Try searching for a singular experience that encapsulates the feeling of the ’90s. Although they say that hindsight is 20-20, no one knows how long it takes for hindsight to develop. It is difficult to paint a clear picture of a decade that has yet to end in the minds of many. Listening to a Nirvana record or watching a rerun of “”Seinfeld”” are experiences that don’t yet stir up feelings of nostalgia. So, still dizzy from the tornado that was the 1990s, the Guardian takes a look at the art and entertainment from that decade.

Music

During the 1990s, the likes of Vanilla Ice and M.C. Hammer had distinctive fan bases and the genres of grunge rock and gangster rap truly enthralled and polarized the nation’s youth. One faction followed the ongoing saga of the heroin addiction of Kurt Cobain, while the other followed the battle between the East Coast and West Coast and the lives of the battles preeminent figures Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre and of course Bad Boy Records. Both roads had tragic similarities.

Nirvana’s “”Nevermind”” controlled MTV’s airwaves and gave the alternative youth an icon and an idol. Cobain was the poster child for the lost and angry teen-ager. He was livid onstage and quiet offstage. A small garage band from Washington had changed everything in the world of rock and went platinum in the process. Meanwhile, the way was paved for grunge rock’s tamer younger sibling: alternative.

Bands such as Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden laid the foundation for a sound that would revive rock and control the airwaves in the early ’90s.

Meanwhile, hip-hop fans came face-to-face with thug lifestyles and embraced their own icons. Debate rolled across the nation as increasingly controversial lyrics and videos were released, the most apparent examples being N.W.A.’s “”Fuck the Police”” and Ice T’s “”Cop Killa.””

The powder keg of energy created by the musical revolutions coming out of Washington and Long Beach, Calif., caught a spark from two respective wicks in 1994 when Cobain committed suicide and Snoop was charged with murder. These tragedies were the realities of the harsh and bitter worlds of which the artists sang of.

Though gangsta’ rap would continue to thrive and take on new soldiers in an ongoing war, the day that Cobain pulled the trigger was Generation X’s version of the day the music died.

The remainder of the early ’90s was an aftershock of the initial quake led on by the tragedies of 1994. The cycles repeated themselves in alternative and rap music in the coming years with the deaths of Tupac, Biggie Smalls and Sublime’s Brad Nowell. The first phase of early ’90s music didn’t end at any specific point, but what is certain is that the beginning of The end was 1994.

The self-destruction of great musicians in the early ’90s left the nation weary of tragedy. The success of pop re-emerged in the late ’90s in full force with fresh and pretty faces and dance routines –the polar opposite of the decade’s earlier heroes. The new war in music was between Backstreet and *Nsync, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, who found their homes on MTV via “”Total Request Live.”” The only casualties were the fans, who passed out with exalation at their concerts.

The rock ‘n’ roll purists were left to explore the newest tangent of rock ‘n’ roll and punk rock. They waited, conflicted, for their favorite bands to come to their hometowns, and despised the likes of those who waited anxiously each day for their favorite teen sensation to appear above Times Square next to Carson Daly.

Television

The progression of American culture on television was most clearly seen through the eyes of Matt Groeing, creator of “”The Simpsons.”” Premiering in late 1989, “”The Simpsons”” took the world by storm through the 1990s because of the outlandish behavior and catchphrases of the young Bart Simpson.

Reruns offer a refreshing look into the earlier years of the show, which were more dominated by the youthful cast. As the show grew older, so did the audience’s appreciation for the more subtle and ingenious truths that are now more commonly known as “”Homerisms.””

Creating a television show that was not bound by the laws of the physical world, the age of the actors, or the age of the audience ensured the possibility of success for the show’s creators. These factors are secondary to the fact that the show’s varied cast of characters and zany brand of comedy helped to build a cult following that now enjoys the show in syndication just as much as the new shows.

“”The Simpsons”” set the stage for later cartoon comedies such as “”Beavis and Butthead”” (the spawn of UCSD alummus Mike Judge,) which hit the scene in 1993 and “”South Park,”” which took the world by storm later in the ’90s. The longevity of the shows seems to vary inversely with the perversion of the subject matter.

