Customer Reviews

Alt. Culture: An A-To-Z Guide to the '90S-Underground, Online, and Over-The-Counter

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This book came out in the mid-90s, so it is hardly a comprehensive guide to 90s alternate culture, but it is a fun read just the same. From Birkenstocks to Trekkers to MTV, this book is crammed full of amusing information.

The subtitle of this book should really read 'Guide to the late '80s and early '90s' as, published in 1995, it does not encapsulate anything that came into popular culture post-publication. That said, this is an exhaustive and inclusive tome, not meant to be read straight through. Personally, I employed the device of reading it on cigarette breaks, and was thus able to digest the information thoroughly without becoming overloaded with information. While I was alive during the early '90s, I was only 10-15 years old and was not aware of most of the people/terms/musical groups contained within. It was good to glean information about things I was merely tangentially aware of, and also sad to see how some of the aforementioned subjects the authors considered essential to the era quickly lost notoriety. It is obvious that the dawn of the internet has completely revolutionized life as we know it, and somewhat interesting to remember what things/technologies were popular or thought to be 'the next big thing' that ended up not being so.
I don't know that I'd really recommend this book to those reading it for it's stated purpose, but it was an interesting collection of information.

Can't say as this book has much to offer in the way of insight into the several hundred subjects it takes up. It's a sort of Gen X coffee table book, full of buzzy names and things that don't matter and matter even less the way they're glibly described.