Most people consider 2008 the start of the cultural 2010s.  I am not sure I personally agree with that.  The reasons given for that being the case usually center around the election of Barack Obama and the rise of Lady Gaga to stardom.  With that said, lets take a look at the differences between today and 2008, and then decide if they really are that similar.  If somebody in 2015 was immediately transported back to 2008, I definitely think they would be able to tell it.  Here are a few I can think of.

2008: Windows Vista on a laptop
2015: iPad or Android tablet or Windows 10 on a surface tablet

2008: Most people still had flip-phones (despite the iPhone coming out in 2007)
2015: Everyone has smartphones

2008: Xbox 360/PS3
2015: Xbox ONE/PS4

2008: Scene culture and the end of emo
2015: Hipsters

2008: Rock, hip-hop and r&b
2015: EDM, teen pop, and disco revival

2008: Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video
2015: Neflix, Hulu, Redbox

2008: George W. Bush
2015: Barack Obama

2008: Longer, shaggier hair on guys
2015: Short, parted hair or side buzz for guys

2008: Hannah Montana was at the peak of her Disney fame
2015: Miley Cyrus is a tabloid joke

2008: California voted to ban gay marraige
2015: Gay marriage legal in all 50 states

2008: MySpace and Facebook battle it out for top social media network
2015: MySpace dead and Facebook past its peak (though not yet in decline)

Most people consider 2008 the start of the cultural 2010s.  I am not sure I personally agree with that.  The reasons given for that being the case usually center around the election of Barack Obama and the rise of Lady Gaga to stardom.  With that said, lets take a look at the differences between today and 2008, and then decide if they really are that similar.  If somebody in 2015 was immediately transported back to 2008, I definitely think they would be able to tell it.  Here are a few I can think of.

2008: Windows Vista on a laptop
2015: iPad or Android tablet or Windows 10 on a surface tablet

2008: Most people still had flip-phones (despite the iPhone coming out in 2007)
2015: Everyone has smartphones

2008: Xbox 360/PS3
2015: Xbox ONE/PS4

2008: Scene culture and the end of emo
2015: Hipsters

2008: Rock, hip-hop and r&b
2015: EDM, teen pop, and disco revival

2008: Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video
2015: Neflix, Hulu, Redbox

2008: George W. Bush
2015: Barack Obama

2008: Longer, shaggier hair on guys
2015: Short, parted hair or side buzz for guys

2008: Hannah Montana was at the peak of her Disney fame
2015: Miley Cyrus is a tabloid joke

2008: California voted to ban gay marraige
2015: Gay marriage legal in all 50 states

2008: MySpace and Facebook battle it out for top social media network
2015: MySpace dead and Facebook past its peak (though not yet in decline)


This.

It seems many people tend to forget but 2008 was more like the 2000's than what most people give that era credit for. Now I do agree with most people that in 2008, especially around in the late portion, was when the 10's culture was rapidly starting to emerge, but all in all 2008 is much different than today. Id argue that the change between 2008 & 2015 is larger than 1998 & 2005, lifestyle wise that is

Anyways heres a few more differences from that era:

2008: Reality TV At an all time high

2015: Much more diversity in TV


2008: Much more conservative

2015: Much more liberal


2008: HDTVs start to become popular, SDTVs still dominant

2015: HDTVs are dominant, 4K TVs are starting to become popular


2008: Tweens/Teens were into YouTube

2015: Tweens/Teens are into Vine


2008: Iraq War was still being fought

2015: Post Iraq War


2008: Name brands like Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister are still popular

2015: Thrift Shops and lesser known brands are the 'hip' thing


2008: Baggy/Straight Leg Jeans were popular with guys, Skinny jeans were seen as 'gay' or 'emo'

2015: Straight/Skinny Jeans are popular with guys, Baggy jeans are seen as 'out of touch' or 'retro'


2008: IPOD is at peak of popularity

2015: IPHONE/Androids at peak of popularity

Reading through this, you make a good point. I'd still say 2008 is the beginning of the 2010's culture but it doesn't seem 100% 2010's. It's not really 2000's either like 2004-2006 is. One thing, though, is that Rock hasn't been a huge cultural force since 2007/2008-ish. Hell, I'd argue the last time in-your-face loud Rock guitars were a big thing with the youth was the early 2000's with Pop Punk, Nu Metal and Post-Grunge (even though Alt. Metal was still moderately big during the mid and late 2000's). It's around now and it was around back then but most teens were into Yo Yo Hip Hop and crap like that.

Reading through this, you make a good point. I'd still say 2008 is the beginning of the 2010's culture but it doesn't seem 100% 2010's. It's not really 2000's either like 2004-2006 is. One thing, though, is that Rock hasn't been a huge cultural force since 2007/2008-ish. Hell, I'd argue the last time in-your-face loud Rock guitars were a big thing with the youth was the early 2000's with Pop Punk, Nu Metal and Post-Grunge (even though Alt. Metal was still moderately big during the mid and late 2000's). It's around now and it was around back then but most teens were into Yo Yo Hip Hop and crap like that.


