15 ’90s Pop Culture Fads That Are Outdated Today
These fads once shaped the culture of the ’90s but now live mostly in memory or vintage resale bins.
- Alyana Aguja
- 4 min read
Pop culture in the 1990s was a vibrant, chaotic collage of trends that defined a generation. While many of these fads have been lovingly archived in nostalgia, they feel laughably outdated in today’s world of rapid tech and fashion shifts. Still, each one tells a story about how people tried to express themselves, connect, and have fun in a very specific moment in time.
1. Tamagotchis
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These digital pets were once the ultimate elementary school status symbol. Kids would sneak them into classrooms, terrified their pixelated creatures might “die” from neglect. Today, smartphone games have replaced these tiny eggs with something far flashier and far less stressful.
2. Frosted Tips
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Made famous by boy bands and teen heartthrobs, frosted tips were the hair equivalent of shouting “I’m cool” into a mirror. Bleach-blond ends on otherwise brown hair seemed edgy at the time. Looking back, it feels more like a bottle of peroxide gone rogue.
3. Pogs
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These cardboard discs caused schoolyard chaos in the ’90s, sparking fierce tournaments and even fiercer trading wars. For a moment, everyone knew what a “slammer” was. Today, pogs gather dust in storage bins, their cultural significance as flimsy as the cardboard they’re made of.
4. JNCO Jeans
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These jeans were wide enough to hide a small child in each leg, a favorite among rave kids and skaters. They often came paired with chain wallets and oversized tees. Now, they serve more as a cautionary tale about what happens when fabric budgets go unchecked.
5. Beepers and Pagers
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Before cellphones became household items, beepers were the epitome of being important. Doctors, drug dealers, and dramatic teens all clipped them to their belts like trophies. In 2025, a beeper is more likely to be mistaken for a broken garage door opener.
6. Macarena
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This Spanish dance craze took over every wedding, school assembly, and office party in the mid-’90s. The choreography was simple, the tune infectious, and the trend unavoidable. Today, it mostly lives on in YouTube compilations of embarrassing dance moments.
7. Dial-up Internet
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The screech of a dial-up connection was the anthem of the information age’s awkward beginnings. Waiting five minutes to check an email — or accidentally getting booted off when someone picked up the phone — was just part of the process. Now, that modem noise feels like something from an archaeological dig.
8. Butterfly Clips
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These tiny, colorful hair accessories fluttered through every teen girl’s bathroom drawer. They were less about function and more about sparkle and whimsy. These days, they mostly appear in nostalgic TikTok posts or ironic throwback parties.
9. Chain Wallets
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Often attached to oversized jeans and angsty attitudes, chain wallets screamed rebellion without much practicality. They were more about the clink than the cash. Today, minimalist cardholders have taken their place in a much quieter fashion.
10. Hypercolor Shirts
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These T-shirts changed color with heat, which sounded cooler than it looked. In reality, sweaty armpits turned into tie-dye disasters by lunchtime. It was fun until it turned your body temperature into a public display.
11. Slap Bracelets
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Slap bracelets combined fashion with minor injury, snapping onto wrists with an oddly satisfying sting. Every kid had at least one, and every school eventually banned them. They’re now filed under “fun but mildly dangerous” in pop culture’s archives.
12. Clear Electronics
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From Game Boys to landline phones, see-through gadgets were all the rage. There was something oddly satisfying about watching wires and circuits while using your tech. Now, sleek designs have replaced them, hiding the mess in favor of minimalism.
13. Razor Scooters
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These aluminum scooters were a suburban status symbol and a shin-busting hazard. If you didn’t have the ankle scars to prove it, were you really riding? Today, electric scooters zoom by with less pain and more purpose.
14. Mood Rings
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These rings promised to reveal your emotions via shifting colors, though they really just measured temperature. Still, they felt magical to a ’90s kid searching for self-awareness. Now, they’re mostly sold as kitschy novelties with no real mood-reading merit.
15. Celebrity-Endorsed Perfumes for Teens
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From Britney Spears’ “Curious” to Jennifer Lopez’s “Glow,” teen girls flocked to the fragrance counters at the mall to smell like their idols. The bottles were glitzy, and the scents were sugary-sweet and impossible to ignore. These days, niche perfumes and gender-neutral scents dominate instead.