Malaise years
May 31, 2021 16:56:13 GMT 10
Post by astropoug on May 31, 2021 16:56:13 GMT 10
Basically, years that are notorious for failed products, awkwardness, and just an overall uncomfortable vibe. Here are my picks:
1980
Part of the infamous short-lived post-punk era of 1979-1980, 1979 was already a dark year with the War in Afghanistan and energy crisis, but 1980 just had SUCH a malaise vibe. The Apple III became Apple's biggest failure ever, the economy entered into a recession worldwide, John Lennon AND Ian Curtis died, Heaven's Gate and Raging Bull was box office bombs that both ended the New Hollywood era, and, in the case of the former, caused United Artists, the studio that distributed Heaven's Gate, to be sold off, and music was in an awkward "disco is dead but new wave has yet to truly blow up". That awkward pre-MTV post-disco year. Thankfully, things started to recover by 1981, and 1982 in particular is one of the best years of not just the 80s, but pop culture in general. 1980 on the other hand is pretty much the POSTER BOY for malaise years. Pretty much everything that could go wrong DID go wrong.
1993
Both this year and 1995 can best be described as "we want to jumpstart the future and start a new era but we suck at it". Starting off, 1993 had tons of new video game consoles like the 3DO and Atari Jaguar that were supposed to jumpstart the next generation of gaming. Unfortunately, both were absolute trash and everyone just kept playing their SNES and Genesis instead. Not only that, but Apple also released the Newton and Macintosh TV in this year, both flopped, and the Newton in particular was mocked by The Simpsons. 1993 ended up just being another early 90s year like 1991 and 1992, pretty much just another grunge and 16-bit console year. No new era. Taking the failures away it's just a fucking EXTENSION of 1992's culture. True cultural change wouldn't happen until 1994 with Cobain's death and the premiere of Friends. Technology would not change for a good few years, and this next year is why.
1995
ANOTHER malaise year, but even more awkward, and ARGUABLY EVEN WORSE. It was somewhat still the early 90s, but not really, as Kurt Cobain had killed himself and people were getting sick of grunge, however, there were NO good alternatives yet either. There was britpop but Americans didn't care about it, if anything, bands like Bush that were Nirvana clones were more successful. The failed tech releases TRULY show how much of a fucking malaise 1995 was. Apple's Powerbook 5300 was one of the worst laptops ever - it caught on fire and the hinge kept breaking and it was SO slow. Nintendo released the Virtual Boy this year, their WORST failure yet. It tried to be cutting-edge with its whole VR gimmick, but EVERYBODY hated it, and it literally gave people eye strain. Sega released the successor to the Genesis this year, the Saturn, but it had one of the WORST launches of any console ever. It was overpriced, had no games, was hard as hell to program for, and didn't EVER get a true Sonic game except Sonic R. Only the PS1 had a successful launch in 1995, although even then, it wouldn't truly become successful until 1996. 1995 was pretty much an SNES-dominant year with Donkey Kong Country 2, Yoshi's Island, Earthbound, and Chrono Trigger. It was pretty much a repeat of the late 80s when Nintendo controlled the video game industry, but with a malaise vibe. Microsoft Bob released this year, and NOBODY used it, and it was made fun of for its weird interface and the fact it felt like something made for kids LMAO. Lastly, Cutthroat Island was released which became one of the biggest box office bombs in history, and completely KILLED both the pirate film genre, and Carolco Pictures, who were HUGE in the late 80s and ESPECIALLY early 90s. TRUE technological change wouldn't come until 1996, with the PS1 becoming successful, and the release of the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64, which GENUINELY felt like a new era was beginning. In 1996, you could ACTUALLY feel a shift - Toy Story was released on VHS, Marilyn Manson became popular heralding the TRUE end of the grunge era, 3D games like Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot were blowing up, the SNES and Genesis were GENUINELY now old hat, and Windows gaming was absolutely blowing up.
