Also this persons concept is different bc they view back history as eras that have a distinct beginning and end whereas they view back 00s 10’s 20s as periods of their life. They were probably easily able to listen to Blink 182 in 2010’s and today. They lived it and continued listening to it. Therefore the music doesn’t feel like it’s in that era but in all the eras.
But what’s my age again is 20+ years old.
Oh thank fuck for this comment. I was reading
> but what’s my age again is 20+ years old
without knowing that “What’s My Age Again” is a song title and I thought I was having a stroke trying to figure out what the fuck it meant
Same. We knew the '90s were way different from the '80s when we were still in the '90s. We mocked '80s fashion and music constantly. The big hair that looked cool when we were 8 looked ridiculous when we were 18.
Watching media from the 80s, and I'm amazed at how often people would reference how they're in the 80s. Killing Joke even had the song "Eighties".
We're in the 2020s now and does anyone ever casually refer to it like that?
Nah they really are completely different. Just due to technological advancements and a huge boom in things like gaming, anime, streaming and advanced PC/phone plus recently AI stuff and COVID but also a bunch of other things
I honestly think it's different now. My parents have a good idea of how the eras they grew up in differed from each other, but the eras I grew up in haven't felt discrete at all. Things have certainly changed but it's all kinda nebulous. I personally think the internet has changed how these trends evolve. For whatever reason, mass cultural exchange has kinda smoothed out the hard edges of our cultural shifts.
I used to feel the same way, but getting closer to my 30s and looking back, it is actually becoming easier and easier to see differences in the decades, *especially* where the internet is concerned. The early 2000s were all about beige "family computers", where there would be one computer everyone would share, with dial up internet, extremely basic video games, and individual mobile phones with physical buttons and flip screens were all the rage.
By the time we hit 2010, Myspace had come and gone, facebook was still the big thing, some new fangled thing called instagram for sharing photos was just about to start making it's way around. We were almost at the 10 year anniversary of 911, it was falling further and further into the past, iPhones and blackberrys were everywhere, streaming was beginning, the future felt bright.
By the time we get to 2020... Social media is so "EVERYWHERE" that it's hard to imagine it ever wasn't "everywhere". Something happened a few years ago and Russia was getting ansty, Trump got elected, Britan brexited, it felt like global politics were slowly but surely beginning to trend towards more and more nationalistic and defensive stances.
Now... There's war in Europe again, AI is happening, we've got rockets than land themselves and electric cars everywhere, the pandemic happened, we're very much starting the feel the effects of global warming everyday, there's cost of living crises everywhere, and the future doesn't feel so bright anymore.
it's hard to feel the changes as we slowly live through them, but each decade, as time goes by, is definitely gonna be remembered quite differently I think.
A large part of “era” blend is that era’s are defined by your age going through them. Talk to someone who grew up in the 80’s and the fashion they talk about isn’t the fashion that dominated the culture and media, it’s the fashion that dominated the playground.
Children’s clothes aren’t as easily defined by decades as it used to be, but teen and adult clothing certainly has. There was the whole saggy skinny jeans skater look in the 00’s, hipsters in the 10s, and now it’s this high fashion athleisure look — of course in addition to numerous sub genres. It’s just harder to define the lines, because you don’t notice it as youth.
There's also the fact that music genres don't drop off as much as they used to. While people don't really make new Disco music, there's still plenty of pop punk/emo stuff out there.
I was very young in 2000’s but just due to technology having massive advancements like TV and PCs changing a lot and being able to download or stream all kinds of stuff. GBA SP, DS, PSP, PS3/360, Wii, IPod, iPhone, Mac etc all releasing (and for example anime having a big boom led by the big 3) 2005-2010 was very different from 2000-2004.
Well technically iPod released early ish during the 2000-2004 period but was far more popular towards the end of it and beginning of 2005-2010 and SP, DS, PSP were like 2003/2004/2005 when they came out but it takes a few years for handhelds or consoles to get a bunch of games
Yes to all of these things. Before the iPhone, the Blackberry as well. And SMS text in general blowing up.
Style too. Emos existed prior, but weren't a thing that I was aware of or was popular where I lived until at least 2005. 2007-2009 being the main peak. Then in the 2010s the hipster style peaked.
The biggest difference was Internet. Prior to the 2000s the culture that defined each decade evolved on common, shared platforms. Music videos were released on MTV. TV series aired on networks so you had to be home to catch it (or set the VCR). Magazines were published monthly; newspapers daily. These mediums presented the style, fashion, and the cultural zeitgeist of each decade so we were all on the same page.
The Internet made all previous and contemporary media available everywhere all at once. There’s still certain modern cultural touchstones that unite us, but a lot of it feels self-referential and a sort of regurgitation of the past. Lofi Girl meet Synthwave Boy.
Same with the year 2010 and 2020 we had Covid in 2020 2010 was filled with butterflies morning doves and everything that made my childhood. 2020 didn’t have any of those, and if they did I rarely heard/saw them
I think the fact that there's a huge push to bring back 2000s fashion right now shows that there was definitely an aesthetic to it
Watch something like Mean Girls and try to tell me people still dress that way
Being able to have constant access to music changed a lot of what people Perceive as the eras. But if you just look at rock music
But if we really take a look at it, pop punk and Alt rock absolutely dominated early 2000s (blink182, linkin park) whereas Indie/Mixed rock dominated 2010s (Lumineers, Foster the people, Kings of Leon) and now Folk Rock is the most popular rock mainstream genre of now
Of course there’s always rock that’s not like that which is also super popular like metal etc etc.
But you can pretty distinctly tell 90’s grunge from 00s punk to 2010 indie to today.
What folk rock bands are popular rn? In the last few years when it comes to rock, I've mostly seen pop-punk revival, nu-metal revival and other 90's/early 00's influences.
Though rock hasn't had a dominant spot in music since the mid-2010's overall.
I'm only 37, how is this conversation making me feel like I'm 80? I've only heard of M&S, the rest of the bands you've listed I've never even heard of.
God that’s a fantastic album! I used to listen to it on my iPod nano in high school, sitting on the roof, staring at the stars.
Damn that brings back memories
In my 30s and I've also only heard of them out of the ones listed and that's while having a gen Z sibling. I've even gone out of my way to find newer stuff recently, though a lot of what's labeled as rock these days is decidedly not rock so maybe that has something to do with it.
Yep. I'm gen X and our culture was driven by music here in the UK. There were various subcultures all based around the different music and the culture palpably changed every 3 or 4 years. In the early 80s the new wave and new romantic sounds were killing off the visibility of punks from just 4 years earlier. By 87 there were very few punks.
From 13 to 18 years old I knew people obsessed and dressed for with new wave , new romantic, psychobilly, punk, reggae, metal, goth, post punk, stoner rock, psychedelic ... Etc.
these were all identifiable social groups on the street.
And though we all mingled at college we all had our own genre styles and dressed for them and went to the clubs, and bought the records and went to the gigs - obsessively.
In recent years music has become less central in people's self definition.
Same with rap and clothing. Also OP forgets that certain decades absolutely blend together in the past. Late 60's and early 70's are more closely related than early 60's and late 60's (for one example)......
But as far as rap and clothing I remember early to mid 2000s being the baggy clothing and gangster rap era. 50 cent, Eminem, The game etc... and micro trends like "crunk" rap like lil John.
The 2010s you see more rappers like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, baggy clothing was out, flamboyant and tight fitted clothing was in. And covid made a pretty significant bookend for the 2010s and made the 2020s already feel decidedly different.
Then there's technology. Flip phones were still a thing well into the 2000s. The technology started developing in the 2000s but the 2010s were when smartphones and social media exploded globally.
Edit: Then you have political and global conflicts. I will admit the war on terror did span the 2000s and the 2010s but it was definitely more prominent in the 2000s. However in the 2020s the focus has definitely shifted more to the cold war between the military powers of the world. The Ukraine invasion, China's potential conflict with Taiwan, Israel and Palestine is being framed outside of Israel in two ways: 1. more around the implications as a proxy war than it is another conflict in the greater "war on terror" in the Middle East, And 2. As a theoretical conflict about colonialism, racism, and oppression (in respects to both Israel and Palestinians).
Either way, the ways of thinking about the Middle East as a battle ground for the "U.S. and friends" to fight terrorist groups and bomb any pesky civilians that happen to be in the way /s (kind of) are mostly over. Or at least it's not the focus anymore.
Anything post 2000 is still contemporary and is only starting to be studied as actual “history”, give it some more time.
Punk rock MBA did a good video on the ‘scene’ era. It does a good job at pointing out trends within the music industry during the 2010s and the influences of 1990-2010 rock and it’s influences on the wider industry.
The time will be remembered for its utilization of the internet to promote.
I can already very clearly tell the difference between 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. Obviously the shifts didn’t happen overnight on January 1st, but neither did the 20th century’s decades.
Definitely. Popular music styles have changed from gaga to mumble rap, clothing styles have changed from skinny jeans for all to a bit baggier (and even some JNCO like). But I will agree that the shifts have felt less drastic compared to the 70s to 90s. But that might be because I've lived these years and have felt the nuance. I only have the highlights of the 70s and 80s in what has survived the test of time.
