Let's be honest, we all like to follow trends, and we enjoy the ones that work, and we all laugh at the ones that fail. Therefore, I decided it was about time we looked at the best fads of the last twenty years and have a collective laugh at the failure on display.
Number 1- The MiniDisc
The MiniDisc was supposed to be Sony's attempt to re-invent how people listened to music. Launched in September 1992 in Japan it was an upgrade from the old style cassette tapes, but wasn't at the level of quality you would get from CDs. The cost of the discs coupled with the lower sound quality compared to CDs meant that the MiniDisc was doomed from conception, especially as you were getting 80 minutes worth of audio- the same as you got with CDs, which were a lot cheaper and accessible.
Number 2- UMD
Sticking with Sony, the UMD (Universal Media Disc) was another attempt to re-invent people's social activites, only this time it was the world on portable gaming and entertainment Sony were targeting. Released as the media carrier for Sony's PlayStation Portable device, the UMD was being sold as the future of handheld gaming, movies, music- pretty much everything. Unfortunately, a large number of film houses didn't share Sony's vision, leading to a number of films never seeing a UMD release. With Sony's release of the latest model of PlayStation Portable not housing a UMD port in favour of digital downloads, it seems that even it's creator has finally decided to give up on yet another failure.
Number 3- The Atari Jaguar
Released globally by the start of 1995, the Atari Jaguar was Atari's last hope in the gaming console market, but with the 64-bit label slapped on the side, the first home console to be 64-bit. However, with a $250 pricetag and a relatively poor lineup of games, the Jaguar failed to be the gold mine Atari had hoped for.
Number 4- HDVD
The HDVD is the Betamax of the 2000-decade. Competing with the Blu-Ray Disc from Sony, it failed to break into the marketplace like the Betamax before it, and thus sank into obscurity. While still on sale in Asia (most notably China), the HDVD will mark an attempt for someone to attempt to make themsevles famous, and fail.
Number 5- The Atkins Diet
The Atkins Diet was officially released in 1972, but it wasn't until 2003 that the popularity of avoiding carbohydrates peaked. It seemed that every celebrity and go-getter was on the Atkins Diet, until they all realised a year later that it was all bollocks and that they'd be better off excercising and eating low-fat foods as opposed to depriving your body of carbs, which are essentially the body's fuel.
Number 6- MP3 CD
Sticking with the disc theme, the MP3 CD allowed people to put hundreds of songs onto a CD as opposed to the "regular" number of around 20. The only downside is that not many stereo systems could play them, and the compression method used caused a significant loss of sound quality. With the release of MP3 players, the MP3 CD faded from memory, though the concept was great, the actuality turned out not to be so great.
Number 7- Los del Rio
During the summer of 1994 (and every family wedding since) everyone in the world had Macarena fever. An extremely catchy pop number from a Spanish band that no-one had ever heard of, the Macarena stormed the charts, staying propped in the number one spot for seemingly forever. Then when the dust settled the band simply vanished and were never heard from again.
Number 8- Bebo
It came after MySpace but before Facebook, yet Bebo was never sure if it wanted to be it's own site or a merging of the afore mentioned sites. It had it's share of popularity, though, and AOL decided to buy it in March 2008. Just over two years later AOL announced that it was either going to sell or shut down Bebo due to falling user numbers, despite allowing third party developers to create content for the site.
Number 9- Chuck Norris Jokes
We've all heard them. They were funny at first, now they're just stupid. Chuck Norris does not know the last digit of Pi, nor can he slam a revolving door.
Number 10- Dance Dance Revolution
Rhythm action games are fun, there's no denying that, and Dance Dance Revolution was the first of it's kind. We've all seen the arcade machines, and we've all seen the home ports with the poorly made dance mats. It launched in 1998, and while still releasing machines in arcades, it's popularity never reached the peaks that later games such as Guitar Hero reached, and is just simmering away in the background until it's inevitable demise from the arcades.
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