So far I see nothing other than it being the depression generation. 2013 and so far 2014 are pretty lackluster and a bore for music, trends, pop culture, TV.
The only exception is movies, where 2013 was unusually a very good year.

I think one of the major factors of the 2010s identity is blatantly copying retro styles and trying really hard to look like you're living in the 70s/80s/90s. The 2000s was somewhat similar in that way, but the 2000s style did it in more of a 'melting pot' manner where old things were taken and made modern. Now, there is little identity because most people seem to be pining for the past, and not wanting to create anything new.

I think it does, it's just hard to pin down/it's not super distinct. Maybe it's even still developing...Some would say the '60s didn't have much of an identity until they were more than halfway through.

IMO the 2000's didn't have an identity, the first half was a leftover from the 90's and the last 2 years were not very 2000's-like. The 2010's have an identity because it's all about electropop and a very defined group of fashion trends. Just like disco was prevalent in the 70's, new wave in the 80's and grunge in the 90's. The 2000's didn't have a music style of its own. And I think the retro styles look more refined now than ever before and more authentic. Lana del Rey for example has taken that style and she looks very elegant. The retro style of the 2000's was cheesy and people didn't take it seriously, it was a joke.

2000's = economic crisis, bush, war on terror, 9/11. 2010's = obama, more rights for gay people, people trying to move on and make things better (economy slowly recovering), arab spring (old regimes falling apart)..... and that's why I think this decade is much better than 2000's.

IMO the 2000's didn't have an identity, the first half was a leftover from the 90's and the last 2 years were not very 2000's-like. The 2010's have an identity because it's all about electropop and a very defined group of fashion trends. Just like disco was prevalent in the 70's, new wave in the 80's and grunge in the 90's. The 2000's didn't have a music style of its own. And I think the retro styles look more refined now than ever before and more authentic. Lana del Rey for example has taken that style and she looks very elegant. The retro style of the 2000's was cheesy and people didn't take it seriously, it was a joke.

2000's = economic crisis, bush, war on terror, 9/11. 2010's = obama, more rights for gay people, people trying to move on and make things better (economy slowly recovering), arab spring (old regimes falling apart)..... and that's why I think this decade is much better than 2000's.


I wasn't a fan of the 00s but it did have an identity. The 00s was pretty much dueling between 2 forces. There was on one hand rap and hip hop everywhere. People were basically flashing gang signs and pretending to be Crips or Bloods. Teens acted like the main characters on Malibu's Most Wanted. I wanted it to be over then because it was the "ghetto decade".

On the other hand there was darker rock music. Back in 2006 you would go to the mall and see all the Emo kids walking around. People would have Myspace wars and video diaries on their lives. There was emo vs. scene vs. metal vs. goth. There was also pop punk vs. nu-metal during the early 2000s.

TV had a bigger presence and people were still talking about what was on. The news was a joke back then because they constantly covered Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

IMO the 2000's didn't have an identity, the first half was a leftover from the 90's and the last 2 years were not very 2000's-like. The 2010's have an identity because it's all about electropop and a very defined group of fashion trends. Just like disco was prevalent in the 70's, new wave in the 80's and grunge in the 90's. The 2000's didn't have a music style of its own. And I think the retro styles look more refined now than ever before and more authentic. Lana del Rey for example has taken that style and she looks very elegant. The retro style of the 2000's was cheesy and people didn't take it seriously, it was a joke.

2000's = economic crisis, bush, war on terror, 9/11. 2010's = obama, more rights for gay people, people trying to move on and make things better (economy slowly recovering), arab spring (old regimes falling apart)..... and that's why I think this decade is much better than 2000's.


In my opinion, music is getting worse, the economy is a lot worse now compared to the early 2000s, much more debt, and regimes are collapsing but being replaced by much worse. These times will either end very badly or very well depending on what directions people take.

In my opinion, music is getting worse, the economy is a lot worse now compared to the early 2000s, much more debt, and regimes are collapsing but being replaced by much worse. These times will either end very badly or very well depending on what directions people take.


So it's just like the 80s? :)

One thing I've noticed in the 2010's is there has been a lot of TV stars from the 1960's passing away.  I don't remember that happening very much in, like the 1980s.

One thing I've noticed in the 2010's is there has been a lot of TV stars from the 1960's passing away.  I don't remember that happening very much in, like the 1980s.


Maybe because there wasn't any TV in the 1930s. 

Hard to explain, but I think I see the 00s and 10s having their own identity.

Many of you might disagree, but the 00s seemed based on terrorism and was somewhat about "sexified" glamour while the 10s seems about focusing on your inner nerd.