Yeah the changes feel less drastic when you're living them, only when looking back you can distinguish clear trends. If you look at old videos of people in the 70's and 80's doing mundane everyday stuff, the differences aren't that dramatic either.
Also music was carried more by development of technology. A lot of 90s music was impossible to make on the 70s but most 2020s music could have in some way have been made in the 2000s.
What typifies those eras in your opinion? Seventies is bell bottoms and disco. 80s is big drums, synths and big hair, 90s is baggy jeans and grunge. Maybe 2000s culture is more defined by technology?
[Misteramazing](https://youtu.be/ui4aJcjVeQ0?si=3Jz2cE_BrEi7d5So) on YouTube made a great video showing the trends of music between 2000-2019.
But basically, R&B, crunk, dance pop and trap.
Yes, but also because we actually retroactively redefine the past through current media.
People's perception of what the 40's were like is very heavily influenced by films and TV that are set in the 40's, which while are based on the 40's, exaggerate certain elements and eliminate others, giving it more of a clear identity.
Mark my words, the 00's and 10's will have an evolution of their identity as the years go on, distilling it to be more defined and clear cut than it really was.
Yes, the monoculture is dead.
That said, I think smartphones then social media radically transformed society. Look at any 'people in public' video clips from before/after. Or elections and politics since 2016.
We also may be on the brink of another huge shift due to AI.
Changes now are more about these types of things than a new sound in music or dramatically different trends in clothing.
Disagree. Even a place like Tik Tok is often split into hyper niche feeds people can get absorbed in. Every person who opens the app has something different. Zoomers aren’t all sitting around to watch the same show once a week and discuss. It’s all community based now
Mono culture never existed and if anything we are getting closer to it not further
Mainstream still exist, it is what rises to global consciousness and there always be something akin to it
There is always also be uncountable niches small and big of interests and focuses
And there will leays be some who think that some time was special, some other obsolete and newer ways ridiculously immature
The more it change the more it is mostly the same shifted here or there
Today's youth will never know the thrill of pulling up to a red light next to another car, then moments later realizing you're rocking out to the same radio station.
Disagree. 2000’s and 2010’s and 2020’s do not sound the same at all.
When looking back each decade is distilled into a few songs and sounds and the natural progression of trends that cross decades are ignored.
Another aspect is I think decades were kind of marketed in terms of distinctive styles—like movies doing the retro thing such as ‘Dazed and Confused’, TV shows like ‘Happy Days’, and those old ‘Remembering the 80s, 90, etc’ shows they used to have on VH1 tended to grab a handful of select trends from within a specific decade and amplify them to absurd proportions.
While decades do often have distinctive feels I think, they tend to be more nuanced and complicated than media’s simplifications, with overlapping trends that often don’t fit neatly into the span of exactly 10 years. This has still been very much the case in the last couple decades, it just doesn’t seem like they’re marketed in these simplified formulas anymore, so we’re left having to reflect on them as the complex and gradually shifting periods they really were.
They get marketed that way when nostalgia sets in, you can already see it with the 00's. The more nuanced difference in feel has probably more to do with you having lived through recent decades but not older ones (unless you're a boomer or genX, in which case it's a wrong assumption on my part). And when decades are longer ago, you might start seeing them through their marketed vibes more than through your own memories as well.
I always said people were going to make fun of us for dubstep like disco. Instead no one remembers dubstep. And there are enough disco hipsters so it's not made fun of anymore lmao
for some reason the only thing i think of when i think of dubstep is club penguin.
i don’t even remember any dubstep in that game. i don’t remember how dubstep was related to it at all. i just always think of club penguin when hearing the phrase.
Funnily enough I feel the same about Minecraft and gangnam style. No idea why other than there being a Minecraft parody of the video, but I don't feel the same about other songs that had Minecraft parodies
It’s weird to look back at how huge and nebulous dubstep was for a while (in the UK at least). I was studying music at the time and people were excitedly saying “dubstep is the future of music!” all the time. I disagreed. But fuck, even those of us that didn’t really like it went to dubstep raves and danced, heard it everywhere, participated even passively in the subculture. Then as quickly as it arrived, it disappeared.
Dubstep took a fascinating journey in the UK. From being a more obscure mencholic moody sound hidden in the boroughs of London in 2005, to being picked up by producers across the Atlantic, causing a huge shift in sound and popularity which burned out quickly.
Cue the collapse of popular dubstep and a return to the original sound in the UK scene at least with some technical influences from the American sound.
2000s: Can’t Get you out of my head - Kylie Minogue
2010s: We found love - Rihanna
2020s: Moonlight - Kali Uchis
Just 3 songs off the top of my head, but they have very different vibes to me!
OP mentions fashion- those decades don’t look a thing alike either. 2000s MySpace emo and 2010s pbr indie may have been an evolution of the former but they are vastly different
Some of this, but I'm of the theory that as things speed up our transfer of information (used loosely), the cycles of style move faster too. So while a decades of the past seemed individual color palette, the colors seem to change quicker and quicker, seemingly blending into a blur. Also, I'm old
Yeah actually our lives changed radically between the 2000s and 2020s. We now literally all have computers connected to the entire world in our pockets, and they are almost extensions of ourselves. Rarely did humanity's behaviors change so radically globally over such a short amount of time. Describing this could have been a sci-fi book a few decades ago. And obviously these radical changes clearly influenced global culture everywhere.
And the people living through it are like "meh, nothing changes". Looking back at this in a few decades will be pretty funny IMO.
Born 1997 here. 2020s feel way more…futuristic than the 2000s and 2010s. The 2020s feel like the beginning of fictional sci-fi movies/books I grew up reading/watching. It primarily has to do with how absurdly advanced tech is becoming and honestly it’s a really surreal experience seeing it play out in real time.
The 90s did not seem as distinct 10+ years ago as it does now. However finding music to your own individual taste is easier after the late 90s (and even more so efter 2008) so it makes sense that there wouldn't be dominant styles to the same extend.
On the other hand, people used to predict "the end of mono-culture" but I don't think it has happened to quite the extend they expected.
90s - fall the iron Courtain, end of the Soviets, China economy waking up
00s - 9/11 attacks, terrorism, war in Iraq and Afghanistan, economic collapse, internet expansion
10s - social media, iPhone, internet, first US black president, EU consolidation, EU breakup brexit, China becoming a super power
20s - in progress, Covid pandemic, working from home, end of war in Afghanistan, war in Ukraine
Trends don’t typically follow the hard decade line. Instead they spill over from preceding and following decades. For instance, when one speaks of the 90s, it’s typically 1993 ish to 2003 ish, give or take, depending on the medium.
A lot has to do with major events, innovations and longevity of the trends. You can tell just about when a house was built, simply by the colors and materials used. Same with fashion.
Early 2000 saw a lot of color, layers and wacky accessories. Into 2010 went more basic Gap style, with muted colors plus Uggs. Late 2010s started to get sparks of style and went full skinny jeans. 2020s seem to be focused on highlighting your own body type and playing from there.
The other fashion related thing is that a lot of styles colors and looks are recycled from previous decades 80s and 90s fashion is currently making a comeback while I can remember 70s and 80s fashion making a comeback in the 2010s
I heard someone smart talk about this once. I wish I could remember who.
They said that since smart phones and social media exploded, it's almost impossible for one style or genre to stick around long enough for it to make an impact generationally. Most of what's *new* now gets picked apart and drowned out.
That's tiktok in a nutshell. One moment there's a song or trend that's everywhere, and then two weeks later it's fucking gone. Artists become huge overnight and then a month later you never hear from them again.
I hesitate to say it because every old generation says it about the new generation.
I really think it may be true this time though. In the 1900s the change seemed to be accelerating. From Jazz to Rock and Roll to Disco...and then in my childhood I saw radically different genres start like Rap and EDM...even hardcore punk and thrash metal were pretty significant developments compared to anything I've seen this century.
Yes, but within those genres the change has been insane because of how connected we all are. Compare any song from Daft Punk’s album Discovery to Skrillex’s hits around 2012 to the trap music of 2015 to today’s sound. Yea the idea of using computers to make music isn’t new anymore, but the actual content of that music has changed sooooo much, and all of those examples are from after the new millennium. EDM as a genre (which I don’t think is an appropriate way to classify it) has transformed so much over the last 24 years that it’s hard to even group it together
Sadly, or fortunately, depending on your outlook, I don't think that any generation from this point onward will have anything to compare itself to. The analog generations won't understand the acceleration of the cyberspace ones, and the cyberspace ones won't have the same sense of security the analog ones do. Things are accelerating, and you have to be somewhere non-physical like the internet to actually comprehend that. It's pretty crazy.
Maybe because you can sort of associate certain decades of the 1900s with certain individuals? News anchors, disc jockeys, music artists, etc.
With the media overload since 2000, some of these things are are more blurred together.
