Internet Nostalgia

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The 1990s were a great time. Not only did they mark my entire teenage life but so many cool things were going on.

Generally I am an 80s fan. I love the cartoons, the music, movies, even the clothes. But today I am waxing on the 1990s.

High School sucked yeah but I lived at home, most of my pets were still alive and I discovered the Internet.

And that's where this post really takes off. All it took was a few Hampsters (sic) to spin me back to a great time to be a net citizen. And I'll tell you why.

The Hampster Dance

In 1997 a Canadian made a website with 4 different animated hamsters dancing to a sped up version of a song from the Disney cartoon film Robin Hood.

It was annoying, choppy and wonderful. I wouldn't have remembered it if it hadn't been for a BoingBoing story today. The story itself was a quick joke regarding the new scientific discovery that mice sing to get laid. But hearing that old song just brought up warm memories.

Hampster Dance has since lost the popularity it once enjoyed, though Radio Disney still plays it and hampsterdance.com has it archived with a handful of other hampster dances.

MIDIs

The 1990s marked a rise in popularity of electronic versions of popular tunes. MIDIs, when I discovered them were one of the most awesome additions to add to a website. It was a time before Peer 2 Peer and little things like this were trendy and cool.

The first MIDI I ever heard I believe was Rainbow Connection. I immediately taught myself how to code these into my webpage of the time.

Appropriately the MIDI was Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. I eventually found code to put up an entire MIDI jukebox on my site! Oh how exciting that was! Not only could people hear what songs they wanted, but it gave my website the smack of tech wizardry!

To this day I feel nostalgic when I hear one of these electronic beep-like songs. Strangely enough a few of Gwen Stefani's songs like Run and Cool remind me in some way of the MIDIs of yore.

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