The 1990s (pronounced "nineteen-nineties", shortened to "the '90s" and often referred to as simply "the nineties") was a decade that began on January 1, 1990, and ended on December 31, 1999. Known as the "post-Cold War decade", the 1990s are culturally imagined by many as the period from the Revolutions of 1989 until the Global War on Terror ("GWOT"), which included the September 11 attacks, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War. The dissolution of the Soviet Union marked the end of Russia's status as a superpower and the end of a multipolar world, though Anti-Americanism remained in former soviet states. Russia was in economic chaos due to neoliberal free market reforms while China was still recovering from a politically and economically turbulent eighties. This allowed for the United States to emerge as the worlds sole superpower during this decade. In the United States and Canada, the decade saw greater attention to multiculturalism as well as the advance of alternative media. In the built environment the McMansion and schlock block version of postmodern architecture remained strong throughout the decade. Public education about safe sex curbed the spread of the HIV virus in wealthy countries. Generation X young people often bonded over musical tastes without needing to be part of an exclusive youth subculture. Humor in television and film was often marked by ironic self-reference mixed with popular culture references, in the manner of television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Alternative music movements like grunge, Eurodance, and hip-hop, became popular with young adults worldwide, aided by the rise in popularity of tiered pricing cable television, and the internet. New music genres such as DnB, post-rock, happy hardcore, denpa, and trance emerged in the 1990s. The computer game industry began to boom again, rivalling the music and movie markets. Neverwinter Nights was the first multiplayer online role-playing game to display graphics and ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL. Video game popularity exploded due to the development of CD-ROM supported 3DCG on platforms such as PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and PCs. The 1990s saw advances in technology, with the World Wide Web, the evolution of the Pentium microprocessor in accordance with Moore's Law, rechargable lithium-ion batteries, the first gene therapy trial, and cloning all emerging and being improved upon throughout the decade. The Human Genome Project was formally launched in 1990. Building of the Large Hadron Collider commenced in 1998. In 1998,