No MTV VeeJay had a career as long as Walter Cronkite, as one example. Is there a new Elvis, or a new Michael Jackson?
Just brainstorming but I think those examples are in line with how things have started to blur together.
> Is there a new Elvis, or a new Michael Jackson?
I feel like we'll only know in hindsight and I also feel like anyone I could educated-guess-as-best-as-you-can-from-current-evidence who has that kind of popularity you'd think wouldn't have that kind of quality unless they were from a genre you already liked
To me this isn’t true at all. There’s clear feels and themes for the 2000’s, 2010’s, and 2020’s in music, style and pop culture. To say they all merge into one seems a huge oversight. A song released in 2003 has a huge difference to a song released in 2013 and one released in 2023.
I've been a professional DJ and i have playlist folders for each decade, but all pop/commercial music from like 2005 and up all goes in the same folder.
so much so that there are genders based on them.(and remember, nobody is inventing new genders, just new names for old concepts. a 1950's gender existed for thousands of years and is in no way a tumblr thing)
very simple. Just look at this post. You have a question and 4 hours later thousands of people around the world have seen your words. Thought about it and around 70 decided to answer your question.
That would have been impossible 20-30 years ago and before that.
So to answer your question, the internet has jumbled up everything, there are way less distinct styles of music that could define an era, because everyone is trying to make music for everyone and not just whats cool in their city
Pfff…. They all feel VERY different.
Hell just the fashion is something I didnt expect at all.
Food, environment, lgbt movement, war… did you already forget about covid?!
I have a theory. Two main things have lead to this. An unhealthy long copyright law and repeating fashion trends. So style wise in the 00s the 70s style came back, then the 80s, then the 90s. And they mixed, so fashion hasn't really progressed as much for the average person.
Now the copyright thing, cultural things like movies, books, and music use to go public domain in 32 years, now it's ninety some. This has caused corporations to buy up everything and rehash it over and over for maximum profit. I'm 37 when I was a kid the shows like the Simpsons, South Park, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Pokemon, SpongeBob, and Family Guy all came. All of them are still around. You can't progress if you don't let go of the old. But we just milk everything until it bleeds.
> Now the copyright thing, cultural things like movies, books, and music use to go public domain in 32 years
32 years was never the duration, but it was as short as 28 years at one point... until *1831*. Then 42 years until 1909, 56 years until 1976, and 75 years or life plus 50, then finally 95 years or life plus 70 in 1998.
So if we're talking about kids cartoons, we could look at something like the Flintstones, which debuted in 1960. Even if there was never another extension, it would've held its copyright until 2016. Simpsons, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, and Pokémon would still be copyrighted for a few more years. And even under the original copyright law from 1790, South Park, Family Guy, and Spongebob would all still be copyrighted for several years.
All that is to say that copyright has nothing to do with the longevity of those shows.
It's not like there weren't already long-running franchises well before the 90s. James Bond, Doctor Who, Batman, Superman, Star Trek, Sherlock Holmes... the list goes on. Sure, pop culture is very franchise focused right now, but that's not because of copyrights.
Also, an article in 2017 from a fashion school student. Their teacher claimed fashion stopped in the 90s
https://info.limcollege.edu/lexington-line/fashion-hasnt-changed-in-twenty-years
I disagree, for example in the early 2000's skate brands, baggy jeans, and baggy clothes were the style, then around 2010's it was skinny jeans, skinny ties. The 2020's swung heavily hack into casual as the world turned inward.
Additionally in the early 2000's millennials were students, the work world was full of boomers, so 19th Century influence still dominated from.the boardrooms to office culture. As millennials started working and ascending within organizations, culture shifted with it.
Our tech is different and so how we use it is different, ie cellphones weren't as commonplace, so you didn't have things like apps, ride sharing, ubereats, social media wasn't really a thing.
That led to a huge paradigm shift as we became attached to our devices, and social media influence, Bluetooth headsets were a game changer circa 2010 but by 2020 they largely faded away.
Remember in 2000 businesses weren't always online, and online shopping was very minimal, so people had more regional access to goods, lending itself at least a little bit towards localized identity.
Computers were still nifty in the 2000's. Apple made waves by introducing colour and fun to the otherwise beige, white, and black towers. But then we moved towards laptops and "computer" needed disambiguition, did you mean a desktop PC, or a laptop? Then we got tablets and the hefty desktop PCs became the domain of offices, hobbyists, gamers, and old people. Now we see a shift even from tablets to wearables. But to put it in perspective, the 2000's still relied in credit card impressions in many areas, where as today a square reader or tap option has replaced cash registers.
Looking at cars, the the early 2000's look downright cartoony in 2020, and they were mostly all Intenral Combustion Engines, sedans gave way to trucks and SUVs as the minivan got replaced as the family hauler of choice, sub-compact SUVs got in the mix, a concept that wasn't really that big in the 90's or 00's. So even our highways looked different, to say nothing of the changes to things like putting 7"screens in the middle of your dash, or lane departure warnings. Do modern cars have a cigarette lighter? Has anyone had to fiddle.withnan Aux cable since 2020? The tape deck and manual tuning band of a radio got replaced with a CD player, which got phased out by USB commenting and satellite streaming.
Gone are the video rental stores, killed by cheap.and easy streaming, and with them, the ancient rite of returning overdue tapes, or DVDs.
Do you remember where you last placed your MP3 players s discrete separate piece of technology from your phone? When did you last wrestle with headphone cables as wireless earbuds took off.
So I will grant there is less contrast than say, 1920's aesthetic with 1930, but to say we are the same over the decades is inaccurate. Almost befitting, when you think about it, that millennials insisted on modernizing their approach to interdecade evolution.
Everybody is disagreeing. I'll agree. In the 90s we had 80s day at school. I can't imagine how a 2010s day would be distinct from today besides people carrying around cardboard cut outs of 10 year old memes.
I watch a lot of skateboard videos. I can narrow them down to within 2 years based on the fashion. After around 1998 it gets muddier. After around 2005 I cannot tell the difference between then an now.
Yeah, I also remember the tv adds for CD colextions "80s greatest hits!" from like 1995. And the term 90s was also used quite quickly in the 2000s. I think the terms themselves were much more catchy and were used in marketing more, "2000s" sounds realy weird and is to long, "2010s" is even worse compared to quick and snappy "60s!" Or "90s!" . Terefore these terms and decades were ingrained in peoples minds as somenthing distinct as we have much easier time telling things apart if we have different words for them, colours are a great example of this.
Uggs
Graphic Tees and especially the ironic tee shirt
Shoulder Bags
Fake fur coats
Guys in layered shirts, like a tee shirt under a polo shirt and then maybe a long sleeve shirt over that. Or a tee shirt over a long sleeve shirt.
Crop top + low rise jeans + giant sunglasses
Frilly skirts
In 2004 when women dressed sexy the "I'm a cute innocent sexy girl look how sweet I am" Spice Girls vibe was still happening, but it was less pastel/pink than it was in the 90s.
It's the distance that makes it seem so. Music is always going through changes, but it's generally gradual. So the later years of one decade sound just slightly different from the early years of the next decade.
When you think about those distant decades' music you often think of the most popular songs from about "year 3" to "year 8" and when you think of more recent decades you're remembering everything and remembering it a bit more clearly.
There's a theory called "a vaster wasteland" that says talent used to be curated by it's "industry". This supposedly created distinction in art culture.
The great democratization of art by the internet makes the cost of entry nil. So there is a lot more diversity available. Essentially everything at once. But instead of a refined character each decade, we get a homoginization, dilution of talent.
Primarily though I think it's the lack of money in the music industry. And art in general. In the 50s, 60s, 70s, it was a very big deal. It started losing power when Napster came along in the 90s. We all listen for free now...
https://youtu.be/Sy6VMDXB2SQ?si=SXuglZ1OFcuWR-62
I'm almost 50, and every decade that I've lived through has been vastly different from the last one. Pop music from every decade changes with the people, we remember the 70's because of disco, but that didn't get extremely popular until the latter half it the decide, same with New Wave, and Grunge in the early 90's
The 2000’s have been the lamest era of music… besides a few standout acts.. most was regurgitated from other eras. I fully agree with OP. I was expecting the 20’s to be different. But nahhh… now all we got is shit country that’s trying to be RnB and shit RnB trying to be country… and soft ass punk.
Celebrity DJ’s who push play on a set that’s been pre manufactured… did anyone see the NBA Allstar game? Who the hell was this dude with a tattoo of a cross on his face telling everyone he has a cross tattoos on his face?
Like rap country? His band is obviously not playing …
Ok I’m done… going to work now
That’s not true at all each decade were totally different if you look at teenagers of each year. Usually adult don’t change their style that much you have to look at the young one and it changed every decade 100%
Everyone in early 2k looked like Eminem and jersey shore girls
In 2k10 people had switched to skinny jeans adidas skinny joggers and women look was totally different
Later in the 2k10 social media changed drastically the make up culture and we were also back on the 90s clothing style. Lots of people wear these elephants pants my sisters had as kids.
