The Y2K Attitude Era - A Cultural Middle Finger

[TMC]

CONTENT WARNING

Do you remember when we were inundated with shocking and offensive content? When WWF RAW pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable on TV every Monday Night. When South Park and Family Guy were telling shocking and offensive jokes. When the Jackass guys were in their prime, doing insane stunts and dares. When raunchy teen comedies like American Pie and parodies like Scary Movie ruled the cinemas? When extreme (X-treme) sports like skateboarding and BMX were on par with the major sports? When music was filled with controversial artists that didn't give a **** like Eminem and Limp Bizkit.

When you think about it, there was a pretty unified spirit of anti-political correctness back then. It's almost hard to fathom with how things are today, but that's how it was. In my opinion, this was a unified period of cultural rebelliousness that started with the Simpsons and kept getting crazier until it peaked in 1999/2000. And the WWF had the perfect name for this period: The Attitude Era. I believe this time, in every area of pop culture, lasted from roughly 1997-2004. Therefore, it's easiest to refer to is as being apart of the "Y2K" period. So join me while I revel in some nostalgic memories of a time gone by. The Y2K Attitude Era.

[TMC]

When did the attitude era of Y2K ended and what was the cause of it ending?

There were a few turning points:

1. Woodstock 99/Columbine (within a few months from each other) - W99 was infamous for being a wreck, where all that youth anger mixed with crappy logistics and incompetent organizers caused everything to literally go up in flames. And this came on the heels of the Columbine massacre, so there was a lot of soul-searching in 1999 about what's going on with young people, and a prevailing argument was that media had become too violent. This was probably the peak of the Y2K attitude era, and it would start collapsing shortly because of...
   
2. 9/11 - This was obviously a massive cultural change. What anyone under the age of, idk, 28ish doesn't realize is how ANGRY, again, the culture was. It was perfectly normal to go to Newgrounds as a ten year old and play a crude gory flash game where you brutally murder Bin Laden again and again. So anger was omnipresent, but it was also channeled - the surge of ultra patriotism in 2001-2003 (remember Freedom Fries?) meant that while anger was okay, even encouraged, it had to be directed correctly - you were supposed to be angry at Them, not Us. "**** Them, I'll Do What You Tell Me (For Freedom)" instead of the punk-ish 90s rebellion. Years and years of supporting the troops and remember the brave soldiers dying for your freedom. The anger was there but the attitude started evaporating, since the anger was co-opted BY "The Man".
   
3. Rise of Bling - I agree that a lot of the personalities most associated with the era you're describing moved on over time, and this is natural. But there was also a broader cultural shift around 2004 - the extreme AMERICA **** YEAH patriotism of the past couple of years started to burn out as it became easier to mock while making more mistakes (like the infamous Mission Accomplished banner). There was no second 9/11 and America was firmly on the offensive, punishing people who were sort of adjacent to 9/11, which was good enough, so the culture stopped waving the flag quite as much. The militant patriotism was replaced with consumerism - this was the era of McMansions, Bling/Ringtone Rap, Paris Hilton, Cribs, etc. Suddenly the societal meta focused on wealth, not anger. The big cultural figures were talking about being rich and getting laid, not tearing down institutions (or even parents). And enough time passed to where the earlier aesthetic simply started looking dated, and so uncool.