2012
This year just felt like one fuck up after another. This year got off to a GREAT start with the SOPA/PIPA controversy where every webpage blacked out, some websites were straight up INACCESIBLE, and Megaupload got taken down. It then continued with the release of iOS 6 and the MESS that is Apple Maps, which has been memed to death for how inaccurate it is. This year also saw the release of both the Wii U and PlayStation Vita which BOTH flopped hard, and the Vita in particular flopped so bad that Sony stopped making handhelds completely after this. Halo 4 and Mass Effect 3 came out this year, which the latter was HATED and mocked for its ending, and the former was pretty much not as well liked as the Bungie games. Windows 8 came out this year and EVERYBODY hated it too. This year just had such a negative vibe, especially with people LITERALLY thinking the world was going to end. Not to mention all the fucking weird-ass false indie pop like Imagine Dragons and Passenger with that melancholic vibe. Weird-ass vibe to the year and definitely a MAJOR malaise year that also felt long-in-the-tooth just like 1995.
2014
When thinking about this year, I just think of the whole Bendgate controversy the iPhone 6 had, plus everyone being disappointed by Watchdogs and Assassin's Creed: Unity. Every game just had a buggy vibe to the point that Goat Simulator made fun of the state of gaming at that point LMAO. 2013 was like the most exciting year ever with the iPhone 5S and iOS 7, Grand Theft Auto V, and the PS4 like it was GENUINELY SUCH AN EXCITING YEAR that 2014 was going to pale in comparison but we didn't know JUST how badly it would be. Apple Music was AWFUL on launch, and didn't get good until 2016. It's probably telling the biggest story in gaming this year wasn't a game release, but the whole Gamergate controversy that started our whole alt-right VS SJW culture war. At least music was alright, and movies were flat-out awesome, but it seemed tech and gaming was suffering this year.
2020
Yes, you saw this coming. COVID-19 has not only killed millions of people, but it has also cancelled events, closed down movie theatres, shut down TV production, and pretty much halted life for months on end, and even now, the world is still trying to return to normal. I could go on about the Olympics being delayed and how nearly every movie is flopping, but you all know how awful 2020 has been. The ULTIMATE malaise year.
Note that a year can still have bad real world events but not be a malaise year. Examples of EXCITING years that are the opposite of malaise years are 1977, 1984, 2001, 2007, 2008, and 2013. These years were fucking exciting years that had an epic vibe to them across the board.
1980
Part of the infamous short-lived post-punk era of 1979-1980, 1979 was already a dark year with the War in Afghanistan and energy crisis, but 1980 just had SUCH a malaise vibe. The Apple III became Apple's biggest failure ever, the economy entered into a recession worldwide, John Lennon AND Ian Curtis died, Heaven's Gate and Raging Bull was box office bombs that both ended the New Hollywood era, and, in the case of the former, caused United Artists, the studio that distributed Heaven's Gate, to be sold off, and music was in an awkward "disco is dead but new wave has yet to truly blow up". That awkward pre-MTV post-disco year. Thankfully, things started to recover by 1981, and 1982 in particular is one of the best years of not just the 80s, but pop culture in general. 1980 on the other hand is pretty much the POSTER BOY for malaise years. Pretty much everything that could go wrong DID go wrong.
1993
Both this year and 1995 can best be described as "we want to jumpstart the future and start a new era but we suck at it". Starting off, 1993 had tons of new video game consoles like the 3DO and Atari Jaguar that were supposed to jumpstart the next generation of gaming. Unfortunately, both were absolute trash and everyone just kept playing their SNES and Genesis instead. Not only that, but Apple also released the Newton and Macintosh TV in this year, both flopped, and the Newton in particular was mocked by The Simpsons. 1993 ended up just being another early 90s year like 1991 and 1992, pretty much just another grunge and 16-bit console year. No new era. Taking the failures away it's just a fucking EXTENSION of 1992's culture. True cultural change wouldn't happen until 1994 with Cobain's death and the premiere of Friends. Technology would not change for a good few years, and this next year is why.
