subject: What were the ICONS of your Generation? [print this page] What were the ICONS of your Generation? What were the ICONS of your Generation?
With technology growing at an unbelievably fast pace, it sure seems like, soon enough, everything could operate with a simple touch of a finger. We've gone from desktops to laptops to iPods and now Internet tablets. I wouldn't be surprised if in ten years I see flying cars on EDSA and our MMDA peeps in jetpacks, trying to figure out "Pano sila nagbanggan?"
As much as I get crazy ideas thinking about "what's next?" I occasionally find myself going through pictures from the past (yes, they are hard copies kept in funky photo albums thanks to Kodak 12-shot film rolls), feeling all nostalgic and remembering the icons I had growing up. I'm talking about fashion, gadgets, party scenes, crushes, and a hundred other things that are definitely worth remembering. Let's take a little trip down memory lane, shall we?
Being born in the '80s, I grew up listening to my dad's vinyl records and cassette tapes. Hall and Oates, Tears For Fears, Michael Jackson, Aha - you name it, he's got it.
Going into the '90s I remember my very first cassette tapes purchases (around P90 each), which happened to be Eraserhead's Ultraelectromagneticpop! and Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle. I would get such a kick listening to "Pare Ko" on my Sony Walkman. Since iPods didn't exist yet, I would blast my favorite songs on my dad's AIWA mini-component, a household status symbol.
When it came to style, I'd never forget the Giordano craze. Yes, the standing man shirt tucked in - Guess, Girbaud, Armani or Versace Jeans. That lasted right until Pinoys went nuts over preppy brands like Polo (the long back shirts) and Tommy Hilfiger. If you couldn't buy the original, our good buddies at Greenhills were always ready to sell you the "class A's" as they'd call it. Some would even go through the half-orig, half-fake combo para hindi obvious. Oh, and while I'm on the subject let me just squeeze other notables such as Birkenstock, Dr. Marten's, NBA Jerseys, RL caps, and the pabango ng bayan a.k.a. Polo Sport.
In the '90s, one's porma wouldn't be complete without a stylish pager. Whether it was legit or just for show, my friends and I wanted one clipped to our belts or pockets. My parents wouldn't buy me a cellphone for two main reasons: they were too expensive and baka ma-clone.
Pagers didn't last too long, thanks to Nokia who blasted the Philippine market with the 5110-a phone everybody wanted to own. Customizing a 5110 made life interesting. Some changed their colored casings and keypads every other day. On weekends, I'd find myself spending time at Greenhills (again) to customize my backlight as the person standing next to me chose a cool acetate to match his "Do you believe in me?" ring tone. Texting was still free, so I'd send the same message two or three times to make up for the lag.
I was big on movies thus I'd bike to ACA Video every weekend and check out the latest titles. When nobody was looking, I'd sneak a peek into the Rated-R shelf to see if there were new "bold" films. Too bad I couldn't rent them since my account was just an extension of my dad's. Betamax tapes eventually turned to VHS, which became laser discs (the huge ones), and then VCDs became DVDs.
A considerable amount of space and money were needed to own a desktop computer before. A huge monitor and a powerful CPU went well over (P60,000). To store files off Wordstar and Lotus 123, you'd have to purchase extra sensitive floppy disks, which only stored a few megabytes since a 'gig' or gigabyte was only a figment of one's imagination.
I also remember spending countless hours playing Mario on my Family Computer back in the early '90s. Sonic the Hedgehog tried to steal the scene when Sega came into the picture. Everything climbed uphill from there: Gameboy, Super Nintendo, and finally the Playstation were among the other gaming consoles that created quite an impact as I grew up.
Sometimes, I find myself laughing going through my old photos. The world is indeed changing and God knows what the next few years have in store for us. I just hope we don't forget our essence as human beings.
I'm sure there are a lot more icons I probably missed out on, so go ahead and add to the list. Besides, the present wouldn't be as great if we didn't know where we came from.
So, what icons of your generation do you remember?
