Inspired from a post someone made about the 2010s being more city like while the 2000s
were very Malcolm in the middle like.

Inspired from a post someone made about the 2010s being more city like while the 2000s
were very Malcolm in the middle like.


I actually think the same thing. Has anyone seen the movie Over the Hedge? I get that kinda image for the 2000s, the movie was released in 2006 aswell :P

Urban living and gentrification has been a huge part of Millennial culture this decade. It is only natural that pop culture would reflect that. The shift really began with the show Friends during the '90s. Friends was the first show to really show urban living in a positive light. Before that, suburbia had always been painted as the ideal since the dawn of the TV age.  The shift really picked up steam in the late '00s.

I would say the 1980s and 90s were the golden age of the suburban cul-de-sac suburb. The '00s were mixed and the '10s have been heavily focused on urban lifestyles. I am so glad I got to experience urban living back in the early '10s.

I actually think the same thing. Has anyone seen the movie Over the Hedge? I get that kinda image for the 2000s, the movie was released in 2006 aswell :P


Avril Lavigne voiced Heather in that movie. I was hyped for it. ;D

I actually think the same thing. Has anyone seen the movie Over the Hedge? I get that kinda image for the 2000s, the movie was released in 2006 aswell :P


Yep, and a pristine and "Republican" image of suburban life at that: Meet the Robinsons, Robots (the one with Robin Williams), even Speed Racer had shades of it.

The first half of the '00s was very much a continuation of the suburban culture of the '80s and '90s. Order a pizza from Pizza Hut, stop by Blockbuster, or maybe GameStop or Babbages to see if they had any cool new games. Big box stores still ruled. Malls were still dominant. Kids would still gather at the TV to watch primetime network shows and play multiplayer video games offline with their buddies.

2002 was kind of just a more technologically advanced version of 1992 if you look at it. Most kids still didn't have cell phones, social media wasn't big, and online connections were still slow enough for most that streaming video couldn't be done. All of that gave the early '00s a much more comparable to the '80s and '90s suburban, mall, TV culture. This changed during the second half of the decade.

The first half of the '00s was very much a continuation of the suburban culture of the '80s and '90s. Order a pizza from Pizza Hut, stop by Blockbuster, or maybe GameStop or Babbages to see if they had any cool new games. Big box stores still ruled. Malls were still dominant. Kids would still gather at the TV to watch primetime network shows and play multiplayer video games offline with their buddies.

2002 was kind of just a more technologically advanced version of 1992 if you look at it. Most kids still didn't have cell phones, social media wasn't big, and online connections were still slow enough for most that streaming video couldn't be done. All of that gave the early '00s a much more comparable to the '80s and '90s suburban, mall, TV culture. This changed during the second half of the decade.


I think you could say this was still the case even as late as 2005.  Mean Girls was an excellent representation of mid '00s culture and the mall was still an integral part of that.  I would say the real turning point was the Great Recession.  The recession really hurt the malls and they never quite recovered afterwards.  That was also the era when long-time mall staples like Sam Goody, Sharper Image, K-B Toys, etc folded.  It's seems like post 2008, it has no longer been cool for teens to hang out at the mall like it once was.

No, it was definitely before the Great Recession. Blockbuster culture began to truly break down around '06-'07, when Netflix debuted and Amazon began to truly hit its stride.

No, it was definitely before the Great Recession. Blockbuster culture began to truly break down around '06-'07, when Netflix debuted and Amazon began to truly hit its stride.


I stopped going to Blockbuster around early 2009.  I remember that I still went weekly as late as 2008.  In the early '10s, Redbox dominated the movie rental market.  Streaming media/smart TVs didn't really come into their own until the mid '10s.

I stopped going to Blockbuster around early 2009.  I remember that I still went weekly as late as 2008.  In the early '10s, Redbox dominated the movie rental market.  Streaming media/smart TVs didn't really come into their own until the mid '10s.

The first half of the '00s was very much a continuation of the suburban culture of the '80s and '90s. Order a pizza from Pizza Hut, stop by Blockbuster, or maybe GameStop or Babbages to see if they had any cool new games. Big box stores still ruled. Malls were still dominant. Kids would still gather at the TV to watch primetime network shows and play multiplayer video games offline with their buddies.

2002 was kind of just a more technologically advanced version of 1992 if you look at it. Most kids still didn't have cell phones, social media wasn't big, and online connections were still slow enough for most that streaming video couldn't be done. All of that gave the early '00s a much more comparable to the '80s and '90s suburban, mall, TV culture. This changed during the second half of the decade.


Whats ironic is that during most of the early-mid 2000's I actually lived in Brooklyn and was thus surrounded by various urban aesthetics like grafitti covered on trains, corner stores, public transportation, weird pigeon ladies (like the pigeon lady from Home Alone 2 ;D), family owned restaurants (Pizzerias, Delis, & Diners), etc.

Hence why as a kid I related heavily to shows like Sesame Street and Hey Arnold as it was set in a urban environment, and they featured an array of different races, cultures, values.

The gentrification trend was very small in the early 00's from what I remember. However, when I go back to visit my hometown the neighborhood has changed a lot. Most of the long time residents had moved out (in particularly to the New Jersey or Long Island suburbs), and have been replaced with newer residents. Many being first generation immigrants, younger wealthy executives, or (unfortunately) artisan hipsters...

