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Much of the 1990s on a global scale was a time of celebration due to the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signaling the end of the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union. Later on however the 1990s would become famous for its diversity in the music, television, and video game industry as well as the rise of the Internet. One global fad worth mention is the Macarena song sung by Los Del Rio which hit in 1996.

Main article: 1990s fads and trends in North America

Early 1990s pop culture in North America would vaguely resemble the preceding decade (1980s). In fact many North Americans saw the '80s as lame and uncool, partly mimicking the '80s attitude towards the 1970s. By 1991 Grunge Rock replaces Hair Metal as the 'youth music' and Pogs become a widely played game across the US and Canada. Television in the early '90s are dominately targeted towards Generation X with shows such as Beavis & Butthead, Roseanne, and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air being the most popular.

In some peoples' minds the 1990s can be split into two micro-decades, the earlier half being grungy and gangsta rap, the later half being Alternative and the middle a period of transition between the two. Grunge Rock began its decline as a more Alternative sound began to be more popular. Video games reached their milestone into the so-called "3D era" with the release of the fifth generation consoles such as the Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64. The mid-1990s can be seen as the birth of modern day Internet with the creation of Yahoo!, Ebay, and many online chatrooms.

The late-1990s are mostly considered to be an age of Bubblegum Pop and also the height in popularity of Alternative Rock music. Pokémon, a card game imported from Japan reaches North America in 1997 and becomes extremely popular, it continued to be popular well into the early-2000s. The internet becomes a huge advantage to businesses during the Dot Com Boom.

Main article: 1990s fads and trends in Europe