1995
ANOTHER malaise year, but even more awkward, and ARGUABLY EVEN WORSE. It was somewhat still the early 90s, but not really, as Kurt Cobain had killed himself and people were getting sick of grunge, however, there were NO good alternatives yet either. There was britpop but Americans didn't care about it, if anything, bands like Bush that were Nirvana clones were more successful. The failed tech releases TRULY show how much of a fucking malaise 1995 was. Apple's Powerbook 5300 was one of the worst laptops ever - it caught on fire and the hinge kept breaking and it was SO slow. Nintendo released the Virtual Boy this year, their WORST failure yet. It tried to be cutting-edge with its whole VR gimmick, but EVERYBODY hated it, and it literally gave people eye strain. Sega released the successor to the Genesis this year, the Saturn, but it had one of the WORST launches of any console ever. It was overpriced, had no games, was hard as hell to program for, and didn't EVER get a true Sonic game except Sonic R. Only the PS1 had a successful launch in 1995, although even then, it wouldn't truly become successful until 1996. 1995 was pretty much an SNES-dominant year with Donkey Kong Country 2, Yoshi's Island, Earthbound, and Chrono Trigger. It was pretty much a repeat of the late 80s when Nintendo controlled the video game industry, but with a malaise vibe. Microsoft Bob released this year, and NOBODY used it, and it was made fun of for its weird interface and the fact it felt like something made for kids LMAO. Lastly, Cutthroat Island was released which became one of the biggest box office bombs in history, and completely KILLED both the pirate film genre, and Carolco Pictures, who were HUGE in the late 80s and ESPECIALLY early 90s. TRUE technological change wouldn't come until 1996, with the PS1 becoming successful, and the release of the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64, which GENUINELY felt like a new era was beginning. In 1996, you could ACTUALLY feel a shift - Toy Story was released on VHS, Marilyn Manson became popular heralding the TRUE end of the grunge era, 3D games like Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot were blowing up, the SNES and Genesis were GENUINELY now old hat, and Windows gaming was absolutely blowing up.
2012
This year just felt like one fuck up after another. This year got off to a GREAT start with the SOPA/PIPA controversy where every webpage blacked out, some websites were straight up INACCESIBLE, and Megaupload got taken down. It then continued with the release of iOS 6 and the MESS that is Apple Maps, which has been memed to death for how inaccurate it is. This year also saw the release of both the Wii U and PlayStation Vita which BOTH flopped hard, and the Vita in particular flopped so bad that Sony stopped making handhelds completely after this. Halo 4 and Mass Effect 3 came out this year, which the latter was HATED and mocked for its ending, and the former was pretty much not as well liked as the Bungie games. Windows 8 came out this year and EVERYBODY hated it too. This year just had such a negative vibe, especially with people LITERALLY thinking the world was going to end. Not to mention all the fucking weird-ass false indie pop like Imagine Dragons and Passenger with that melancholic vibe. Weird-ass vibe to the year and definitely a MAJOR malaise year that also felt long-in-the-tooth just like 1995.
2014
When thinking about this year, I just think of the whole Bendgate controversy the iPhone 6 had, plus everyone being disappointed by Watchdogs and Assassin's Creed: Unity. Every game just had a buggy vibe to the point that Goat Simulator made fun of the state of gaming at that point LMAO. 2013 was like the most exciting year ever with the iPhone 5S and iOS 7, Grand Theft Auto V, and the PS4 like it was GENUINELY SUCH AN EXCITING YEAR that 2014 was going to pale in comparison but we didn't know JUST how badly it would be. Apple Music was AWFUL on launch, and didn't get good until 2016. It's probably telling the biggest story in gaming this year wasn't a game release, but the whole Gamergate controversy that started our whole alt-right VS SJW culture war. At least music was alright, and movies were flat-out awesome, but it seemed tech and gaming was suffering this year.
2020
Yes, you saw this coming. COVID-19 has not only killed millions of people, but it has also cancelled events, closed down movie theatres, shut down TV production, and pretty much halted life for months on end, and even now, the world is still trying to return to normal. I could go on about the Olympics being delayed and how nearly every movie is flopping, but you all know how awful 2020 has been. The ULTIMATE malaise year.
Note that a year can still have bad real world events but not be a malaise year. Examples of EXCITING years that are the opposite of malaise years are 1977, 1984, 2001, 2007, 2008, and 2013. These years were fucking exciting years that had an epic vibe to them across the board.
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