Each of the three animated series pushed the envelope. And all were met with initial criticism for promoting foul language and destructive behavior in youth. Comedy Central’s mature-rated “”South Park”” now makes “”The Simpsons”” characters seem tame. The shock value that it initially created was converted into genuinely funny material that could entertain the young and old.

The birthplace of the reality-based television shows that now flood the airwaves began with MTV’s “”The Real World,”” created by Bunim/Murray Productions.

Though the transition to network television took some time, there is no question that “”The Real World”” series began it all. Offering viewers a glimpse into the slightly abnormal lives of individuals whose internal conflict is amplified by the subconscious awareness of the ever-present camera, reality television makes viewers feel a little bit normal and slightly understood.

NBC owned the world of comedy with an empire built by Jerry Seinfeld, the master of observational humor. Ensemble casting also became very important as record-high salaries were paid first to the four principal actors in “”Seinfeld.””

For the first time in entertainment history, comedy actors did not have to turn to film projects to gain major Hollywood power.

The most obvious consequence of this was far fewer bad films starring television actors. A less obvious and disappointing consequence was shorter-running sitcom series.

For many, the end of the “”Seinfeld”” era came too soon, and their longing tears are dried only by the syndication episodes that now accompany “”The Simpsons”” five nights a week.

Film

The film industry is in many ways slow-moving, and the influence that the 1990s’ great films may not be fully understood for many years to come. In terms of numbers, “”Titanic”” was the most influential film of the ’90s. With an initial box office take of around $600 million, “”Titanic”” broke all previous records and had an even greater cultural influence. It caused an industrywide return to focusing on the genre of the epic that had been seemingly ignored for the previous two decades in film.

It seems beyond understanding that a movie that was nearly three hours in length could command such great repeated viewings.

The large audience is attributable in great part to the Leonardo Dicaprio effect. From the viewpoint of the young teenage girl it is a great value to get to stare at Dicaprio for three hours for the cost of what would have normally been a two-hour film. The traditional male – though probably initially turned off by the length and Dicaprio factor – was easily swayed to return to the theater after realizing the cry-on-the-shoulder-card would be in play.

For the other half of the now-seriously polarized Generation X youth to whom the numbers mean nothing, to those who despise “”TRL”” and love punk rock, the seminal film of the 1990s was “”Pulp Fiction.”” While “”Titanic”” was encouraging studios to spend hundreds of millions on films from famous directors, “”Pulp Fiction”” reminded everyone of the charm of smaller-budget independent films from hip young directors with new ideas.

“”Pulp Fiction”” was revolutionary in that it brought together big-name actors to a project that really had no huge studio ties. The draw for the film came from wanting to work with a young and talented director on a film that would shake the mainstream foundations of Hollywood. The success of the film would help projects from relative unknowns get made for the rest of the decade.

Written with a distinctively fresh look at storyline progression, “”Pulp Fiction”” shakes the melancholy that would be associated with the death of many of the characters because they do not die at the end of the film. The film managed to do all of these things and simultaneously resurrect John Travolta’s film career.

“”Pulp Fiction””‘s characters wrought the type of self-induced tragedies that the generation was all too familiar with. It avoided the mood of a tragedy because the end of the storyline did not come at the end of the film. Part grunge and part gangster, irreverent and brilliant, “”Pulp Fiction”” was in many ways an allegory of the decade in which it was created.

If the ’90s taught us one lesson, it is that anger and rebellion come with a heavy price to pay, and that shock doesn’t always have great value. No one seemed to be sure what they were rebelling against, and the knee-jerk reaction to the decade’s great tragedies were projected in both the emotionless music that dominated the late part of the decade, and the tragic films that were the keystones of the era. Even as this is said, the afterglow of the decade fills our thoughts and at the same time blinds us from seeing the decade with true clarity.

The tragic cycle is bound to repeat itself because it seems that the nation’s art prefers the extremes of boy bands and grunge to any sort of equilibrium. While half of us wait in anticipation for the nation’s great tragic hero, the other half will dread the day that *Nsync goes the way of New Kids on the Block.

The ’90s were at their best emotionally charged, while quietly intriguing. The truth of whether the decade will be remembered at its best or at its worst will be decided only over time.