THROWING IT BACK: Phoenix native produces viral video about the 90s
PHOENIX (KSAZ) - The 90s.
It's a decade that many viewers will remember, and for some viewers, it's also a time before they were born. Now, a video is, in nutshell, describing what the 90s were all about, and it has gone viral.
The man who produced the video is a Phoenix native who graduated from Sunnyslope High School, but currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Ben Giroux wanted to create a video to document his generation, and capture all its nostalgia, but he never knew it would get as many views as he has, thus far.
"I've produced quite a few viral videos before," said Giroux. "Videos that have gotten one million, two million views, but this tyhing has been an absolute phenomenon this week."
Giroux produced the video with Jansen Reed, which was released recently, and it has received 26 million views in three days.
"Really wanted to create an anthem for our generation," said Giroux. "26 million views later, I think we did it."
The video is titled "Back to the 90s". Giroux, along with several producers, started working on it in 2015, and shot it in November. The purpose: to chronicle what life was like, two decades ago.
"It makes me feel kind of old," said Giroux. "It makes me feel kind of wistful for the past, you know, before iPhones, when you had to remember people's phone numbers."
The video starts with a a kid riding up to a yard sale, on a hoverboard. When he pulls a Walkman out of a box, he doesn't know what it is.
"I wrote it sort of in jest," said Giroux. "But when we hired this fantastic kid actor, Alexander Arzu, and he didn't know what a Walkman was, legitimately."
The video featured authentic 90s clothing and food, with animations from 90s cartoons and, of course, all things boy band.
Also, the video included an action that, for some, could be a video game console rite of passage.
"If you watch some of these scenes, we're blowing a Nintendo cartridge which is legit, because you know that's how you would play it," said Giroux. "If it wouldn't work you'd take the cartridge out and blow it to blow the dust out, then you would put it back in."
Giroux is planning to release a behind the scenes video from this production, in the coming days.