New Millennium Relics (AIM | Napster | TRL)
Recently I acquired an iPad Pro 12.9. I looked at it and thought "Wow a decade ago, I had a LAN phone, dial-up internet, and no interest in any of this stuff at all." Now I have an "Apple Pie" with various MacBooks, a Mac Mini, an iPhone 7+ and now this thing. And to think in a months the technology on this is going to be totally obsolete, and in a few years we will look back on this with VR contacts in 2021 and go "wow, the good ole days."
Oh Nostalgia- Patrick Stump
Which got me thinking about....the good ole days...yeah it might not seemed that long ago, but for some of you fuckers, you're going to jail for receiving stolen goods or have a crazy amount of debt on your shoulders because someone fucked up along the way, and guess who didn't like 10 years ago, you. So let nostalgia kick in for a minute, and forget your problems.
Check it out...
Dial-Up Internet
The only way you can only truly appreciate this list is to attack it at its core. The one that connected us all together in the first place. Way before Wi-Fi Internet. Hi-Speed Broadband 4G "blah blah blah" there was only one way to get internet, and that was a big ass router box hooked up to your desktop computer of choice, (ours was an HP, and a Dell).
Dial-Up was a bitch. It ran through your PHONE LINE. So at first you could only use it when nobody else was on the phone, which is where social media's staple began. Remember, "back in the day" not everyone had a cell phone, so mom and dad would bitch when you were on the internet.
Broadband by far brought things to the forefront. It sped things up, and made it a little faster, I remember broadband (at first) still having that shit fuck dial-up sound and having to literally "connect" to the internet.
Dial-Up Sound
The Pete Wentz Look
I know, it seems dumb, maybe even close-minded, but I swear to fuck this look was everywhere. Guy-liner, a hoodie, skater shoes, a band t-shirt that emo-over haircut and tight jeans. Pete from Fall Out Boy was one of the first dudes I've seen to trademark this get up. I mean the dude would rock out a hoodie tuxedo at award shows for fuck sake. The look also propelled various adaptations which I believe became and 2000's staple of the "emo look". If you carbon date this "Pete Wentz" look it's an early ancestor to the modern hipster.
AIM
In a world without Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube, SnapChat, and well any other form of social media there reigned only but a few, one of theme being ICQ. Yeah, I'm not talking about AIM right now, I'll give a shout out to ICQ real quick. ICQ was the 2 man clown rap group....wait..never mind...
ICQ was a stand alone instant messaging service much like Facebook Messenger but involved a screen name. And you pretty much talked to friends. Sometimes you'd get random messages, but who doesn't get creepers. (I am one O_o.) You could have group chats (towards the end of ICQ's life) insert cool little pictures, and have "away messages" when you weren't online which was really handy to let people know what your favorite song was at the time.
Piggy backing off of that service was AOL Instant Messenger (AIM.)
It had all of the same things as ICQ and tons more. Extensions where you could insert your own profile to talk about yourself. Your own font colors, and styles, and user icons. Those little nuances might seem stupid but it made all the difference to the user. It made it seem personal. It fucking worked for me that's for sure.
AIM in itself is the entire reason I decided to write this blog.
As of December 2017 AOL Instant Messenger will discontinue their services. Yes in all of its glory, all of those late nights pouring your broken heart out to your girlfriend, where all of your friends knew EXACTLY what song you liked because of your "Buddy Profile", and where the inception of where most keyboard warriors began, but where sadly AIM must end.
TRL
I hated this fucking show in high school, but I have to talk about it, because it carried a lot of weight, and a lot of meaning to a lot of kids. It was Pre-9/11 and it was one of the first news outlets that really opened up and talked about the tragedy in the forefront to kids rather than "here's some buildings, here's some planes, here's some fire, we don't know whats going on." Being that it was filmed in New York City, in Time Square really hit home for a lot on the show.
They opened up about feelings and for a lot of musicians, actors and athletes that popped up on the show they opened up as humans rather than the persona they put on while on TV or movies.
