society as a whole. Just to clarify, we were never reliant on our neighbours TV to be able to watch FRIENDS, we had a few TV’s of our own in the house, however it was purely that we were enjoying watching a comedy show the way it was intended to be watched...with friends! (I am terribly sorry for that pun but consider that the lesser of two evils as I have firmly resisted the chance to link two TV shows with the use of one line that would surely make you feel rather ill from all the cheese. I couldn’t possibly tell you what that line is...no don’t make me...OK, if you insist... I could have used the line “that’s when good neighbours become good friends!”...There, I said it, I’m sorry, I did warn you! Anyway, re-read that last pun now, safe in the knowledge that it could have been much worse!)
Anyway, as the years and series went on my sister and her friends collected all available video tapes of each series that they could and I would even purchase some of my own with birthday and Christmas money, meaning we were never too far away from an episode...or four!
As I got older DVD’s replaced the videos but the continued improvements in home entertainment and the introduction of E4 to freeview coinciding with my college and university years ensured that I would get a daily dose of at least 2 episodes for years to come. Of course since it moved away from Channel 4 and was purchased by Comedy Central and I am now a member of the working world, the regularity in which I watch the episodes has reduced but the influence still remains and it’s easy to see the influence it has had on more recent shows such as “How I Met Your Mother”.
It is unclear exactly how many times I have watched each of the 236 episodes, with some being watched more than others and it depending day by day which were being shown on TV at times that I was about to catch them! My honest guess is I have seen each episode somewhere between the 50 and 100 times bracket, probably showing why I am more influenced by it than some others may be and can still recite entire scripts when watching along.
Even watching the final 2 part episode at the end of series 10 round at my friend Sarah’s house was a social event. It was planned for, food was bought, confirmations were checked and double checked to make sure we would all be there and there were of course tears. All of these things I could never have predicted when I first ventured up the garden to our neighbours some 10 years earlier!
A mixture of relatable characters is far from a new concept but with FRIENDS it was a sense that everyone of us could relate to elements of each of the 6 main characters.
We’ve all got aspects of OCD like Monica, inappropriate humour and a sense of “where am I going in life” that we could rely on from Chandler. We all love the chance to be care free and eat like Joey as well as quirky and unconventional like Phoebe. There is an inner geek like Ross in all of us and we have all been judged on our appearance like Rachel and have to prove to ourselves and to others our self-worth from time to time when we get lost in the world.
Most importantly though, we watched the characters growing up. It was the life events that they went through on screen that are faced by many if not all of us at some point that allows us to continue to relate to each of them.
Only time will tell if it’s influence will wain once I surpass the ages at which we last saw the 6 of them walking slowly out of Monica & Ross’ Grandma’s empty apartment and down the corridor. Until then, I will enjoy every chance I can to associate my life with that of the characters in FRIENDS.
The recent surge in reminiscing about all things good about the 90’s due to shows such as The Big Reunion has already seen PJ & Duncan secure the number one hit they couldn’t manage 19 years ago with the equally decade defining “Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble” (Having grown up in the 90’s I could go off on a long tangent or indeed entire blog post about the potential impact Ant & Dec have had on my life having watched them since their days in Byker Grove and proudly still having a copy of their album “Psych” on cassette to this day, but for now dear reader you are safe!).
However, it hasn’t taken a resurgence in popularity to ensure that FRIENDS has stuck with me throughout my life.
I can’t see or hear the word “Turkey”, either the bird or the country, without hearing and saying the phrase uttered by the Bing family Philippino house boy one Thanksgiving...”More Turkey Mr Chandler?”
Everytime I hear about the department store Bloomingdales, I hear the phrase “My mum calls it Bloomies!”
Whenever anyone tells me that they fell asleep in whatever situation they may have been in, I hear the voice of Rachel Green reverberate through my head, “You fell aschleeep?!”
And these are just a few examples of events that probably happen more often than I even realise when FRIENDS is applied without even batting an eyelid!
I know I’m not alone in this. Many of you may not even realise you’re doing it but moments like that suddenly mean all the hours watching FRIENDS are put to good use. There are also many aspects of the show that won’t be put to good use in life but will stay with you nonetheless, for example I bet you can remember the occupation of Joey’s childhood imaginary friend?*1 or how many pages Ross had to get through in order to get back together with Rachel at the beach house?*2 (If you don’t know the answers then see bottom of the page).
Or perhaps you have found yourself influenced by another decade defining show? Either way I would always love to hear your views and comments, either on here or Twitter (@justdrewonit).
I’m not sure what scenario’s life will throw at me as it continues on but one thing I am sure about...there will always be a phrase or scene from FRIENDS that I am reminded of that will not only make me laugh but remind me that it’s not such a bad thing to be labelled as a “child of the 90’s”.
*1 Answer: Joey’s childhood imaginary friend Mauricé, was a Space Cowboy.
*2 Answer: Eighteen pages (“front and back”).
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