Here in Germany, the 90’s were marked by the reunification of the country. But all over the continent, it felt like anything was possible. They were years of trying new things and discovering, even for us here at Teufel. The booming beats of techno were a constant on the musical scene. The second part of our review of 40 years of Teufel.
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The rise of techno
What started with band Kraftwerk, became mainstream in the 90s, making the band a worldwide phenomenon. Techno, house, tribal also became popular in clubs across the world getting people to dance the whole night through. One of the legendary locations and the place to go was Tresor.
Tresor opened in 1991, it was named after an old shopping center Tresorraum, which was closed since DDR times. Tresor, thanks to DJs such as Sven Vaeth and Carl Cox became renowned for its parties. And overnight, Berlin became the center of the techno scene.
In the video below, a club goer has take a film of life inside the legendary club, despite it being forbidden. It gives us good example of how life might have been in the 90s.
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Techno also conquered the streets. The Loveparade, organized by Dr. Motte for the first time in 1989, had only 150 participants, who were dancing behind a VW bus. But soon more than one million ravers celebrated in Berlin across the Straße des 17. Juni, as the 1998 recording proves.
Boy bands and One-Hit wonders
But there wasn’t just techno. In retrospect, the bands of the 90s consisted almost exclusively of teen boys. It was without question the time of the boy bands: The Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Take That and many more made teenagers scream. But also the Spice Girls celebrated their debut in the 90s and ran on the radio as well as on MTV and VIVA just as high and low as Whitney Houston, Die Ärzte or R.E.M. Some artists remained one-hit wonder: Fools Garden with Lemon Tree, Aqua with Barbie Girl or Lou Bega with Mambo No. 5.
Fancy a trip back in time? In the following video you can listen to the 100 biggest hits of the 90s:
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Top offers to celebrate 40 Years of Teufel:
Rom-coms and blockbusters: cinemas in the 90s
The 90s was also an exciting time for the cinema. Rom-coms became popular: Pretty Woman, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve got Mail, As Good As it Gets – and the list goes on. Of course, amongst these were other films that became a part of the 90s culture.
A small selection of beloved films from the 90s:
- Silence of the Lambs 1991
- Jurassic Park 1993
- Pulp Fiction 1994
- Trainspotting 1996
- Léon 1994
- Titanic 1997
- Fight Club 1999
- Matrix 1999
A classic from the 90s: Pulp Fiction from Quentin Tarantino
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Teufel in the 90s: Theater and Hollywood power
Within our own four walls, Teufel increasingly provided the best sound. No wonder, because Teufel relied on strong sound expertise from Hollywood – THX. And to make it sound like a real cinema even in small rooms, they just created the smallest THX system in the world, the System 5 THX.
> Reading tip: This is THX
Soundscapes: Teufel’s Theater series ensures delight
Home cinemas, which considerably increased the enjoyment of films at home, also came into fashion due to the increasing distribution of DVDs. Not least thanks to the ever improving soundtracks. Teufel was involved from the beginning and made a big grin on the sofas with his theater series which still exists today.
Teufel’s home cinema Theater 1 was so well received that Teufel developed several improved successors in the following years (such as the no less popular Theater 2) and other variants to meet the great demand.
Car Tuning – Teufel let the car windows shake with the AM 250
Nowadays hardly anybody comes up with the idea of first cutting open the door panel or the rear shelf of his car, then rebuilding it and laying several meters of cable, just for a deeper bass. But in the 90s it was different. As a proud driver, you couldn’t have enough decibels.
And there was also a Teufel prospect for hi-fi sound in cars.
Only real with a dust cap
The legendary Teufel AM 250 Woofer with a stylish Teufel dust cap brought the needed sound in many pimped cars.
The Berlin way – Teufel starts selling directly
Another innovation at Teufel was direct sales. The result was more favorable prices with constant quality and the direct exchange with our customers, which also influenced our product development.
Typical 90s: Fashion right for clubbing
As far as technology was concerned, things went super in the 90s – one innovation chased the next. But what did we actually look like? The trends of the 90s already took some getting used to. For example, women often wore dresses with spaghetti straps over jeans and shirts to tattoo necklaces. But in fact the fashion of the 90s is currently back in fashion. Displaying the centre of the body in belly-free tops, wearing a wide, white T-shirt or wrapping yourself in jeans fabric from head to toe – all this is back in fashion today.
Also net shirt, flare pants, platform shoes and multicolored pearl bracelets as well as the tattoo in the coccyx region often called “tramp stamp tattoo” adorned many people. On numerous heads you could see hedgehog-like cuts or crepe highlights; the make-up was mostly exciting and colourful: blue mascara or silver lipstick were the order of the day.
Home cinema from Teufel – then just like now, high class
What to read next:
> 45 Years of Teufel part 1 – the 80’s
> 45 Years of Teufel part 3 – the 00’s
> 45 Years of Teufel part 4 – the 2010’s to today
More home cinema systems from Teufel
A quick look at the 90s:
- 1990: The reunification on October 3, which brought East and West Germany together after more than 40 years, is undoubtedly of the greatest importance for the start of the new decade.
- 1991: The Soviet Union finally disintegrates and Boris Yeltsin becomes the first democratically elected president in Russia.
- 1992: On 7 February the European Council signs the Maastricht Treaty, laying the foundations of the European Union.
- 1993: Erich Honecker leaves for Chile, where he lived until his death in 1994.
- 1994: Nelson Mandela becomes the first black president in South Africa.
- 1995: The duo Los del Río releases the song Macarena and gives us not only a catchy tune, but also a dance choreography, which at that time almost everyone dominates in their sleep.
- 1996: A very special sheep is born this year: Dolly, the first cloned mammal, becomes world famous.
- 1997: Lady Di’s fatal accident shakes people all over the world. The funeral service on September 6 is watched by about 2.5 billion television viewers. Elton John rewrites one of his plays in honour of Lady Di: Candle in the Wind.
- 1998: The Lewinsky affair around US President Bill Clinton also determines the reporting from the USA in Germany for months.
- 1999: The euro is first introduced as book money – the changeover to a single European currency begins.
