Effect on 90s Pop Culture from resurgent Cold War

Lets say that the Cold War tensions in the late 1980s somehow reverted back how they were in the early 1980s, using a scinario where the USSR fights to keep the Warsaw Pact together. As a result, Cold War tensions skyrocket until the late 1990s and the period is not a decade of peace and euphoria but of geoplitical tension, similar to the late 1970s/early 1980s. How would this affect pop culture in the 90s?

My thoughts:

Expect to see more "Top Gun" like Cold War films in the mid 90s, and a lot more films staring Morgan Freeman working for the US Millitary/Government.

The rise of Hip-Hop in the early and mid 90s could become a source of social and political tension if certain artists tout pro-Russian views in their lyrics. Or lyrics that are at least interpreted in the West as pro Russian.

The 90s would still be euphoric, being the end of the millenium and the general decline of the Soviet economy would at least be some kind of a cause for celebration in the US, but the millitary tension could give way to a heightend sense of American nationalism and more of a gung-ho approach to Cold War millitary aggression rather than a sense of lingering dread.

In the Pokemon games, the antagonists "Team Rocket", will be portrayed as Russian/Slavic characters.

Expect to see more films about Cyberwarfare-which in the 90s will be the new millitary threat.

Speaking of films, the James Bond franchise would be slightly different in the 90s-maybe there'll be a plotline involving a "sinister Russian plot to make an American nuclear power station explode from by using a computer virus".

Expect to see a "Second Red Scare" as the Internet becomes more widely used-and scare stories about pro-Communist webpages, computer viruses and all sorts of internet urban legends arising from the ongoing Cold War.

The film Indpendence Day- involves Russia and America working together at the end to beat the alien onslaught-ala the 1970s Quatermass TV series.

In the UK-Margret Thatcher would still be in power, seeing as the December 1990 end of Cold War conference never happened, causing her to fight a better campaign in her Second Ballot. Cold War tensions in 1990 would see the Conservative Party rally behind their leader.

Furthermore, the British air raid siren system would remain through much of the 90s, although much of the infrastructre would fall into disrepair as a replacement for the siren system was already planned in OTL in 1989. Nuclear bunkers dating from the 1950s would be refurbished and installed with more modern computing power.

I can't think of anymore, but it would be great to hear your ideas.
 
Might butterfly away grunge and the whole Gen X aesthetic as we know it(eg. the slacker genre of films), which was arguably linked to a sense of aimlessness connected to the disappearance of a collective purpose as seen in the Reagan years.

Forrest Gump would probably not be made, since, while not ironic per se, it did sort of depend on the idea of the "Morning In America" as being a time that had passed on, which the script was pastiching for nostalgic purposes. We'd probably just get more straightforward rah-rahism, like An Officer And A Gentleman and Field Of Dreams. (Caveat: I've only seen part of the former, and none of the latter, but other specific examples aren't coming to mind right now.)

EDIT: Changed "rootlessness" to "aimlessness" in the first paragraph. Seems to be closer to the general mood of Gen X, at least as commonly perceived.
 
Expect to see more films about Cyberwarfare-which in the 90s will be the new millitary threat.

Yeah, cyberpunk would be less nihilistic and anti-authoritarian in this time-line. Possibly less revival of interest in Blade Runner(which originally bombed on its first release), and more stuff about patriotic hackers taking on clearly defined foreign baddies.

To the extent that the Cold War mentality is still subjected to negative critique, it's probably a continuation of stuff like The Day After, presenting dystopian scenarios, but rooted in the overarching global conflict.
 
Might butterfly away grunge and the whole Gen X aesthetic as we know it(eg. the slacker genre of films), which was arguably linked to a sense of aimlessness connected to the disappearance of a collective purpose as seen in the Reagan years.

Forrest Gump would probably not be made, since, while not ironic per se, it did sort of depend on the idea of the "Morning In America" as being a time that had passed on, which the script was pastiching for nostalgic purposes. We'd probably just get more straightforward rah-rahism, like An Officer And A Gentleman and Field Of Dreams. (Caveat: I've only seen part of the former, and none of the latter, but other specific examples aren't coming to mind right now.)

