Do you remember 1999? Ricky Martin’s “Livin La Vida Loca” topped the charts, we were scared of the Blair Witch, and Google officially launched.
To celebrate, Google Trends opened its time capsule to see which fads were titanic in 1999. According to the report, adults were watching “The Matrix” and “The Sopranos” while kids were into “Toy Story 2” and “Teletubbies.” People also used the search engine to learn about David Beckham or evaluate their Pokémon cards, and searches for hot sauce set the web ablaze.
Livin La Vida Local
Want to know what life was like in the Holy City? We dug up some data to help us remember the final year of the 1900s — with some assistance from a 25-year-old search engine. Let’s check out some numbers:
- Median family income: $43,200
- Charleston’s population: 89,063 (North Charleston: 84,106)
- Estimated cost to buy a home: $221,776 (prices have increased by 293.9%)
- Average cost of a gallon of gasoline South Carolina: $0.697
In the news
- In September, South Carolina was impacted by Hurricane Floyd. Downtown Charleston measured wind gusts up to 85 mph and accumulated 4.16 inches of rain.
- Charleston City Council adopted its first Downtown Plan, an effort to help grow the community that incorporated feedback from 1,600 locals.
- The Charleston Area Convention Center and North Charleston Performing Arts Center opened.
- Nonprofit Save the Light bought the Morris Island Lighthouse to preserve it.
Who performed?
Charleston was definitely in tune with the music trends of the era. Jay-Z performed “The Hard Knock Life Tour” at the North Charleston Coliseum with DMX. That year also saw performances by Dave Matthews + Tim Reynolds at Gaillard Municipal Auditorium (now the Gaillard Center) and an “All Star” show by Smash Mouth at Music Farm.