By the time my family moved out to the suburbs in 2005, that was around when the gentrification trend was starting to take steam. So its weird how my experiences were sort of the opposite for most people. Most Americans during the 2000's & 2010's went from the suburbs to the city. My family went from the city to the suburbs.

I stopped going to Blockbuster around early 2009.  I remember that I still went weekly as late as 2008.  In the early '10s, Redbox dominated the movie rental market.  Streaming media/smart TVs didn't really come into their own until the mid '10s.

Last time I remember going to blockbuster was around 2004. There, we rented Crash Twinsanity (goodgame), Labyrinth with David Bowie (a classic weird movie), and Yu Gi Oh: The Pyramid of Light, which many critics say is the worst movie ever made (probably because they weren't in the target audience). :P

We also got Spot the Dog and Babar tapes from Blockbuster when I was about 6.

Whats ironic is that during most of the early-mid 2000's I actually lived in Brooklyn and was thus surrounded by various urban aesthetics like grafitti covered on trains, corner stores, public transportation, weird pigeon ladies (like the pigeon lady from Home Alone 2 ;D), family owned restaurants (Pizzerias, Delis, & Diners), etc.

Hence why as a kid I related heavily to shows like Sesame Street and Hey Arnold as it was set in a urban environment, and they featured an array of different races, cultures, values.

The gentrification trend was very small in the early 00's from what I remember. However, when I go back to visit my hometown the neighborhood has changed a lot. Most of the long time residents had moved out (in particularly to the New Jersey or Long Island suburbs), and have been replaced with newer residents. Many being first generation immigrants, younger wealthy executives, or (unfortunately) artisan hipsters...

By the time my family moved out to the suburbs in 2005, that was around when the gentrification trend was starting to take steam. So its weird how my experiences were sort of the opposite for most people. Most Americans during the 2000's & 2010's went from the suburbs to the city. My family went from the city to the suburbs.


id say suburban living didnt switch until around 2008/2009

The opposite tbh. 90s was very kid-friendly with songs like Mmmbop and boy bands like Backstreet Boys. 2000s was the exact opposite.

The opposite tbh. 90s was very kid-friendly with songs like Mmmbop and boy bands like Backstreet Boys. 2000s was the exact opposite.


The 2000s was the decade of skateboards, popped collars, mall-logo brands etc. The whole look is very suburban.

The 2010s is all about the artsy hipster look. It looks more urban.

The 2000s was the decade of skateboards, popped collars, mall-logo brands etc. The whole look is very suburban.

The 2010s is all about the artsy hipster look. It looks more urban.

Oh I just realized this post was comparing the 2000s to the 10s, not the 90s. So nvm.

I kinda feel like it depends. Early 2000s to me is very urban like the late 90s, mid 2000s is very suburban, mall-oriented and late 2000s is getting more urban, and the suburbs decaying, though maybe that's because I lived in a suburb then that was almost post-apocalyptic then.

2010s is both urban and rural to me, with the rural/backwoodsy images more in the early period, and there was that in the late 2000s too.

This is all just the images I get when I think of those times.

I kinda feel like it depends. Early 2000s to me is very urban like the late 90s, mid 2000s is very suburban, mall-oriented and late 2000s is getting more urban, and the suburbs decaying, though maybe that's because I lived in a suburb then that was almost post-apocalyptic then.

2010s is both urban and rural to me, with the rural/backwoodsy images more in the early period, and there was that in the late 2000s too.

This is all just the images I get when I think of those times.


I'm curious on how the early 2000s a suburban image to you. Is it because it looks futuristic?

To me I think of skateboard parks and garage rock.

I'm curious on how the early 2000s a suburban image to you. Is it because it looks futuristic?

To me I think of skateboard parks and garage rock.


I said urban.

I think of those things too, and dirty, almost 70s style city alleys and nu metal, the Matrix kinda stuff. Maybe 2001-2004 was more suburban than before, and the pictures of me and my family I looked at from 98-01 are all suburban, but I associate that period with urban atmosphere more.

I said urban.

I think of those things too, and dirty, almost 70s style city alleys and nu metal, the Matrix kinda stuff. Maybe 2001-2004 was more suburban than before, and the pictures of me and my family I looked at from 98-01 are all suburban, but I associate that period with urban atmosphere more.


Whoops, I meant to say urban.

Whoops, I meant to say urban.


<>w<>

No, it was definitely before the Great Recession. Blockbuster culture began to truly break down around '06-'07, when Netflix debuted and Amazon began to truly hit its stride.


An old post, but this is true as apparently Blockbuster had hit their peak sometime in '04-'05 and started declining around '06 onward.  Wiki copypaste.

At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster had more than 9,000 stores in the U.S. In December 2004, Blockbuster announced its intention to pursue a hostile takeover of Hollywood Video, its major U.S. competitor. After some extensions of the tender offer, Blockbuster eventually gave up due primarily to resistance from the FTC. In response to the Blockbuster offer, Hollywood Video agreed to a buyout in January 2005 by a smaller competitor, the Dothan, Alabama-based Movie Gallery. Since then, Movie Gallery has filed for bankruptcy twice and its entire chain of stores has been liquidated.

They peaked in late '04 and even started looking into buying out Hollywood video by '05.