The 00s definitely had an identity....20+ inch rims, throwback jerseys, baggy pants, gold chains, suburban posers who wanted to be "gangsta/ghetto"....it was a Hip Hop dominated.

For the 10s, the mainstream is just all over the place....but I'm getting a somewhat minimalist, cold, dark, and spacy vibe that bubbling underground and on the fringe of the mainstream. Lana Del Rey, James Blake, The Weeknd, FKA Twigs, Florence & The Machine, Kelela, SZA, Jhene Aiko, etc....all kinda give off the vibe I'm talking about

I wasn't a fan of the 00s but it did have an identity. The 00s was pretty much dueling between 2 forces. There was on one hand rap and hip hop everywhere. People were basically flashing gang signs and pretending to be Crips or Bloods. Teens acted like the main characters on Malibu's Most Wanted. I wanted it to be over then because it was the "ghetto decade".

On the other hand there was darker rock music. Back in 2006 you would go to the mall and see all the Emo kids walking around. People would have Myspace wars and video diaries on their lives. There was emo vs. scene vs. metal vs. goth. There was also pop punk vs. nu-metal during the early 2000s.

TV had a bigger presence and people were still talking about what was on. The news was a joke back then because they constantly covered Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.


Are you kidding me? Hip hop and rap has existed since the 80's, and the 90's had much better rap than the 00's. And emo???? those were just a bunch of kids screaming. I am sorry but I see 00's identity very scattered, with a lot of genres going in different directions. The 00's didn't have a force that brought everyone together, like disco in the 70's, new wave in the 80's or electropop in the 10's. And I remember that rock music was not THAT popular as you are saying. Nobody cared about goth or nu metal in the 00's.

TV sucked because it was all about stupid reality tv shows and dumb celebrities like britney or paris. Myspace was a mid 00's thing, it doesn't even define the whole decade the way facebook defines the 10's. The economy is worse today but it was the 00's fault, people were very materialistic, they only cared about buying things and then everything started to fall apart in 2007-2008. Which makes the whole 00's even worse in my eyes.

9/11, wars in iraq and afghanistan, economic meltdown of 08, bush's reelection, hurricane katrina, the world's food crisis of 07 and PARIS HILTON makes the 00's the worse decade ever in the history of humanity.

The 00s definitely had an identity....20+ inch rims, throwback jerseys, baggy pants, gold chains, suburban posers who wanted to be "gangsta/ghetto"....it was a Hip Hop dominated.

For the 10s, the mainstream is just all over the place....but I'm getting a somewhat minimalist, cold, dark, and spacy vibe that bubbling underground and on the fringe of the mainstream. Lana Del Rey, James Blake, The Weeknd, FKA Twigs, Florence & The Machine, Kelela, SZA, Jhene Aiko, etc....all kinda give off the vibe I'm talking about


Baggy pants, gold chains, gangsta people? are you for real? Not a lot of people dressed that way back in the 00's. Fashion in the 80's for example was universal, everyone was wearing those 80's clothes. The 10's have their own fashion trends which everyone is using today and the majority of people in the 00's were still using the clothes from the late 90's. :D

or electropop in the 10's.


Most people seem to call it EDM now, I pretty much agree it's the defining musical trend of the 2010s, especially when it comes to Millennials.

wobble bass is heard all over commercials and movie trailers, trap beats are all over pop songs in 2013 and 2014(like Dark Horse, Turn Down For What, ect).

I'm not sure if the 2010s have a distinctive fashion sense though(unless it's that hipster crap, which is arguably a holdover from the '00s).

And the '00s were called "the decade from hell" for a reason too :D.

One thing I've noticed in the 2010's is there has been a lot of TV stars from the 1960's passing away.  I don't remember that happening very much in, like the 1980s.


I don't know if that would have anything to do with the 2010's having an identity.

TV sucked because it was all about stupid reality tv shows and dumb celebrities like britney or paris. Myspace was a mid 00's thing, it doesn't even define the whole decade the way facebook defines the 10's. The economy is worse today but it was the 00's fault, people were very materialistic, they only cared about buying things and then everything started to fall apart in 2007-2008. Which makes the whole 00's even worse in my eyes.

I agree, those stupid reality tv shows started the 2000's.

Are you kidding me? Hip hop and rap has existed since the 80's, and the 90's had much better rap than the 00's. And emo???? those were just a bunch of kids screaming. I am sorry but I see 00's identity very scattered, with a lot of genres going in different directions. The 00's didn't have a force that brought everyone together, like disco in the 70's, new wave in the 80's or electropop in the 10's. And I remember that rock music was not THAT popular as you are saying. Nobody cared about goth or nu metal in the 00's.