Total Request Live, or more affectionately known as TRL was a TV series that featured popular music videos with a countdown that was determined by you the audience calling in or going online and voting (much like today's American Idol is done.) In addition it also had daily special guests, musicians, actors, athletes, etc. and live performances from time to time. It targeted teen audiences and was on MTV so you could imagine why other artists used this as a promo tool for their latest work. During the "Golden Era" of the show Carson Daly hosted it. 1998-2002. Post Carson was a revolving door of hosts. In Sept. 2006 TRL became MTV's longest running live program produced but shortly after aired their final episode on May 22nd 2007, their 2000th episode highlighting the best of.
In retrospect the show is definitely missed. Look at what is on MTV now. Look at what television has become. Seeing TRL come back to a YouTube or online base would totally be awesome, only time will tell.
MySpace
What the fuck were the 2000's without MySpace. It was the bridge between social media platforms like AIM and Facebook. If you're old enough to remember what Myspace was, there's not much explaining to do, and if you're not here's a brief description...back in my day...
There was MySpace. It worked similarly to Facebook. You uploaded photos, your "About Me" section was your Bio, you could add/block friends, upload a song courtesy of MySpace music where bands could create their own pages, and you could also upload a more detailed bio and custom backgrounds/themes via HTML editor or sites with already hashed out themes that were drag and drop.
MySpace was an awesome place. For a lot of us, it's where we spent a shit ton of our time after school, making sure that "profile song" was just right, feeling like a "pro fucking coder" by changing the HTML in your profile oh so slightly (oh yeah, /b made that shit BOLD) or what caused many of "friend" and "girlfriend/boyfriend" break-ups was putting people in your top 8.
Yeah, the dreaded top 8. Your Top 8 was the first real experience to the world's first unattributed crack at social media's "Dunbar's Number." The top 8 were your top 8 friends. Well why is this a big deal, it's just 8 friends right? FUCK YOU WRONG.
Your Top 8 took up a good 1/3 of your screen and they were the ONLY friends displayed. You were able to ORGANIZE THEM. Whereas on other social media platforms these days are alphabetized this played a key role especially when it came to who mattered more, your significant other, or your best friend.
Hollywood Video/ Blockbuster Video
Blockbuster and Hollywood video were the in real life versions of Netflix and Redbox, (for you youngsters.) The only way I can explain it, is you walk INTO Netflix. It's a GIANT video store. Picture that little section of Walmart that has DVD's and games except that's the size of an entire supermarket.
Each store had movies subcategorized in sections comedy, horror, family, action, new releases, blu-ray. Then the game section was subcategorized by console. It was awesome, but pricey. $5 for $5. Imagine THAT SHIT! For 1 fucking movie!
Blockbuster and Hollywood video fell victim to the hustle and bustle of Redbox, and inevitable Netflix. Nobody wants to WAIT for their fucking movies and games. Hollywood and Blockbuster stores were only opened 10am until midnight. Walmart is opened 24/7 so a RedBox stand outside of every Walmart seemed smart with the latest video games and movies which could be bought at ANY TIME of day.
Then we move to Netflix, in the late 90's Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings offered a partnership with Blockbuster and CEO of Blockbuster Jim Keyes laughed in his face. Funny how things like that work out.
Adult Swim
Believe it or not Adult Swim got its start during these years, before that it was Toonami. Head programmer Mike Lazzo conceived the concept of a "young adult" and teenager broadcasting slot due to the demographic at the time being over 1/3 in that over 16 years old.
The shows at that time were mostly pilots, canceled shows, as well as test shows like Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Harvey Birdman, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and commercial spots for upcoming movies and product placements featuring characters from the shows.
Some of the canceled shows from the time were shows like Futurama and Family Guy. Seth McFaralane brought Family Guy back on and only a few short years later Comedy Central picked up the show for more seasons. Futurama saw the same awesome fate while revived in 2007 by Comedy Central for similar reasons impressive viewership in syndication as well as high DVD sales.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Dragon Ball Z (eww), and even the now 2017 movie about a movie The Room has been made due to Adult Swim's popularity.
The Room was such a horrible movie, Adult Swim aired it 3 years straight
on April Fool's Day.
It's crazy to think how a time slot changed it all...
