The 90's were,
A: Awesome
B: The worst thing ever
You must pick one!
Even if I
only tackle music...there is no way to do an A/B with that. Some elements of the 90s (the alt-rock/grunge/early goth scene) was fantastic, and even some of the pop and the country influence on pop-rock were awesome. Yes, some too were garbage (a lot of the bad attempts at making techno popular, for example), but even some of those acts we now view as being kind of awful did produce some gems, and/or jump-start the careers of those who'd later go on to be very different from their awful-pop roots, e.g. Justin Timberlake (it's late and I'm drunk, I'm sure I can come up with other examples sometime). Even Hanson (who had been songwriting and performing since even a younger age than was made obvious by their high-pitched boy-band sound on their radio hits) produced some solid numbers that are absolutely 3000% departed from what we know them for ("Mmm-Bop"), such as "This Time Around":
The 1990's produced some truly terrible music, and some truly amazing music. One of my absolute favorites from the 90s, from Concrete Blonde (music video slightly inappropriate at moments as it's supposed to give off the strip-club vibe but there's no nudity), is an example of a revolution in alt-rock, and is acknowledged as one of the first truly "goth" sounds (heavy bass, less emphasis on guitar for rhythm):