TV sucked because it was all about stupid reality tv shows and dumb celebrities like britney or paris. Myspace was a mid 00's thing, it doesn't even define the whole decade the way facebook defines the 10's. The economy is worse today but it was the 00's fault, people were very materialistic, they only cared about buying things and then everything started to fall apart in 2007-2008. Which makes the whole 00's even worse in my eyes.

9/11, wars in iraq and afghanistan, economic meltdown of 08, bush's reelection, hurricane katrina, the world's food crisis of 07 and PARIS HILTON makes the 00's the worse decade ever in the history of humanity.


00s TV was either very dumb or very intelligent. You had shows like House and Dexter on one hand but you also had horrible reality shows on the other hand. It was a mix of basically the best TV you ever saw and the worst TV. Right now TV is in a blah state. Nothing really bad and nothing really good on.

I remember back in 06/07 you would go to the mall and see droves of teenagers dressing Emo, writing in their diaries, and hanging out in front of Hot Topic. You really couldn't escape them. Right now I see people dressing all over the place.

As for rock, people did care in the earlier 00s, as in teens of the early 2000s.

The 00s definitely had an identity....20+ inch rims, throwback jerseys, baggy pants, gold chains, suburban posers who wanted to be "gangsta/ghetto"....it was a Hip Hop dominated.

For the 10s, the mainstream is just all over the place....but I'm getting a somewhat minimalist, cold, dark, and spacy vibe that bubbling underground and on the fringe of the mainstream. Lana Del Rey, James Blake, The Weeknd, FKA Twigs, Florence & The Machine, Kelela, SZA, Jhene Aiko, etc....all kinda give off the vibe I'm talking about


I've heard this bubbling under the surface since the early 2010s. In a couple years I hope it becomes the mainstream style.

I don't think you can determine a decade's identity when it's still in progress.  You have to have the right perspective to look back on it as a whole.  I actually think it's still too early to tell what the 2000s identity was.  The 90s identity has only really cemented within the past few years.  When the 2010s are old and dated and someone throws a '2010s party', then you'll see its identity ;)

This is the smartphone decade. Even though it started in the late 00s,they were not that 'necessary' back then.

This is the smartphone decade. Even though it started in the late 00s,they were not that 'necessary' back then.




It's definitely the cell phone decade.

Most people seem to call it EDM now, I pretty much agree it's the defining musical trend of the 2010s, especially when it comes to Millennials.

wobble bass is heard all over commercials and movie trailers, trap beats are all over pop songs in 2013 and 2014(like Dark Horse, Turn Down For What, ect).

I'm not sure if the 2010s have a distinctive fashion sense though(unless it's that hipster crap, which is arguably a holdover from the '00s).

And the '00s were called "the decade from hell" for a reason too :D.


Hipster is definitely NOT a holdover from the 2000s. In the late 2000s it was actually a foretaste of what was to come later, which continues to this very day. It's lasted way longer in the 2010s than in the 2000s, so therefore, it is a 2010s thing, not a 2000s thing. But generally, hipsters have been around for decades. As a matter of fact, the name "hippie" actually came from the word hipster. That word has existed since the 1940s. The subculture has always been around, and as with any subculture, it has evolved throughout the times.

And I think any decade is called "the decade from hell" right after it's over. No one decade is objectively better or objectively worse (okay, except 1930s, those were truly bad times). Look at the archive posts on this website, people hated the 90s too, and they criticized them, and beat them. Grunge, President Clinton, the Macarena, and Alanis Morissette were seen as bad things. Now they're seen as good things, and are back in again. They did it with the 70s, they did it with the 80s, they did it with the 90s, now it's the 2000s turn. It's only natural that this happens.

TV sucks more now I say because shows all copy eachother now. All the redneck reality shows are just atrocious! Honey Boo Boo having the least amount of taste.  ::) Then there are the shows that follow families who have many children. 19 Kids and Counting, and something on about these people who have five daughters. Celebrity gossip was bad back then, but is very obsessive now with TMZ and nightly "news" channels dedicated to it.

Movies appear to be alot of comic book based characters like Captain America, Spiderman, The Avengers. That didn't start this decade, but I see it more.

MySpace paved the way for Facebook, which is less popular among younger people than it is now, but it's still dominant so there is no good rival at the moment. Instagram and Snap Chat and Vine, whatever that is, are the things I hear about alot, but they're phone apps where your phone is the main device to use them on not the computer. That's a big difference this decade.