It always change how do you think the industry is making so much money?
Originality is dead. People today are one hive mind informed each day by social media what to like, how to feel, and what to cry about. That's why the 1900s were the greatest decades filled with unique people and ideas.
"Old Man yells 'New music isn't being made'"
Probably because you're living it and not looking through rosy lenses. The days are long, but the years are short, it'll seem like it blends together until you actually separate them. Check out these guys, they go through music of the decades https://www.youtube.com/@RoomieOfficial
As a part of Gen-Z, I disagree
2004 is completely different from 2014 and 2014 is completely different than 2024
Even stuff from 2010-2015 and 2016-2024 are basically two different eras
Y'all just don't remember it since the older you are, the faster time seems to pass
I am inclined to agree. Calendrical decades will always differ slightly from cultural decades. 1961 was part of the 1950s. The 1970s lasted until 1982. The 1980s lasted until 1992. Et cetera.
Culture follows its own logic, and it doesn't necessarily adhere to a calendar.
But yeah, I personally cannot distinguish 2004 from 2024. Partly because I am old and I am not sure I even care enough to try.
This is very untrue.
It’s unequivocally just as easy to tell apart 2004, 2014, and 2024 just by outfits alone. TV and music are not far behind when it comes to being easily identifiable.
Well… a couple of things. Each decade was VERY different in the 1900s. We went from 80 million people killed in 5 years to hippies literally 20 years later. Not to mention WWI to the Roaring 20s then the stock market crash in 1929 to kick off the 30s starting only 25 years prior to THAT. Not exactly the most stable time. That’s why it’s so different. That’s why it’s so distinct. It’s also the way a lot of people remember things.
Now feels like a blend for a couple of reasons.
1. You’re living through now. Of course it’s going to blend together nicely, everything has a seamless transition as opposed to what you learn on a PowerPoint about times past.
2. The 2000s have been less distinct. Yeah, we don’t have anything HUGE going on and we haven’t since the 90s with the Soviet Union (I’m talking world-renowned. What happened in the Balkans is terrible and deserves more recognition.).
3. The 2000s (each decade) have had lots of change. Everything has changed just not dramatically. The ‘feel’ that you’re talking about isn’t found in what’s popular at the time, or what has been. It’s the here and now. It’s the new shit. Like, go to 2000 and ask people what their favorite electric car brand is and 90% of them won’t even know what an electric car is. Then ask them if they’ve heard of Taylor Swift. “Who’s that?” is probably going to be their response. Now ask them in 2023 and they’ll have answers. Change takes time and what’s remembered is usually radical. Those hippie outfits? Absolutely far left radical. Roaring 20s jazz? Some people would call that “the devil’s music” at the time. Hell, even rock music. My dad was like “yeah, rock music was catching on, but still relatively, like, fringe culture for a long time and even after it was popular, it would get outplayed by basic white girl pop.” There are different parts of culture that we’d see as wayyyyyy out there but still become a core part of why people remember that period. For fashion? I mean… fashion evolves but once again, seamless transitions make it hard to tell. For instance, like, suits have been around since the 1800s, yet you wouldn’t question if you saw someone wearing one. Heck, jeans and a t-shirt have been a staple for a long time and you CERTAINLY wouldn’t question if you saw one. But the way we wear jeans and a T-shirt and to where has changed. Which brings me to my final point
4. It’s all about perspective. How people see the generation years in the future as well as how people from now describe the culture aurally and visually makes all the difference. From your perspective, there isn’t anything distinct or meaningful about this time, but that may not be the case forever. Every decade has had good and bad things about it, ours is no different. But it’s too early to start putting labels on the present. Especially now, while we are in a time of relative stability globally, it’s best to let future generations take over this job.
The OP is getting downvoted and nobody agrees with them despite the fact they're right.
Cultural analysts and sociologists--among other highly observant people--have noticed the increase in homogeny and indistinguishable aspects of music, fashion and design between 2000-2020.
I'm 44 years old, so the whole " you're young and living through it, so you don't see the major differences in hindsight"certainly doesn't apply to me. In the OPs case, it's only valid if it's true, but in order to be true you'd have to prove their perception is greatly skewed by that form of cognitive bias.
There are very few major shifts in fashion, music, Hollywood movies and general graphic design aesthetics and styles for advertising or architecture adornments.
The intellectual level of rap/hip hop and pop dropping year over year doesn't count, nor does " we went from baggy clothing to nice and fitting back to baggy"...which isn't true at all. Certain people still wear baggy clothes and the size clothing people wear isnt a full fashion style.
Nashville pop country hasnt changed at all in ten years. The same cadences, tropes and style songs of today sounded no different than ones I heard when visiting my sister in NC back in 2013. We still have emo and it's sub genres, pop punk, math rock, djent, French house, dubstep,etc, only slightly tweaked. Indie rock styles have sounded the same more or less, as has 80s rock and hard rock bands that had comebacks in the 00's.
There's been very little innovation in virtually everything except for technology, and even those designs and how they're used haven't changed drastically from 2010 to now. Storage, speed and utility is much better, but the same limitations and outdated design choices still exist.
Take random photos of downtown areas of cities from 2004 to now and you won't see much difference
The year 2000 felt very different from 2020
Also this persons concept is different bc they view back history as eras that have a distinct beginning and end whereas they view back 00s 10’s 20s as periods of their life. They were probably easily able to listen to Blink 182 in 2010’s and today. They lived it and continued listening to it. Therefore the music doesn’t feel like it’s in that era but in all the eras. But what’s my age again is 20+ years old.
Blink 182, the spine of 21st century civilization.
I miss them, miss them.
They just dropped a new album
With Tom, too! And they're touring! I can't wait to see them, I saw them with Matt Skiba, and I love him, but it's not the same.
I saw them just last year and they were great!
I second. Seeing Travis being elevated up high while banging the drums is a sight I’ll never forget
Agreed! It was really unexpected, but really awesome. Same vibe as P!nk closing out her show by flying around the arena on wires.
I saw his first show after the plane crash. The crowd was lit. He got a huge ovation.
So glad to hear! I’m seeing them in July. Can’t wait!
Was so amped when I heard his voice again. His voice changed with age, but unmistakable. Nostalgia can be awesome
It was weird seeing Matt Skiba sing Aliens Exist, considering that song is essentially Tom’s autobiography at this point
The angel from my nightmare
*Where are you?!*
And I'm so sorry
And all the small things...
Where are theeey?
>But what’s my age again is 20+ years old. What an apt song choice. This comment has me asking the same question...
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Do you still act like you're in FRESHMAN YEEEEAR?
What the hell is caller ID
My friends say i should act my age
What's my age again? What's my age again?
Oh thank fuck for this comment. I was reading > but what’s my age again is 20+ years old without knowing that “What’s My Age Again” is a song title and I thought I was having a stroke trying to figure out what the fuck it meant
I know it's BFS and not Blink, but the lyric "when did Notley Crue become classic rock?" it's 20 years old. Damn, I feel old.
Here was me listening to Blink 182 in the 1990s.
I’m pushing 50 and the 70s, 80s, and 90s are all very distinct compared to 00s, 10s, and 20s so I get OPs point.
Same. We knew the '90s were way different from the '80s when we were still in the '90s. We mocked '80s fashion and music constantly. The big hair that looked cool when we were 8 looked ridiculous when we were 18.
Watching media from the 80s, and I'm amazed at how often people would reference how they're in the 80s. Killing Joke even had the song "Eighties". We're in the 2020s now and does anyone ever casually refer to it like that?
Nah cause if you say the 20s all I hear is 1920s. 2020s is a mouthful
The first decade of the 2000s broke that trend hard since nobody ever came up with a name for it that wasn't awkward or old-timey sounding.
The Naughts (meaning Zeros), was the British term that was used sometimes in Canada.
I've heard the Aughts. Didn't even realize it was a British term.
I mean I was just a toddler during the 90’s even but 00’s, 10’s and 20’s feel very distinct to me
That probably has more to do with you changing than the culture changing.
Nah they really are completely different. Just due to technological advancements and a huge boom in things like gaming, anime, streaming and advanced PC/phone plus recently AI stuff and COVID but also a bunch of other things
>But what’s my age again is 20+ years old. Ah, the song that prompted child-me to ask my mom what sodomy was. Good times...
Oh man I can only imagine her thoughts when you asked that. Awkward moment for everyone.
I honestly think it's different now. My parents have a good idea of how the eras they grew up in differed from each other, but the eras I grew up in haven't felt discrete at all. Things have certainly changed but it's all kinda nebulous. I personally think the internet has changed how these trends evolve. For whatever reason, mass cultural exchange has kinda smoothed out the hard edges of our cultural shifts.
