Culture & Trends
80s and 90s Nostalgia Is Peaking in 2026. One of the Era's Most Iconic Videos Was Basically a Love Letter to Ancient Egypt.
80s and 90s nostalgia keeps resurfacing through reboots, reissues, and revived fashion silhouettes. One of the 90s' most talked-about music videos, Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time," staged an all-Black ancient Egyptian royal court as its entire premise.
80s and 90s nostalgia has kept resurfacing through 2026 — reboots and reissues of the era's biggest media franchises, a real revival in film-camera and vinyl culture, and fashion silhouettes from both decades cycling back into relevance as the generations who grew up on them reach the age and purchasing power to bring their childhoods back. Few artifacts from that stretch have aged into more consistently referenced pop-culture touchstones than Michael Jackson's music videos from the era — and one of the most iconic of all was, quite deliberately, an ancient Egyptian production.
Why This Era's Nostalgia Keeps Resurfacing
- Streaming platforms continue reissuing and rebooting 80s and 90s film and TV franchises, keeping the era's aesthetic in active circulation rather than left behind
- Physical, tactile formats from the era — vinyl, film cameras, analog silhouettes — carry a specific appeal against an increasingly digital, algorithmic present
- The generation that grew up on 80s and 90s media is now old enough to hold real cultural and purchasing influence, the same mechanism driving most 20-year nostalgia cycles
One of the Decade's Most-Referenced Videos
Few 90s pop-culture artifacts get referenced as consistently, decades later, as Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time" — and its entire premise was built around staging ancient Egypt as a vision of Black royalty and civilization at the height of mainstream music television.
One of the Era's Most-Remembered Videos Was Set in Ancient Egypt
Released January 14, 1992, "Remember the Time" was directed by John Singleton and choreographed by Fatima Robinson, with Singleton reportedly agreeing to direct only on the condition that Jackson commit to an all-Black cast and production. Set explicitly in ancient Egypt, it starred Eddie Murphy as Pharaoh Ramesses II, Iman as his queen, Magic Johnson in a cameo, and Jackson himself as a mystical sorcerer with a romantic past connected to the queen — filmed on the Universal Studios backlot but staged, unmistakably, as ancient Egyptian civilization.
Why That Specific Setting Mattered
The choice of ancient Egypt wasn't incidental — it was the entire point. Putting Eddie Murphy and Iman on the throne as rulers of an unmistakably advanced, visually opulent civilization was, for millions of viewers watching mainstream music television in 1992, a genuinely powerful image of Black royalty and achievement, deliberately built around ancient Egypt's real historical stature as an African civilization whose monuments and imagery already carried unmatched global cultural weight.
Frequently Asked Questions
January 14, 1992, as the second single from his album Dangerous. The music video was directed by John Singleton and choreographed by Fatima Robinson.
Eddie Murphy played Pharaoh Ramesses II, Iman played his queen, Magic Johnson made a cameo appearance, and Michael Jackson himself played a mystical sorcerer with a past connection to the queen — set explicitly in ancient Egypt with an all-Black cast and production.
Director John Singleton reportedly agreed to direct only if Jackson committed to an all-Black cast and production, using ancient Egypt's setting to present a deliberate, powerful image of Black royalty and civilization to a mainstream music television audience in 1992.
80s and 90s nostalgia keeps circling back to the same handful of genuinely iconic moments — and one of the most enduring set its entire story inside a version of ancient Egypt, staged specifically because nowhere else carried quite the same weight.