Every member of Generation X remembers the brief period when swing music was incredibly popular in the late '90s. Initially virtually nonexistent, swing music became one of the biggest alternative rock hits on radio from 1996 to 1998, then vanished in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n
At the time, young people flocked to nearby dance studios to learn the Lindy Hop and bought up old, retro costumes and felt hats. Swing clubs began popping up across the country, and MTV played swing music videos like "Hell" by the Squirrel Nut Zippers, "Jump, Jive and Wail" by the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and "You and Me (and the Bottle Makes Three)" by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.<\/p>\n
Editor Simone Smith asked Gen Xers to explain what the hell was going on in the late '90s that led to the massive comeback of swing music.<\/p>\n
It's always difficult to understand how trends emerge, but according to Billboard's Kenneth Partridge, it all began with the formation of the Royal Crown Revue in 1989 by two members of the iconic Los Angeles punk band Youth Brigade. Royal Crown Revue's 1940s tough-guy aesthetic appealed to punk while simultaneously reviving the dance sounds of the 1940s.<\/p>\n
The band played Wednesday nights at Los Angeles club The Derby before passing the baton to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, who featured on Jon Favreau's 1996 surprise hit "Swingers.".<\/p>\n
\u00abSwingers was arguably the most important moment in the swing revival. The film follows friends who roam Los Angeles like a modern-day Rat Pack, set to a soundtrack featuring Dean Martin, Count Basie, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.<\/p>\n
Others attribute the rise in popularity of swing to the films A League of Their Own (1992), Swing Kids (1993), and The Mask (1994).<\/p>\n
In 1998, The Gap popularized swing dancing with its "Khakis Swing" commercial, which featured attractive young people dancing the Lindy Hop to the music of Louis Prima.<\/p>\n
On a psychological level, the swing craze seemed to represent a departure from the bleak grunge rock that had begun to fade from the public consciousness around 1996. Some also believe that this upbeat, cheerful music was a response to the return to prosperity in Clinton-era America.<\/p>\n
At the same time, rave culture, also focused on dancing and characterized by a cheerful aesthetic, was gaining popularity. Some members of Generation X tried to explain this phenomenon, which seemed to appear out of nowhere.<\/p>\n
\u00ab"Because it's cool on 150% and Gen X has better taste in music\/dance\/culture than any other generation and we don't care what anyone thinks of us," one commenter wrote.<\/p>\n
\u00ab"Two more points: 1. The 90s saw a greater love for 40s\/late 30s fashion, much like the 80s had for the 50s, and 2. The baby boomer generation was constantly telling people that the 60s were the only real youth culture, which made it even more appealing to prefer your parents' music over your own," another user wrote.<\/p>\n
Swing music? It could be worse.<\/p>\n
Smith may be confused by the swing craze of the '90s, but she should know that it wasn't the only strange musical comeback of the era. What was this craze for Gregorian chant anyway?<\/p>\n
Yes, for those not born before 1994, the double-disc album "Chant" by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos sold over three million copies in the US and reached number three on the Billboard pop charts. Recorded in a monastery, this relaxing album offered something for everyone. Stressed-out people could listen to it in the car on the way home from work, ravers to unwind after a night at the club, and hippies to meditate to its contemplative atmosphere.<\/p>\n
In short: if you love all kinds of music, the '90s were for you, especially if you liked old-school music. In the '90s, everyone was so obsessed with old-school music that people even played 11th-century tunes.<\/p>\n
This article was first published five years ago. It has been updated.<\/em><\/p>\n The article "Gen Xers Explain That Fleeting Moment in the '90s When Everyone Suddenly Got Into Swing Music" originally appeared on Upworthy.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every member of Generation X remembers the brief period when swing was incredibly popular in the late 90s. Swing, which was initially practically nonexistent, lasted from 1996 to 1998\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-muzyka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}