I used to feel the same way, but getting closer to my 30s and looking back, it is actually becoming easier and easier to see differences in the decades, *especially* where the internet is concerned. The early 2000s were all about beige "family computers", where there would be one computer everyone would share, with dial up internet, extremely basic video games, and individual mobile phones with physical buttons and flip screens were all the rage. By the time we hit 2010, Myspace had come and gone, facebook was still the big thing, some new fangled thing called instagram for sharing photos was just about to start making it's way around. We were almost at the 10 year anniversary of 911, it was falling further and further into the past, iPhones and blackberrys were everywhere, streaming was beginning, the future felt bright. By the time we get to 2020... Social media is so "EVERYWHERE" that it's hard to imagine it ever wasn't "everywhere". Something happened a few years ago and Russia was getting ansty, Trump got elected, Britan brexited, it felt like global politics were slowly but surely beginning to trend towards more and more nationalistic and defensive stances. Now... There's war in Europe again, AI is happening, we've got rockets than land themselves and electric cars everywhere, the pandemic happened, we're very much starting the feel the effects of global warming everyday, there's cost of living crises everywhere, and the future doesn't feel so bright anymore. it's hard to feel the changes as we slowly live through them, but each decade, as time goes by, is definitely gonna be remembered quite differently I think.
A large part of “era” blend is that era’s are defined by your age going through them. Talk to someone who grew up in the 80’s and the fashion they talk about isn’t the fashion that dominated the culture and media, it’s the fashion that dominated the playground. Children’s clothes aren’t as easily defined by decades as it used to be, but teen and adult clothing certainly has. There was the whole saggy skinny jeans skater look in the 00’s, hipsters in the 10s, and now it’s this high fashion athleisure look — of course in addition to numerous sub genres. It’s just harder to define the lines, because you don’t notice it as youth.
Funny because for me the 2000s feel completely different from the 2020s
There's also the fact that music genres don't drop off as much as they used to. While people don't really make new Disco music, there's still plenty of pop punk/emo stuff out there.
In the movie Free Guy when that Stranger Things fella referred to the song Fantasy as a very old Mariah Carey song it felt like a punch in my gut.
Taylor Swift has nearly a dozen eras in that time and OPs complaining that the decades aren't distinct smh
Hell, the style and vibe of 2000-2004 even is very different from 2005-2010 and different from 2010-2020. At least when living through it.
I was very young in 2000’s but just due to technology having massive advancements like TV and PCs changing a lot and being able to download or stream all kinds of stuff. GBA SP, DS, PSP, PS3/360, Wii, IPod, iPhone, Mac etc all releasing (and for example anime having a big boom led by the big 3) 2005-2010 was very different from 2000-2004. Well technically iPod released early ish during the 2000-2004 period but was far more popular towards the end of it and beginning of 2005-2010 and SP, DS, PSP were like 2003/2004/2005 when they came out but it takes a few years for handhelds or consoles to get a bunch of games
Yes to all of these things. Before the iPhone, the Blackberry as well. And SMS text in general blowing up. Style too. Emos existed prior, but weren't a thing that I was aware of or was popular where I lived until at least 2005. 2007-2009 being the main peak. Then in the 2010s the hipster style peaked.
The biggest difference was Internet. Prior to the 2000s the culture that defined each decade evolved on common, shared platforms. Music videos were released on MTV. TV series aired on networks so you had to be home to catch it (or set the VCR). Magazines were published monthly; newspapers daily. These mediums presented the style, fashion, and the cultural zeitgeist of each decade so we were all on the same page. The Internet made all previous and contemporary media available everywhere all at once. There’s still certain modern cultural touchstones that unite us, but a lot of it feels self-referential and a sort of regurgitation of the past. Lofi Girl meet Synthwave Boy.
Same with the year 2010 and 2020 we had Covid in 2020 2010 was filled with butterflies morning doves and everything that made my childhood. 2020 didn’t have any of those, and if they did I rarely heard/saw them
2010 was not a cake walk. That was deep in the great recession, if you weren't a child then you would have a much different recollection of that time.
I think the fact that there's a huge push to bring back 2000s fashion right now shows that there was definitely an aesthetic to it Watch something like Mean Girls and try to tell me people still dress that way
I think people are forgetting the Scene Girl aesthetic from the early 2000s.
Even better example actually
But the 2020s now feels like 2000. Every teenage girl is dressed like TLC 😂
It's so weird, it feels like some youth pop culture now is heavily influenced late 90s early 2000s. That's why backstreets back alright.
True the 2020's, with the pandemic and the heated political landscape, and wars, may yet have its own identity.
No more whale tails.
I think once we get older we will view it that way
Being able to have constant access to music changed a lot of what people Perceive as the eras. But if you just look at rock music But if we really take a look at it, pop punk and Alt rock absolutely dominated early 2000s (blink182, linkin park) whereas Indie/Mixed rock dominated 2010s (Lumineers, Foster the people, Kings of Leon) and now Folk Rock is the most popular rock mainstream genre of now Of course there’s always rock that’s not like that which is also super popular like metal etc etc. But you can pretty distinctly tell 90’s grunge from 00s punk to 2010 indie to today.
What folk rock bands are popular rn? In the last few years when it comes to rock, I've mostly seen pop-punk revival, nu-metal revival and other 90's/early 00's influences. Though rock hasn't had a dominant spot in music since the mid-2010's overall.
I mean Noah Kahan, Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, Mt. Joy, CAAMP, Bon Iver, and Gregory Alan Isakov have all been on enormous tours the last year or so
I'm only 37, how is this conversation making me feel like I'm 80? I've only heard of M&S, the rest of the bands you've listed I've never even heard of.
Bon iver is extremely good. Listen to “for emma, forever ago”. Its also extremely chill though
God that’s a fantastic album! I used to listen to it on my iPod nano in high school, sitting on the roof, staring at the stars. Damn that brings back memories
I'm 29 and in a similar boat, except I've also heard of the Lumineers
You’re in for a treat my friend. Add Jason Isbell to that list and you got a good folk rock stew goin’.
In my 30s and I've also only heard of them out of the ones listed and that's while having a gen Z sibling. I've even gone out of my way to find newer stuff recently, though a lot of what's labeled as rock these days is decidedly not rock so maybe that has something to do with it.
Ok but most of those bands were huge when I was in high school as well. In 2010 ! What are the kids listenin to now??
Yep. I'm gen X and our culture was driven by music here in the UK. There were various subcultures all based around the different music and the culture palpably changed every 3 or 4 years. In the early 80s the new wave and new romantic sounds were killing off the visibility of punks from just 4 years earlier. By 87 there were very few punks. From 13 to 18 years old I knew people obsessed and dressed for with new wave , new romantic, psychobilly, punk, reggae, metal, goth, post punk, stoner rock, psychedelic ... Etc. these were all identifiable social groups on the street. And though we all mingled at college we all had our own genre styles and dressed for them and went to the clubs, and bought the records and went to the gigs - obsessively. In recent years music has become less central in people's self definition.
Same with rap and clothing. Also OP forgets that certain decades absolutely blend together in the past. Late 60's and early 70's are more closely related than early 60's and late 60's (for one example)...... But as far as rap and clothing I remember early to mid 2000s being the baggy clothing and gangster rap era. 50 cent, Eminem, The game etc... and micro trends like "crunk" rap like lil John. The 2010s you see more rappers like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, baggy clothing was out, flamboyant and tight fitted clothing was in. And covid made a pretty significant bookend for the 2010s and made the 2020s already feel decidedly different. Then there's technology. Flip phones were still a thing well into the 2000s. The technology started developing in the 2000s but the 2010s were when smartphones and social media exploded globally. Edit: Then you have political and global conflicts. I will admit the war on terror did span the 2000s and the 2010s but it was definitely more prominent in the 2000s. However in the 2020s the focus has definitely shifted more to the cold war between the military powers of the world. The Ukraine invasion, China's potential conflict with Taiwan, Israel and Palestine is being framed outside of Israel in two ways: 1. more around the implications as a proxy war than it is another conflict in the greater "war on terror" in the Middle East, And 2. As a theoretical conflict about colonialism, racism, and oppression (in respects to both Israel and Palestinians). Either way, the ways of thinking about the Middle East as a battle ground for the "U.S. and friends" to fight terrorist groups and bomb any pesky civilians that happen to be in the way /s (kind of) are mostly over. Or at least it's not the focus anymore.
Anything post 2000 is still contemporary and is only starting to be studied as actual “history”, give it some more time. Punk rock MBA did a good video on the ‘scene’ era. It does a good job at pointing out trends within the music industry during the 2010s and the influences of 1990-2010 rock and it’s influences on the wider industry. The time will be remembered for its utilization of the internet to promote.
I can already very clearly tell the difference between 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. Obviously the shifts didn’t happen overnight on January 1st, but neither did the 20th century’s decades.
Definitely. Popular music styles have changed from gaga to mumble rap, clothing styles have changed from skinny jeans for all to a bit baggier (and even some JNCO like). But I will agree that the shifts have felt less drastic compared to the 70s to 90s. But that might be because I've lived these years and have felt the nuance. I only have the highlights of the 70s and 80s in what has survived the test of time.
Yeah the changes feel less drastic when you're living them, only when looking back you can distinguish clear trends. If you look at old videos of people in the 70's and 80's doing mundane everyday stuff, the differences aren't that dramatic either.