When smart phones first came out, they weren't affordable to everyone and were contract only, now most people can have one and they do just about everything.

Privacy is a thing of the past too, and that's the scary part.

So far I see nothing other than it being the depression generation. 2013 and so far 2014 are pretty lackluster and a bore for music, trends, pop culture, TV.
The only exception is movies, where 2013 was unusually a very good year.
Give it a decade and ask the same question again!

This decade is the decade of hipsters, smartphones, and the internet. In this decade, technology became an essential part of many people's lives. In the '00s, I often went without computers for a few days.

This decade is the decade of hipsters, smartphones, and the internet. In this decade, technology became an essential part of many people's lives. In the '00s, I often went without computers for a few days.

I didn't often go without my computer, but my first cell phone was in 2004 and you could just make calls and play games on it...and I didn't know how to play the games or mess with the settings because they were not user friendly at all.  >:(

This decade is the decade of hipsters, smartphones, and the internet. In this decade, technology became an essential part of many people's lives. In the '00s, I often went without computers for a few days.


That's all we do these days, we rely on the internet more than ever.

IMO the 2000's didn't have an identity, the first half was a leftover from the 90's and the last 2 years were not very 2000's-like. The 2010's have an identity because it's all about electropop and a very defined group of fashion trends. Just like disco was prevalent in the 70's, new wave in the 80's and grunge in the 90's. The 2000's didn't have a music style of its own.


The 2000s did have a musical identity.  It was hip-hop and r&b definitively.  Also, in retrospect 2008 and 2009 fit more with the 2000s than they do the '10s.

That's all we do these days, we rely on the internet more than ever.
Not all the time, I still have my reference books.

Not all the time, I still have my reference books.


and I still have my reference newspapers.

You can reference deez nutz.

Yes, I think they do because I have seen the hipster trend going mainstream. Smartphones are used everyday for almost everything. Ipads/Tabs are used as a sub for PCs. Social Media is stronger than before with billions of people using it everyday. Lot of people are going to the gym to be healthy and fit. The LGBT are being accepted more. Most of the music is independent. Online gaming is expanding. Everyone is now watching TV and movies on either Netflix. Hulu, or Amazon. The fashion has changed significantly with women having short hair, everyone getting tatted, nerd glasses, leggings, etc. Last, there is the selfie trend with the photo taking comprised of one person or groups of people of themselves.

The 2000s did have a musical identity.  It was hip-hop and r&b definitively.  Also, in retrospect 2008 and 2009 fit more with the 2000s than they do the '10s.


They seem in between the two eras. I think the last of the 00s was summer 2008, before the crash happened. That was the last time it felt relatively care free compared to now.
Here are some interesting predictions made in early 06 about 2008:

I wonder if 2007 or 2008 will be more definitive.  I think in 2008, the '00s will go out with a bang, when the Democrats win the election.  Electric atmosphere than, than after things will change during the next 4 years or so.  Like how the '80s didn't really start becoming the '90s until Reagan was gone

Social Media is stronger than before with billions of people using it everyday.

people use it now to get in touch with others.

people use it now to get in touch with others.
Especially from the other side of the world.

Everyone is now watching TV and movies on either Netflix. Hulu, or Amazon.

They quit cable channels.

They quit cable channels.
I am not watching them.

I am not watching them.


My father loves Netflix.

My father loves Netflix.
You have to pay for that service here.

Like how the '80s didn't really start becoming the '90s until Reagan was gone

Oh my god...

They seem in between the two eras. I think the last of the 00s was summer 2008, before the crash happened. That was the last time it felt relatively care free compared to now.
Here are some interesting predictions made in early 06 about 2008:
The economy actually crashed in late '07 and got worse throughout '08.

The economy actually crashed in late '07 and got worse throughout '08.


It actually crashed in fall 2008

"On September 16, 2008, failures of massive financial institutions in the United States, due primarily to exposure of securities of packaged subprime loans and credit default swaps issued to insure these loans and their issuers, rapidly devolved into a global crisis resulting in a number of bank failures in Europe and sharp reductions in the value of equities (stock) and commodities worldwide. The failure of banks in Iceland resulted in a devaluation of the Icelandic króna and threatened the government with bankruptcy. Iceland was able to secure an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund in November. In the United States, 15 banks failed in 2008, while several others were rescued through government intervention or acquisitions by other banks. On October 11, 2008, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the world financial system was teetering on the "brink of systemic meltdown.""

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market_crash#Crash_of_2008.E2.80.932009

I think this marked the end of an era as well as the Obama election.