Napster
Napster ate a lot of shit back in the day for being the "illegal downloading service." They were a P2P (peer-to-peer) site for file sharing that emphasized on digital audio, typically audio songs, in MP3 format. It was the place where any kid on the planet could get music for free but the problem was, the music they were sharing music was technically copyright infringement.
So bands like Metallica and rapper Dr. Dre were up in arms because their demos were being leaked, entire albums were being uploaded and shared without being paid for, and more streaming sites like Napster were popping up like Kazaa and Limewire.
Imagine, a world where music, photos, videos and other forms of media were free in a downloadable instant...what an insane chaotic place that would be...
Well that's what kind of world CEOs Sean Parker and John and Shawn Fanning found their selves in. Oh that and a court room. I mean, yeah, a lot of other sharing sites were popping the fuck up, but these guys were the primary focus, (someone had to be to blame).
They were sued and settled for a cool $1BIL paying $150MIL for the first 5 years then $50MIL each additional year following. The company was acquired at bankruptcy auction in 2008 by Roxio used to rebrand by PressPlay. In 2011 the company merged with Rhapsody and same year Best Buy purchased the Rhapsody. SOURCE
2000's "Tech"
Razr Phone
This...is a phone. And in case you're wondering, it flips open, kind of like a Nintendo DS except it has buttons like your grandma's LAN line house phone and no touch screen. I know, it's confusing, but this was the "brand new" 2003 Motorola Razr phone sold in every color of the rainbow that broke in every way possible because of its sleek, slim design, and wore the fuck out because of it's awesome flip phone action. What's crazy is Android resurrected this fuck in 2011. What's even crazier is my ex-girlfriend went through no joke half a dozen of these things in less than a year from spills, breaks, drops, and leaving it on the tire of her car and pulling away.
iPod
Look at, this ancient fuck. This photo, does ZERO justice. It was only Mac compatible, had 5GB which was advertised as "putting 1000 songs in your pocket" and connected by firewire.
Game Systems
This was a tech war. Microsoft dipped its dick in the water and it felt oh so warm. Sony was pumping out games left and right and all on the news with violence with games like GTA and Resident Evil. and Nintendo was and always will be Nintendo. It's crazy to see how these companies have developed overtime, each in their own way.
Warped Tour
To me in the early 2000's only meant one thing to me, marching band. That is until I bought Linkin Park's: Hybrid Theory, Puddle of Mudd's: Come Clean, and blink-182's: Take Off Your Pants & Jacket shit changed for me. Then that school year a couple of guys in high school handed me an Operation Ivy CD and shit changed from there, thanks Andy.
I soon got hooked on punk and pop-punk. In retrospect I wish I wasn't so narrow minded and respected the "scene" and music rather than the genre and sub-genre that surrounded each band that I liked, but we'll save that for another blog...
I didn't know about Warped Tour. All I kept thinking was "fuck I wish there was this awesome place that I could see of these bands that I like at once...wouldn't that be great?" Then BAM the line-up happened. Holy shit, every band my headphones yelled back at me was on this list. It was Warped 2005. I was hooked.
Look how much Warped has changed since then. Not even much discussing the bands, though bands like The Offspring, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, MxPx, Transplants, Avenged Sevenfold, Dropkick Murphys were all on the same bill together.
But there were other things that have changed such as the fact that each year Warped used to have a theme, such as the 2005 year for example was the year of the superheroes. Each band was a superhero, and in the magazine with their bio they were asked cheeky questions about their powers as well as normal questions about their new albums, tour, etc.
Another major element to the tour that has died completely been the skating element. That's right, there used to be ACTUAL HALF PIPES with skaters at the show. It was awesome to be standing there watching NOFX and looking over at Jason Ellis on a BMX.
Shopping Mall
There are 2 types of you out there right now the first type is:
-1. Why the hell is this on the list?
-2. What the hell is a shopping mall?
Let me break it down.
