Tim Tan Huynh

The Best Summer Ever, 25 years later

  • 2 Sep 2024
  • I take time to pause and rewind back to 1999.

I’ve almost forgotten about this milestone. I could’ve written about it at the beginning of the summer, and the thought had crossed my mind a few months ago. I’m too late for that now. There’s something fitting about doing it on (the eve of) the unofficial end of summer, though. Almost forgetting to reflect can be a reminder that time can pass you by if you’re not mindful of it.

I almost wish I’d withheld my post from five years ago, but instead of repeating it too much, I’ll add to it. I’m grateful to have experienced the summer of ’99. I’m also grateful to have experienced it at that point in my life. It’s not as monumental as the summer of ’69; that summer has the Moon Landing, ARPANET, and Woodstock. I’m amazed when I realize that those events had happened only 30 years prior.

Still, the summer of 1999 has the distinction of being the final summer before the year 2000. That fact gives it symbolic importance, even if 2001 marks the next century or millennium. For pop culture, that summer has memorable releases within an entire year of them. I’m expanding my Summer of ’99 song playlist (in no real order) to include the months leading up to July and August:

I’ve noticed that my playlist is poppy and eclectic. The poppy-ness reflects the popular music and the world at large at the time. Even with dread about Y2K, I remember people being optimistic about the year 2000 as a milestone. The variety of genres in this playlist is also a reflection of the time. It has stadium-filling, recording artists and small-town, one-hit wonders alike. The music business of today is the domain of a few megastars.

That summer and entire year had also been a memorable one for movies. Their influence is clear today. Episode 1 is still the only Star Wars movie that I’ve seen, but it marks the revival of that property. It’s more prevalent than ever, if nothing else. The theatrical run of The Matrix would’ve continued throughout that summer. It’s the first blockbuster featuring superhumans fighting in alternative realities.

Movies like The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project are one of a kind, though. Irreverent franchises like Austin Powers and American Pie also wouldn’t exist today. In my view, superheroes, biopics, and book adaptations are the dominant genres now. The prevalence of streaming services is the biggest difference between then and now.

The prevalence of high-speed Internet access in general is the biggest difference. The World Web Web had only been a decade-old in 1999. The so-called Web 2.0 era would’ve started around fives years later with the emergence of social media as we know it. The smartphone boom several years later has given people near-limitless choices and chances. The former lets people consume how they want and the latter lets them communicate how the want.

Today is more eventful, and even chaotic, than 25 years ago. It’s nice to think of a time when my world and the larger world had been much more calm and hopeful. I don’t plan to write about the summer of ’99 every five or ten years, though. Its 50th anniversary would be logical, assuming that I’m still blogging and alive. I also have to not forget.