Travel Back in Time to 1997

Los Angeles,

We’ve been neighbors for 25 years.

In that time we’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with you through Sounds of L.A., Pacific Standard Time, and countless exhibitions and community events.

To celebrate the Getty Center’s 25th anniversary, we’re inviting you to remember what life was like in 1997, when we were the new kids on the block—what you looked like, what things cost, what songs wafted out of open windows on your freeways, and other elements that set the scene of our first year.

The Fashion

Bold colors and prints were way in. So were baby doll dresses, platform sneakers, JNCOs, and Starter jackets. Tom Ford was in his pomp at Gucci, and women’s eyebrows were pencil-thin. People wore hats a lot, and we think that should make a comeback.

The Cost of Living

If you were born sometime after the ’90s, you may want to grab a seat for this section. Gas in Los Angeles was just $1.36 per gallon. Buying a home wasn’t a blood sport, and the average abode would run you around $180K (not $980K). The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment? $700 per month (not $2,073), utilities included. We’re feeling lightheaded too.

The Tunes

Missy Elliot, Chumbawamba, the Spice Girls, and a handful of boy bands gave us the best earworms of the year. Rage Against the Machine and Wu-Tang Clan toured together, and, more locally, G-funk, gangsta rap, and the sounds of the Chicano rave scene were some of the homegrown music broadcasting local L.A. culture around the globe. (Want more? Listen to our 1997-inspired playlist.)

The Games

If you had the pleasure of being a ’90s kid, get ready for some rapid-fire nostalgia: Tamagotchi, GoldenEye 007, Tickle Me Elmo, and a Beanie Babies collection that would “definitely make you rich one day.”

The Big Moments

1997 gave us Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and took away the Notorious B.I.G., Gianni Versace, and Princess Diana. Ireland granted its first legalized divorce, the world got its earliest camera phone and functioning Wi-Fi, and Ellen DeGeneres made history by coming out on Ellen.

More locally, the '90s had been a rough decade. A shootout in North Hollywood came on the heels of the earthquake that collapsed the 10 freeway, the Rodney King and rave riots, and a deep recession. It was a year preceded by bad times, with better ones around the corner.

The Movies

This was the decade of blockbusters Jurassic Park, Selena, and Michelle Yeoh’s debut as the best Bond girl. But indie films elevated local L.A. culture. Friday put South Central on tourist maps, Swingers made Silver Lake’s neo-lounge scene look “money,” and Clueless let the world know that everywhere in Beverly Hills has valet.

The Museum

It was in this upswing in Los Angeles’s sense of self, December 16, 1997, to be exact, that the Getty Center opened its doors to Los Angeles. Mayor Richard Riordan attended on opening day, Los Lobos played, and Denzel Washington gave a speech. Three special exhibitions greeted our first visitors: Classical Art as Artifact, a collaborative look at antiquities through the lens of conservation, scholarship, and education; The Making of the Getty Center, which focused on people who contributed to the design, construction, and operation of the campus; and Responding to Ruins, an examination of the role of ruins in modern cultural life.

We’ve enjoyed many more moments with you since then, L.A., and to thank you for that, we’re spending the summer celebrating with you.