EDIT: Changed "rootlessness" to "aimlessness" in the first paragraph. Seems to be closer to the general mood of Gen X, at least as commonly perceived.

Interesting, how does the post Reagan era affect 90s America in OTL? (I'm British btw) and also, what do you mean by Rah-Rahism?

Removal of 90s grunge would certainly be interesting. A continuation or reval of the Reagan/Thatcherite economic and social revolution into the 90s would see the delay of "Third Way" politics in UK/US. Perhaps, going back to the film industry, we would see more films such as "A Few Good Men", which could take on a slightly more darker plot being set in Germany rather than Cuba. Perhaps The Sum of All Fears would be made right after The Hunt For Red October to capitalise on the geopolitical tension at the time.

Friends, while remaining more or less the same, could be interpreted as a portrayal of young 90s adults who are ambivalent to adulthood due to the exestential threat of nuclear war.
 
Interesting, how does the post Reagan era affect 90s America in OTL? (I'm British btw) and also, what do you mean by Rah-Rahism?

I'l start with the easiest question first. By "Rah-Rahism" I just mean straightforward, unqualified patriotism. Though in some cases, maybe more implied than outright stated. (From the term "rah-rah", similar to "Go team!")

As for your first question, well, "the post Reagan era" IS "90s America", so I'm a little unclear as to what you're asking. I'll assume you mean how the end of Reaganism impacted culture in the 90s.

I'd have to qualify my answer by saying that it's kind of hard to determine cause-and-effect with this sort of thing. Obviously, you can see a difference between something like Material Girl, and something like No Rain, but it's hard to say if the latter is a reaction against the former(broadly speaking), or if it would have happened anyway, but just stands out for being different from what came before it.
 
90s comics would probably include more Russian villains, which means we may see less of the big "shake-up" events of the early-mid 90s (ie, Superman dies, Green Lantern goes insane, Batman getting his back broken, etc) and focus more on good vs evil.
 
90s comics would probably include more Russian villains, which means we may see less of the big "shake-up" events of the early-mid 90s (ie, Superman dies, Green Lantern goes insane, Batman getting his back broken, etc) and focus more on good vs evil.

Actually, it wasn't too long after the collapse of the Soviet Union that Russian gangsters became the standard go-to dudes for Hollywood villainry. Though of course, those were non-Communist, post-Cold War Russians, probably "enjoying" their cinematic pre-eminence just because they were always being discussed in the news media as well.
 
Last edited:
The book Postmodernism For Beginners asked the question...

Would postmodernism be such a powerful idea if Communism hadn't collapsed?

Something to do with Marxism being the last gasp of the idea of a narrative running through history. It's been a while.
 
The book Postmodernism For Beginners asked the question...

Would postmodernism be such a powerful idea if Communism hadn't collapsed?

Something to do with Marxism being the last gasp of the idea of a narrative running through history. It's been a while.

Depends on the kind of Communism, and the shape that International Capitalism is in.
Disillusion can happen a great number of ways and the shifting of culture in the West is always possible. The more contradictions pile up between the world as it's understood and as it is then you might just get the same dish with a different recipe.

A longer Cold War can mean a lot more than a few changes to some comic book storylines and movie scripts. In the US we had a ideological call to arms to make war with half the world that was only tempered by situational pragmatism. What does the world look like in 15 years after an August Coup, and you have a US led by Rumsfeld's and Cheney's, with the media apparatus of the 2000s and the international situation of a late 70s.

That's a powderkeg and depending on how it blows, there's room for a cultural hangover like the kind Gen X had OTL. Combine that with the trajectory that the world was on economically in this timeframe and then you have a recipe for a new 70s. High economic anxiety, an eternal conflict that's still carrying on after a century of potshots and extinction scares.
There's room for some postmodernism. The cold war didn't leave everyone in a trance, people getting fed up is a tale as old as time.
 
Top