{"id":8084,"date":"2026-05-04T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=8084"},"modified":"2026-05-04T06:00:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:00:43","slug":"gen-xers-explain-that-quick-moment-in-the-90s-when-everybody-suddenly-got-into-swing-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=8084","title":{"rendered":"Gen Xers explain that quick moment in the \u201990s when everybody suddenly got into swing music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gregorian chants had their time on the charts, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every Gen Xer<\/a> remembers a small moment in time when swing music was extremely popular in the late \u201990s<\/a>. Swing went from nonexistent to an alt-rock radio mainstay from 1996 to 1998 and then, it was gone in a flash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that time, young people rushed to their nearest dance studios<\/a> to learn the Lindy Hop and bought up old-school, retro suits and fedoras. Swing clubs started popping up all over the country, and MTV<\/a> played swing-inspired videos such as \u201cHell\u201d by Squirrel Nut Zippers, \u201cJump Jive and Wail\u201d by Brian Setzer Orchestra, and \u201cYou and Me (and the Bottle Makes Three)\u201d by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Film editor Simone Smith asked Gen X<\/a> to explain what the hell was going on in the late \u201990s that led to swing music making a huge comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s always hard to figure out how specific trends crop up, but according to Kenneth Partridge from Billboard, <\/a>it began with the formation of Royal Crown Revue in 1989 by two members of the seminal L.A. punk band Youth Brigade. Royal Crown Revue\u2019s old-school \u201940s tough-guy aesthetic was something punks could relate to while also bringing back the danceable \u201940s sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band had a Wednesday night residency at L.A.\u2019s The Derby before turning it over to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, who were featured in Jon Favreau\u2019s 1996 surprise hit \u201cSwingers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSwingers\u201d was probably the most important moment in the swing revival. The film centered around friends who roam L.A. like a modern-day Rat Pack to a soundtrack featuring Dean Martin, Count Basie, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did people get into swing music in the \u201990s?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Others attribute swing\u2019s rise in popularity to \u201cA League of Their Own\u201d (1992), \u201cSwing Kids\u201d (1993), and \u201cThe Mask\u201d (1994).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1998, The Gap brought swing to the mainstream with its \u201cKhakis Swing\u201d commercial, featuring good-looking young people Lindy-hopping to the sounds of Louis Prima.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a psychological level, the swing craze seemed to be a pivot from the dreariness of grunge rock that began to fade from the public consciousness by around 1996. Some also think that the upbeat, fun music was a response to the return to the prosperity of Clinton-era America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, rave culture, which was also centered around dancing and had an upbeat aesthetic, was becoming popular as well. Some Gen Xers did their best to explain the phenomenon that felt like it came out of nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s 150% awesome and Gen Xers have better taste in music\/ dance\/ culture than any other generation and we dgaf what anybody thinks of us,\u201d wrote one commenter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo more things: 1. The 90s had a broader affection for 40s\/late 30s fashion, kind of like the 80s had for the 50s, and 2. The boomers would never shut up about how the 60s were the one true youth culture, which made it extra appealing to embrace their parents\u2019 music over theirs,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swing music? it could have been worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did people listen to chant music in the \u201990s?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Smith may be confused by the big swing craze in the \u201990s, but she should also know that it wasn\u2019t the only strange musical comeback of the era. What in the world was the whole Gregorian chant craze about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, for those of you who weren\u2019t born by 1994, the two-disc album<\/a> \u201cChant\u201d by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos sold over three million copies in the United States and reached number three on the Billboard pop charts. The relaxing album recorded in a monastery had a little something for everyone. Stressed people could bump it in their cars on the way home from work, ravers could listen to it to come down after a night at the club, and hippies could meditate to its contemplative vibes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put a button on it: if you love \u201call kinds\u201d of music, the \u201990s were for you, especially if you liked old school music. The \u201990s were so obsessed with being old-school that people bumped 11th-century chant music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gregorian chants had their time on the charts, too. Every Gen Xer remembers a small moment in time when swing music was extremely popular in the late \u201990s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/687363126_1445497420944578_6740766492372054350_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8086,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8084\/revisions\/8086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}