The best and coolest decade: nostalgia for the 1990s

The long 1990s began with the Pixies album Surfer Rosa in 1989 and ended with the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Or perhaps the short 1990s began with Nirvana’s Nevermind in 1991 and ended with The Matrix in 1999. Or perhaps the 1990s never really ended for those of us who have lived blissfully ever since in a mental version of Portlandia — the place where, according to that sitcom’s theme tune, ‘the spirit of the Nineties lives on’. Or perhaps the 1990s did end at some point in the new millennium, if only so that the 1990s revival could commence straight afterwards.

It doesn’t really matter of course: decades are made-up things, so the American journalist Chuck Klosterman is perfectly entitled to make up his own 1990s, which begins with the publication of Douglas Coupland’s Generation X in 1991 and ends with the fall of the Twin Towers in September 2001.