1. Why is this here?
Well it's here for type 2 people. Look around. Shopping malls are shutting down, and it's not necessarily the malls fault, it's the individual businesses within the malls faults. It's just too convenient for 12 year old Jimmy and Susie to go online and order shit than it is to drive all the fuck way to the mall. I mean yes, "that's the problem with our youth these days. I COULD NOT WAIT to get the fuck out of my house and get away from my parents. What are kids doing these days that they aren't going to the mall and shit? I mean fucking sweet next day shipping Amazon Prime, yes please! Where the hell do they go? Especially where I live in suburban bum-fuck nowhere! Especially when malls are being shut down at an ASTRONOMICAL RATE! Which leads me to number fuck 2. What's a mall?
A mall is a giant store with small sub-stores inside of it. Think of it like Amazon in real life. There are stores that have strictly shoes, clothes, toys, outdoors, games, etc, and then other ones that are brand, hobby, pop culture, and fashion specific stores.
This picture above is my mall. The one where I used to buy oh so many cloths, toys, games, wait in line for Black Friday and waste so much time with friends. It's crazy to see what technology, human consumption and the "now" factor can do in the span of 20 years.
The good news about these empty malls popping up is Amazon is taking interest in these empty cadavers from a lost era. Since Amazon Prime is pumping out more of people's useless shit than ever before, they need more warehouses to store them, what better places than old malls. SOURCE.
Jackass/CKY
I remember late nights watching Adult Swim. (See what I did there.) And I would randomly flip through the channels and see these guys on MTV doing stupid shit. I didn't think much of it, yeah I'd watch it, but that was it. I caught on to the show, and soon was a huge fan. All I wanted was a camera and to be apart of "that world" even though every episode started out with a disclaimer which read:
Yeah...whatever. My friends and I filmed dumb shit constantly changing our names "like that would matter." There's a video somewhere of me getting shot in the dick with eggs and tomatoes wearing nothing but a jockstrap...so that happened...
My grandpap was the most supportive guy in my life by far. He took myself and like 6 or 7 of my friends to the premiere of the Jackass Movie. He knew we watched the show, we did dumb things, we were jumping off of roofs and kick flipping skateboards on fire he just suggested that we were safe.
Then, I discovered that the pilot to Jackass was actually from a skating DVD known as CKY, not to be confused with the band CKY though same affiliation. The internet was a hell of a drug at the time, sites like YouTube were just starting so finding videos like CKY were awesome, and living in a close minded town like I did it felt like an oasis to find anything that wasn't something about deer hunting, fishing, trucks or country music.
Back to this CKY thing, it was primarily thing done by pro skater Bam Margera. He would torture his parents, friends and fuck with people in his town of West Chester PA. It seemed like a guy who "got me." So naturally at the prime age of 15 I dressed, acted, and talked like Bam. But you know what they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery.
WWE
Somewhere in the mid 2000's I gave a shit about pro wrestling. For those of you that don't know what the fuck this is...skip right on over this section...
We used to sneak into the college and watch the pay per views since they were free to college students on the auditorium projector once a month and order Papa Johns before they closed down. I gave a shit up until it started getting way too "fake". I mean it's like a soap opera with fighting to begin with, but when the Attitude Era roster started to phase out, and the RAW and Smackdown Roster Split happened I started to lose interest.
Problems:
1.) There were too many champions to keep track of:
-Raw and Smackdown both had Heavyweight, Tag, IC, and Lightweight champions for each station. They just called them something different. How weird is it that? Same company two tag champions? Two heavyweights? That's like if your high school or college football team had 2 varsity teams.
2.) You couldn't enjoy everyone at once:
-Let me explain. It's like having a favorite character being killed off on a TV show but not really, he's still on the spin-off show. They just ripped apart awesome story lines and divided their talent into two. Instead of pigeonhole their talent into two brackets why have a draft? Keep everything as is, and favor talent to certain shows but not completely divide, that only pisses fans off.
3.) Story lines:
For a solid 2 years it was Cena gets the title. Yes it was ratings, but fuck me that shit got old.
There were moments of pure awesome. Like in 2005 when Ted Turner sold his beloved WCW to Vince McMahon. ECW was a blunder so it was a no-brainer that Vince also scooped that up as well thus solidifying his wrestling empire. Fans thought that that was it for ECW and WCW, this ceased an opportunity for Vince to created the craziest multi cross over storyline ever fathomed.