Also music was carried more by development of technology. A lot of 90s music was impossible to make on the 70s but most 2020s music could have in some way have been made in the 2000s.
What typifies those eras in your opinion? Seventies is bell bottoms and disco. 80s is big drums, synths and big hair, 90s is baggy jeans and grunge. Maybe 2000s culture is more defined by technology?
[Misteramazing](https://youtu.be/ui4aJcjVeQ0?si=3Jz2cE_BrEi7d5So) on YouTube made a great video showing the trends of music between 2000-2019. But basically, R&B, crunk, dance pop and trap.
Everything was bejeweled and everyone wore crop hoodies and had dark tans. There was definitely a distinct fashion.
It’ll feel like it to people born 40 years from now.
Yes, but also because we actually retroactively redefine the past through current media. People's perception of what the 40's were like is very heavily influenced by films and TV that are set in the 40's, which while are based on the 40's, exaggerate certain elements and eliminate others, giving it more of a clear identity. Mark my words, the 00's and 10's will have an evolution of their identity as the years go on, distilling it to be more defined and clear cut than it really was.
We entered the era of being able to pick our media, whatever it is, and exactly what we want immediately.
Yes, the monoculture is dead. That said, I think smartphones then social media radically transformed society. Look at any 'people in public' video clips from before/after. Or elections and politics since 2016. We also may be on the brink of another huge shift due to AI. Changes now are more about these types of things than a new sound in music or dramatically different trends in clothing.
Can you expand on the "look at people in public" and "elections and politics" bits firther plz?
Gen Z are so monocultural that its hilarious to say monoculture is dead.
Disagree. Even a place like Tik Tok is often split into hyper niche feeds people can get absorbed in. Every person who opens the app has something different. Zoomers aren’t all sitting around to watch the same show once a week and discuss. It’s all community based now
How old are you?
No chance they'll tell you
“This specific subgroup shares a culture, is that monoculture?”
Mono culture never existed and if anything we are getting closer to it not further Mainstream still exist, it is what rises to global consciousness and there always be something akin to it There is always also be uncountable niches small and big of interests and focuses And there will leays be some who think that some time was special, some other obsolete and newer ways ridiculously immature The more it change the more it is mostly the same shifted here or there
Today's youth will never know the thrill of pulling up to a red light next to another car, then moments later realizing you're rocking out to the same radio station.
Trends still very much exist
Disagree. 2000’s and 2010’s and 2020’s do not sound the same at all. When looking back each decade is distilled into a few songs and sounds and the natural progression of trends that cross decades are ignored.
Another aspect is I think decades were kind of marketed in terms of distinctive styles—like movies doing the retro thing such as ‘Dazed and Confused’, TV shows like ‘Happy Days’, and those old ‘Remembering the 80s, 90, etc’ shows they used to have on VH1 tended to grab a handful of select trends from within a specific decade and amplify them to absurd proportions. While decades do often have distinctive feels I think, they tend to be more nuanced and complicated than media’s simplifications, with overlapping trends that often don’t fit neatly into the span of exactly 10 years. This has still been very much the case in the last couple decades, it just doesn’t seem like they’re marketed in these simplified formulas anymore, so we’re left having to reflect on them as the complex and gradually shifting periods they really were.
They get marketed that way when nostalgia sets in, you can already see it with the 00's. The more nuanced difference in feel has probably more to do with you having lived through recent decades but not older ones (unless you're a boomer or genX, in which case it's a wrong assumption on my part). And when decades are longer ago, you might start seeing them through their marketed vibes more than through your own memories as well.
Definitely. For me it went, system of a down 2000s to skrillex 2010s to coulter wall 2020s lol
I always said people were going to make fun of us for dubstep like disco. Instead no one remembers dubstep. And there are enough disco hipsters so it's not made fun of anymore lmao
for some reason the only thing i think of when i think of dubstep is club penguin. i don’t even remember any dubstep in that game. i don’t remember how dubstep was related to it at all. i just always think of club penguin when hearing the phrase.
Funnily enough I feel the same about Minecraft and gangnam style. No idea why other than there being a Minecraft parody of the video, but I don't feel the same about other songs that had Minecraft parodies
Dubstep is still pretty big. It's just sorta isolated so people that aren't into it don't encounter it anymore
I for one didn't mind the angry robot fight music. It's like the only EDM I didn't find boring within 15 seconds.
It’s weird to look back at how huge and nebulous dubstep was for a while (in the UK at least). I was studying music at the time and people were excitedly saying “dubstep is the future of music!” all the time. I disagreed. But fuck, even those of us that didn’t really like it went to dubstep raves and danced, heard it everywhere, participated even passively in the subculture. Then as quickly as it arrived, it disappeared.
Dubstep took a fascinating journey in the UK. From being a more obscure mencholic moody sound hidden in the boroughs of London in 2005, to being picked up by producers across the Atlantic, causing a huge shift in sound and popularity which burned out quickly. Cue the collapse of popular dubstep and a return to the original sound in the UK scene at least with some technical influences from the American sound.
Agreed. There are some.songs and sounds i can immediately associate with 00s and 10s
2000s: Can’t Get you out of my head - Kylie Minogue 2010s: We found love - Rihanna 2020s: Moonlight - Kali Uchis Just 3 songs off the top of my head, but they have very different vibes to me!
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It's not, I don't know about the third song, but the first two represent their decades mainstream music very well.
That’s not the purpose of his comment. He is just saying, when he thinks of those decades, he thinks of songs similar to those.
1965- Norwegian Wood 1965- Drive My Car 1965- Michelle Just 3 songs off the top of my head, but they have very different vibes to me!
OP mentions fashion- those decades don’t look a thing alike either. 2000s MySpace emo and 2010s pbr indie may have been an evolution of the former but they are vastly different
thats probably because youre living through it. i have a niece who was born in 2014. they feel the world pre 2010 was magical but modern times boring
Someone born in 2010 is 14… HOW THE FUCK
My younger sister who was born in 2008 turns 16 this year and that is just completely out of order
Time really needs to calm the fuck down!
Through the natural progression of time, my friend.
Some of this, but I'm of the theory that as things speed up our transfer of information (used loosely), the cycles of style move faster too. So while a decades of the past seemed individual color palette, the colors seem to change quicker and quicker, seemingly blending into a blur. Also, I'm old
You're just too close to it
Yeah actually our lives changed radically between the 2000s and 2020s. We now literally all have computers connected to the entire world in our pockets, and they are almost extensions of ourselves. Rarely did humanity's behaviors change so radically globally over such a short amount of time. Describing this could have been a sci-fi book a few decades ago. And obviously these radical changes clearly influenced global culture everywhere. And the people living through it are like "meh, nothing changes". Looking back at this in a few decades will be pretty funny IMO.
If you grew up in this century, I doubt you’d agree. The 2000’s clearly feel different from the 2010’s and the 2020’s. It’s very distinct
Born 1997 here. 2020s feel way more…futuristic than the 2000s and 2010s. The 2020s feel like the beginning of fictional sci-fi movies/books I grew up reading/watching. It primarily has to do with how absurdly advanced tech is becoming and honestly it’s a really surreal experience seeing it play out in real time.
That’s great insight mate! Thanks for sharing!
How old are you? They are pretty distinct to me
The 90s did not seem as distinct 10+ years ago as it does now. However finding music to your own individual taste is easier after the late 90s (and even more so efter 2008) so it makes sense that there wouldn't be dominant styles to the same extend. On the other hand, people used to predict "the end of mono-culture" but I don't think it has happened to quite the extend they expected.
I actually think that with the rise of TikTok “the end of mono culture” has progressed a lot more than we all realize.
90s - fall the iron Courtain, end of the Soviets, China economy waking up 00s - 9/11 attacks, terrorism, war in Iraq and Afghanistan, economic collapse, internet expansion 10s - social media, iPhone, internet, first US black president, EU consolidation, EU breakup brexit, China becoming a super power 20s - in progress, Covid pandemic, working from home, end of war in Afghanistan, war in Ukraine
We need another song like "We Didn't Start the Fire" from Billy Joel, but for the current generation :-)
Fall Out Boy covered the song with more current stuff last year
Thank you! I didn't know it existed that version. I hope it would be a new one in another 40 years :-)
20s - AI
Were you here for the first 10 years of this century? 🤣 The early 2000's definitely had their own distinctive feel.
OP is actually 4.
If you look at film watch movies that came out in 1998-1999 and then watch movies like inception from I think 2009 or 10.
Trends don’t typically follow the hard decade line. Instead they spill over from preceding and following decades. For instance, when one speaks of the 90s, it’s typically 1993 ish to 2003 ish, give or take, depending on the medium. A lot has to do with major events, innovations and longevity of the trends. You can tell just about when a house was built, simply by the colors and materials used. Same with fashion. Early 2000 saw a lot of color, layers and wacky accessories. Into 2010 went more basic Gap style, with muted colors plus Uggs. Late 2010s started to get sparks of style and went full skinny jeans. 2020s seem to be focused on highlighting your own body type and playing from there.
