It is the year 2025 at a prestigious Eastern-seaboard college. A professor of American studies is addressing the packed class for his course "From Wham! to Pearl Jam: Aesthetic Shifts in Late 20th Century Popular Culture." The 1990s were a Golden Age in the history of American tastes, he argues, a decade of pared-down chic superior to the one that preceded it. To bolster his thesis, he cites the rise of poignant alternative music, the popularity of earth-toned packaging and the disappearance of clothing with shoulder pads. His students are unconvinced. What was so great, they shout, about an era that...
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