I remember watching the WWE Invasion with wrestlers from WWE, WCW and ECW thinking "what the fuck is this, never in my wildest years have I had ever thought this had happened."
To keep things awesome with fans, things like the 2005 ECW "One Night Stand" were made. Where ONLY ECW superstars would wrestle at a small venue "like back in the day" and it would be held on pay-per-view, all matches would be no holds barred and was pretty much created out of demand for the fans.
Similarly WWE still has pay-per-views like TLC and Extreme Rules where every match is extreme or "Tables, Ladders, and Chairs".
X-Games
I always knew it was "summer" when I started seeing ESPN2 commercials for The X-Games. Now that was "back then." ESPN and ESPN2 now both cover the massive event. But what is the X-Games? Porn? Well kind of if you're into extreme sports.
If you're new to The X-Games it's where Tony Hawk landed the 900, Travis Pastrama landed a double backflip and Heath Frisby nailed the first ever front flip on a snowmobile.
Events:
Skateboarding
Skateboard Vert
Men's Skateboard Park
Women's Skateboard Park
Street League Skateboarding
SLS Select Series
Women's Skateboard Street
Skateboard Big Air
BMX Freestyle
BMX Vert
BMX Park
BMX Street
BMX Big Air
BMX Dirt
Real Video Series
Real Surf
Real Women
Real Street
Real Moto
Red Bull Phenom
Mountain Bike Slopestyle
Skateboard Street
BMX Street
Flat Track
Moto X Flat Track
Moto X
Moto X Speed & Style
Moto X Best Whip
Moto X Freestyle
Men's Moto X Endurocross
Women's Moto X Endurocross
Moto X Step Up
Moto X Adaptive Racing
Men's Moto X Racing
Women's Moto X Racing
Moto X Quarterpipe
The summer sports event hyped up summer, got me stoked and made me want to learn how to skateboard and was an awesome cross platform for extreme sports, music, and energy drinks. Tons of bands were featured through out the years for the "X-Fest" which also went on to the Warped Tour...no affiliation.
Ozzfest
The more goth-ier, angrier older brother to Warped Tour was Ozzfest. Ozzy Osbourne's carnival musical circus which paraded the country every summer with metal bands long before The Mayhem Fest existed.
The early days of Ozzfests were well received and quickly picked up steam throughout the 90's . It's major success though were the early 2000's. Bands like Slipknot, Mudvayne, Incubus, Marilyn Manson, Godsmack, Slayer, Lamb of God and Linkin Park played the giant metal fest, some seeing tons of success following.
I personally have only been to one Ozzfest, it being what I consider the last official one, because I don't consider the 2007 "Free Fest" anything but bullshit sadness.
Now that's a bill with some chest hair on it.
Ozzfest has since disbanded in the US, although the yearly Mayhem Fest makes its rounds and from time to time isn't bad. Seeing Slipknot, Slayer, Motorhead (RIP Lemmy) and Anthrax all together, couldn't have been fucking sweeter.
The Ozzfest has now moved its yearly shit show to a two day fest instead of an all summer thing. Where it brings the same carnage and rip roar to Chiba, Japan.
2016 and 2017 made slight changes merging together with Slipknot's KNOTFEST quoting Sharon Osbourne how there were "touring metal acts years ago and Ozzfest helped fill the void and usher in the way for bands like Slipknot." Knotfest Meets Ozzfest in San Bernardino California where Ozzfest had its first show 20+ years ago.
I liked to end off with Ozzfest because it reminds me of my dad. He looked and swore and sang just like Ozzy. Though these nostalgic things are gone or innovated or bought out to better companies, they hold one true thing near to all of us and that is that in one place in time they held memories.
----Final Thoughts----
-What is your favorite piece of 2000's nostalgia?
Razr Scooters? First iPhones? The Spiderman Movie?
-Were you an emo kid?
-Is it stupid?
-Tweet and/or TAG me in a photo of:
A.) Photo of your nostalgia emo phase
B.) Your AIM screen name (RIP AIM)
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