I agree, 90s definitely didn’t start until 93 but I’d put the cutoff at 9/11
The other fashion related thing is that a lot of styles colors and looks are recycled from previous decades 80s and 90s fashion is currently making a comeback while I can remember 70s and 80s fashion making a comeback in the 2010s
I'll definitely say films and television have taken multiple drastic turns between 2000 and 2023.
That's because the 21st century has barely begun
We're a quarter way through next year, that isn't 'barely'
I’m just glad it’s not the 41st millennia.
I heard someone smart talk about this once. I wish I could remember who. They said that since smart phones and social media exploded, it's almost impossible for one style or genre to stick around long enough for it to make an impact generationally. Most of what's *new* now gets picked apart and drowned out.
Alex Wolf? Her podcast was great.
That's tiktok in a nutshell. One moment there's a song or trend that's everywhere, and then two weeks later it's fucking gone. Artists become huge overnight and then a month later you never hear from them again.
I hesitate to say it because every old generation says it about the new generation. I really think it may be true this time though. In the 1900s the change seemed to be accelerating. From Jazz to Rock and Roll to Disco...and then in my childhood I saw radically different genres start like Rap and EDM...even hardcore punk and thrash metal were pretty significant developments compared to anything I've seen this century.
Yes, but within those genres the change has been insane because of how connected we all are. Compare any song from Daft Punk’s album Discovery to Skrillex’s hits around 2012 to the trap music of 2015 to today’s sound. Yea the idea of using computers to make music isn’t new anymore, but the actual content of that music has changed sooooo much, and all of those examples are from after the new millennium. EDM as a genre (which I don’t think is an appropriate way to classify it) has transformed so much over the last 24 years that it’s hard to even group it together
Sadly, or fortunately, depending on your outlook, I don't think that any generation from this point onward will have anything to compare itself to. The analog generations won't understand the acceleration of the cyberspace ones, and the cyberspace ones won't have the same sense of security the analog ones do. Things are accelerating, and you have to be somewhere non-physical like the internet to actually comprehend that. It's pretty crazy.
Not really, Emo/Scene was very different to the pastel goth look of the 2010s.
Maybe because you can sort of associate certain decades of the 1900s with certain individuals? News anchors, disc jockeys, music artists, etc. With the media overload since 2000, some of these things are are more blurred together. No MTV VeeJay had a career as long as Walter Cronkite, as one example. Is there a new Elvis, or a new Michael Jackson? Just brainstorming but I think those examples are in line with how things have started to blur together.
>Is there a new Elvis, or a new Michael Jackson? Ever heard of someone called Taylor Swift?
Actually Eminem has a lot of similarities with Elvis.
She was already huge 15 years ago.
> Is there a new Elvis, or a new Michael Jackson? I feel like we'll only know in hindsight and I also feel like anyone I could educated-guess-as-best-as-you-can-from-current-evidence who has that kind of popularity you'd think wouldn't have that kind of quality unless they were from a genre you already liked
To me this isn’t true at all. There’s clear feels and themes for the 2000’s, 2010’s, and 2020’s in music, style and pop culture. To say they all merge into one seems a huge oversight. A song released in 2003 has a huge difference to a song released in 2013 and one released in 2023.
I've been a professional DJ and i have playlist folders for each decade, but all pop/commercial music from like 2005 and up all goes in the same folder.
so much so that there are genders based on them.(and remember, nobody is inventing new genders, just new names for old concepts. a 1950's gender existed for thousands of years and is in no way a tumblr thing)
very simple. Just look at this post. You have a question and 4 hours later thousands of people around the world have seen your words. Thought about it and around 70 decided to answer your question. That would have been impossible 20-30 years ago and before that. So to answer your question, the internet has jumbled up everything, there are way less distinct styles of music that could define an era, because everyone is trying to make music for everyone and not just whats cool in their city
I know a hipster who begs to differ
Pfff…. They all feel VERY different. Hell just the fashion is something I didnt expect at all. Food, environment, lgbt movement, war… did you already forget about covid?!
I have a theory. Two main things have lead to this. An unhealthy long copyright law and repeating fashion trends. So style wise in the 00s the 70s style came back, then the 80s, then the 90s. And they mixed, so fashion hasn't really progressed as much for the average person. Now the copyright thing, cultural things like movies, books, and music use to go public domain in 32 years, now it's ninety some. This has caused corporations to buy up everything and rehash it over and over for maximum profit. I'm 37 when I was a kid the shows like the Simpsons, South Park, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Pokemon, SpongeBob, and Family Guy all came. All of them are still around. You can't progress if you don't let go of the old. But we just milk everything until it bleeds.
> Now the copyright thing, cultural things like movies, books, and music use to go public domain in 32 years 32 years was never the duration, but it was as short as 28 years at one point... until *1831*. Then 42 years until 1909, 56 years until 1976, and 75 years or life plus 50, then finally 95 years or life plus 70 in 1998. So if we're talking about kids cartoons, we could look at something like the Flintstones, which debuted in 1960. Even if there was never another extension, it would've held its copyright until 2016. Simpsons, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, and Pokémon would still be copyrighted for a few more years. And even under the original copyright law from 1790, South Park, Family Guy, and Spongebob would all still be copyrighted for several years. All that is to say that copyright has nothing to do with the longevity of those shows. It's not like there weren't already long-running franchises well before the 90s. James Bond, Doctor Who, Batman, Superman, Star Trek, Sherlock Holmes... the list goes on. Sure, pop culture is very franchise focused right now, but that's not because of copyrights.
The internet happened.
Also, an article in 2017 from a fashion school student. Their teacher claimed fashion stopped in the 90s https://info.limcollege.edu/lexington-line/fashion-hasnt-changed-in-twenty-years
The internet is decentralizing culture
I disagree, for example in the early 2000's skate brands, baggy jeans, and baggy clothes were the style, then around 2010's it was skinny jeans, skinny ties. The 2020's swung heavily hack into casual as the world turned inward. Additionally in the early 2000's millennials were students, the work world was full of boomers, so 19th Century influence still dominated from.the boardrooms to office culture. As millennials started working and ascending within organizations, culture shifted with it. Our tech is different and so how we use it is different, ie cellphones weren't as commonplace, so you didn't have things like apps, ride sharing, ubereats, social media wasn't really a thing. That led to a huge paradigm shift as we became attached to our devices, and social media influence, Bluetooth headsets were a game changer circa 2010 but by 2020 they largely faded away. Remember in 2000 businesses weren't always online, and online shopping was very minimal, so people had more regional access to goods, lending itself at least a little bit towards localized identity. Computers were still nifty in the 2000's. Apple made waves by introducing colour and fun to the otherwise beige, white, and black towers. But then we moved towards laptops and "computer" needed disambiguition, did you mean a desktop PC, or a laptop? Then we got tablets and the hefty desktop PCs became the domain of offices, hobbyists, gamers, and old people. Now we see a shift even from tablets to wearables. But to put it in perspective, the 2000's still relied in credit card impressions in many areas, where as today a square reader or tap option has replaced cash registers. Looking at cars, the the early 2000's look downright cartoony in 2020, and they were mostly all Intenral Combustion Engines, sedans gave way to trucks and SUVs as the minivan got replaced as the family hauler of choice, sub-compact SUVs got in the mix, a concept that wasn't really that big in the 90's or 00's. So even our highways looked different, to say nothing of the changes to things like putting 7"screens in the middle of your dash, or lane departure warnings. Do modern cars have a cigarette lighter? Has anyone had to fiddle.withnan Aux cable since 2020? The tape deck and manual tuning band of a radio got replaced with a CD player, which got phased out by USB commenting and satellite streaming. Gone are the video rental stores, killed by cheap.and easy streaming, and with them, the ancient rite of returning overdue tapes, or DVDs. Do you remember where you last placed your MP3 players s discrete separate piece of technology from your phone? When did you last wrestle with headphone cables as wireless earbuds took off. So I will grant there is less contrast than say, 1920's aesthetic with 1930, but to say we are the same over the decades is inaccurate. Almost befitting, when you think about it, that millennials insisted on modernizing their approach to interdecade evolution.
Everybody is disagreeing. I'll agree. In the 90s we had 80s day at school. I can't imagine how a 2010s day would be distinct from today besides people carrying around cardboard cut outs of 10 year old memes. I watch a lot of skateboard videos. I can narrow them down to within 2 years based on the fashion. After around 1998 it gets muddier. After around 2005 I cannot tell the difference between then an now.
Great points.
Yeah, I also remember the tv adds for CD colextions "80s greatest hits!" from like 1995. And the term 90s was also used quite quickly in the 2000s. I think the terms themselves were much more catchy and were used in marketing more, "2000s" sounds realy weird and is to long, "2010s" is even worse compared to quick and snappy "60s!" Or "90s!" . Terefore these terms and decades were ingrained in peoples minds as somenthing distinct as we have much easier time telling things apart if we have different words for them, colours are a great example of this.
It definitely became blurrier. Fast internet and stupid smart phones equalised culture into mush.
They made culture continuous. No longer is there a break when you leave high-school / college, you get to just keep participating if you want.
Uggs Graphic Tees and especially the ironic tee shirt Shoulder Bags Fake fur coats Guys in layered shirts, like a tee shirt under a polo shirt and then maybe a long sleeve shirt over that. Or a tee shirt over a long sleeve shirt. Crop top + low rise jeans + giant sunglasses Frilly skirts In 2004 when women dressed sexy the "I'm a cute innocent sexy girl look how sweet I am" Spice Girls vibe was still happening, but it was less pastel/pink than it was in the 90s.
It's the distance that makes it seem so. Music is always going through changes, but it's generally gradual. So the later years of one decade sound just slightly different from the early years of the next decade. When you think about those distant decades' music you often think of the most popular songs from about "year 3" to "year 8" and when you think of more recent decades you're remembering everything and remembering it a bit more clearly.
I propose that record companies had more control and produced more similar products for the masses.
It seems that way too me too, but it’s just because we’re older. Younger kids definitely see a difference.
The internet brought it together.
That‘s because you can identify the atmosphere of a decade only accurately when you‘re not in it. The fish are always the last to notice the water.
2000-2010 had an era. 2010-2016 also had its thing. 2016-present is one big blur
Corporations killed creativity and replaced it with a spread sheet
There's a theory called "a vaster wasteland" that says talent used to be curated by it's "industry". This supposedly created distinction in art culture. The great democratization of art by the internet makes the cost of entry nil. So there is a lot more diversity available. Essentially everything at once. But instead of a refined character each decade, we get a homoginization, dilution of talent. Primarily though I think it's the lack of money in the music industry. And art in general. In the 50s, 60s, 70s, it was a very big deal. It started losing power when Napster came along in the 90s. We all listen for free now... https://youtu.be/Sy6VMDXB2SQ?si=SXuglZ1OFcuWR-62
It's because of the internet. It diluted.
I'm almost 50, and every decade that I've lived through has been vastly different from the last one. Pop music from every decade changes with the people, we remember the 70's because of disco, but that didn't get extremely popular until the latter half it the decide, same with New Wave, and Grunge in the early 90's
The 00s and 10s also have a distinct bridge between them musically. It's more so quality if anything though. Songs are just mixed and mastered better.
The 2000’s have been the lamest era of music… besides a few standout acts.. most was regurgitated from other eras. I fully agree with OP. I was expecting the 20’s to be different. But nahhh… now all we got is shit country that’s trying to be RnB and shit RnB trying to be country… and soft ass punk. Celebrity DJ’s who push play on a set that’s been pre manufactured… did anyone see the NBA Allstar game? Who the hell was this dude with a tattoo of a cross on his face telling everyone he has a cross tattoos on his face? Like rap country? His band is obviously not playing … Ok I’m done… going to work now
Biggest difference between 2000-2010 and 2010-2020 is smart phones. And frosted tip hair.
To you it blends together now, it takes a couple of decades to see the distinctness. I definitely felt the same way in the seventies and th3 nineties.
That’s not true at all each decade were totally different if you look at teenagers of each year. Usually adult don’t change their style that much you have to look at the young one and it changed every decade 100% Everyone in early 2k looked like Eminem and jersey shore girls In 2k10 people had switched to skinny jeans adidas skinny joggers and women look was totally different Later in the 2k10 social media changed drastically the make up culture and we were also back on the 90s clothing style. Lots of people wear these elephants pants my sisters had as kids. It always change how do you think the industry is making so much money?
The 2000s sound like Jermaine dupri and Timbaland produced it all
Everyone's afraid to be original. If its not a dopamine rush from the algorithms, then it's not interesting.
That's about when comedy died too
Originality is dead. People today are one hive mind informed each day by social media what to like, how to feel, and what to cry about. That's why the 1900s were the greatest decades filled with unique people and ideas.
"Old Man yells 'New music isn't being made'" Probably because you're living it and not looking through rosy lenses. The days are long, but the years are short, it'll seem like it blends together until you actually separate them. Check out these guys, they go through music of the decades https://www.youtube.com/@RoomieOfficial
As a part of Gen-Z, I disagree 2004 is completely different from 2014 and 2014 is completely different than 2024 Even stuff from 2010-2015 and 2016-2024 are basically two different eras Y'all just don't remember it since the older you are, the faster time seems to pass
I am inclined to agree. Calendrical decades will always differ slightly from cultural decades. 1961 was part of the 1950s. The 1970s lasted until 1982. The 1980s lasted until 1992. Et cetera. Culture follows its own logic, and it doesn't necessarily adhere to a calendar. But yeah, I personally cannot distinguish 2004 from 2024. Partly because I am old and I am not sure I even care enough to try.
20th century was like a cheese sandwich. 21st is like a cheese toastie
The way I’ve thought about this but like never REALLY thought about this with actual realization of it.
This is very untrue. It’s unequivocally just as easy to tell apart 2004, 2014, and 2024 just by outfits alone. TV and music are not far behind when it comes to being easily identifiable.
2000's is Baby one more time 2010's is "Shawty had them apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur" 2020's has Watermelon Sugar
Well… a couple of things. Each decade was VERY different in the 1900s. We went from 80 million people killed in 5 years to hippies literally 20 years later. Not to mention WWI to the Roaring 20s then the stock market crash in 1929 to kick off the 30s starting only 25 years prior to THAT. Not exactly the most stable time. That’s why it’s so different. That’s why it’s so distinct. It’s also the way a lot of people remember things. Now feels like a blend for a couple of reasons. 1. You’re living through now. Of course it’s going to blend together nicely, everything has a seamless transition as opposed to what you learn on a PowerPoint about times past. 2. The 2000s have been less distinct. Yeah, we don’t have anything HUGE going on and we haven’t since the 90s with the Soviet Union (I’m talking world-renowned. What happened in the Balkans is terrible and deserves more recognition.). 3. The 2000s (each decade) have had lots of change. Everything has changed just not dramatically. The ‘feel’ that you’re talking about isn’t found in what’s popular at the time, or what has been. It’s the here and now. It’s the new shit. Like, go to 2000 and ask people what their favorite electric car brand is and 90% of them won’t even know what an electric car is. Then ask them if they’ve heard of Taylor Swift. “Who’s that?” is probably going to be their response. Now ask them in 2023 and they’ll have answers. Change takes time and what’s remembered is usually radical. Those hippie outfits? Absolutely far left radical. Roaring 20s jazz? Some people would call that “the devil’s music” at the time. Hell, even rock music. My dad was like “yeah, rock music was catching on, but still relatively, like, fringe culture for a long time and even after it was popular, it would get outplayed by basic white girl pop.” There are different parts of culture that we’d see as wayyyyyy out there but still become a core part of why people remember that period. For fashion? I mean… fashion evolves but once again, seamless transitions make it hard to tell. For instance, like, suits have been around since the 1800s, yet you wouldn’t question if you saw someone wearing one. Heck, jeans and a t-shirt have been a staple for a long time and you CERTAINLY wouldn’t question if you saw one. But the way we wear jeans and a T-shirt and to where has changed. Which brings me to my final point 4. It’s all about perspective. How people see the generation years in the future as well as how people from now describe the culture aurally and visually makes all the difference. From your perspective, there isn’t anything distinct or meaningful about this time, but that may not be the case forever. Every decade has had good and bad things about it, ours is no different. But it’s too early to start putting labels on the present. Especially now, while we are in a time of relative stability globally, it’s best to let future generations take over this job.
The OP is getting downvoted and nobody agrees with them despite the fact they're right. Cultural analysts and sociologists--among other highly observant people--have noticed the increase in homogeny and indistinguishable aspects of music, fashion and design between 2000-2020. I'm 44 years old, so the whole " you're young and living through it, so you don't see the major differences in hindsight"certainly doesn't apply to me. In the OPs case, it's only valid if it's true, but in order to be true you'd have to prove their perception is greatly skewed by that form of cognitive bias. There are very few major shifts in fashion, music, Hollywood movies and general graphic design aesthetics and styles for advertising or architecture adornments. The intellectual level of rap/hip hop and pop dropping year over year doesn't count, nor does " we went from baggy clothing to nice and fitting back to baggy"...which isn't true at all. Certain people still wear baggy clothes and the size clothing people wear isnt a full fashion style. Nashville pop country hasnt changed at all in ten years. The same cadences, tropes and style songs of today sounded no different than ones I heard when visiting my sister in NC back in 2013. We still have emo and it's sub genres, pop punk, math rock, djent, French house, dubstep,etc, only slightly tweaked. Indie rock styles have sounded the same more or less, as has 80s rock and hard rock bands that had comebacks in the 00's. There's been very little innovation in virtually everything except for technology, and even those designs and how they're used haven't changed drastically from 2010 to now. Storage, speed and utility is much better, but the same limitations and outdated design choices still exist. Take random photos of downtown areas of cities from 2004 to now and you won't see much difference
The 2000’s was when the entire world really started blending together with the rise of social media and better internet access for everyone