Why isn't it 2000s?  Because Obama was elected that year and Lady Gaga was on the radio?  Because social media was becoming popular? Remember in 2008, it was still half Facebook and half MySpace.  Twitter, Instagram, Vine, etc had not emerged yet. 

There were significant changes that year no doubt, but I think 2008 and even 2009 was more 2000s than it was 2010s.

Rock was still a significant force in 2008.  It wasn't dominant, but significant nonetheless. Scene was going strong and post-grunge stuck around until 2010.

Why isn't it 2000s?  Because Obama was elected that year and Lady Gaga was on the radio?  Because social media was becoming popular? Remember in 2008, it was still half Facebook and half MySpace.  Twitter, Instagram, Vine, etc had not emerged yet. 

There were significant changes that year no doubt, but I think 2008 and even 2009 was more 2000s than it was 2010s.

Rock was still a significant force in 2008.  It wasn't dominant, but significant nonetheless. Scene was going strong and post-grunge stuck around until 2010.


Actually, Twitter's been around since 2006. First time I heard about it was 2008. That's when I remember a lot of celebrities catching on to it. The fact that Facebook, Twitter, the iPhone, Gaga and Perry started popping up makes 2008 feel a bit different than the 2004-2006 era.

You know, I don't know if I can agree of disagree with this. I'll have to look into it. What do I think is that 2008 and 2009 feel pretty different than 2004-2006.

I guess you had Scene, sure but Post-Grunge was dead by 2003/2004. By then, it morphed into Alt. Metal which a lot of people still confuse for Post-Grunge. It's basically Post-Post-Grunge. And yes, that was around until 2010. I actually still see Scene kids around and bands like Falling in Reverse and Bring Me the Horizon (Yuck!) still make music that sells quite a bit.

2008 just marked the beginning of early 2010's culture coming in while it was still predominantly late 2000's culture, but I'd say it wasn't until 2009 or 2010 when early 2010's culture took full effect 100%. It's kinda like how mid 2000's culture started coming in 2003, but 2003 was still predominantly early 2000's culture, but mid 2000's culture didn't take full effect 100% until 2004. 2015 has still been mid 2010's culture like we've been in since 2013.

Actually, Twitter's been around since 2006. First time I heard about it was 2008. That's when I remember a lot of celebrities catching on to it. The fact that Facebook, Twitter, the iPhone, Gaga and Perry started popping up makes 2008 feel a bit different than the 2004-2006 era.


Yeah, unlike Facebook and YouTube, it kind of took Twitter a while to catch on.  It wasn't until the early 2010s that it seemed like everybody was jumping on the bandwagon.  I was personally using Facebook back in 2005.  I had a MySpace but I always liked Facebook better.  For me, Facebook is both a 2000s and 2010s trend rather than explicitly 2010s.  Twitter, Instagram, etc are more true 2010s fads, despite twitter existing during the 2000s.

As for the iPhone, did you know a lot of iPhone users back in 2008?  Most people I knew who were using the original one were tech enthusiasts and people who had a decent income.  You didn't see a lot of children and teenagers with iPhones like you do today.  In the early 2010s, the iPhone expanded from AT&T to Verizon and Sprint and Android phones were released, marking the beginning of the smartphone revolution.  In the beginning, Android brought smartphones to more people than the iPhone did simply because it was so much more affordable.  Remember that back in 2008, if you wanted an iPhone, you had to pay $500 for the entire phone.  AT&T didn't offer plans where you get the phone for $100 with a 2-year contract like they do now.

I am not going to deny that Gaga and Perry were the beginning of early 2010s music, but like everything, music didn't change overnight.  In terms of the musical transition, I believe a much better case can be made for 2009 being the big year rather than 2008.  In the fall of 2009, we had Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, new Miley Cyrus, and Lady Gaga's Fame Monster making a much bigger impact on music than the beginning of electropop the previous year did.


I guess you had Scene, sure but Post-Grunge was dead by 2003/2004. By then, it morphed into Alt. Metal which a lot of people still confuse for Post-Grunge. It's basically Post-Post-Grunge. And yes, that was around until 2010. I actually still see Scene kids around and bands like Falling in Reverse and Bring Me the Horizon (Yuck!) still make music that sells quite a bit.


I have always considered Daughtry and the ilk post-Grunge.  Was it actually alternative metal?

Yeah, unlike Facebook and YouTube, it kind of took Twitter a while to catch on.  It wasn't until the early 2010s that it seemed like everybody was jumping on the bandwagon.  I was personally using Facebook back in 2005.  I had a MySpace but I always liked Facebook better.  For me, Facebook is both a 2000s and 2010s trend rather than explicitly 2010s.  Twitter, Instagram, etc are more true 2010s fads, despite twitter existing during the 2000s.

As for the iPhone, did you know a lot of iPhone users back in 2008?  Most people I knew who were using the original one were tech enthusiasts and people who had a decent income.  You didn't see a lot of children and teenagers with iPhones like you do today.  In the early 2010s, the iPhone expanded from AT&T to Verizon and Sprint and Android phones were released, marking the beginning of the smartphone revolution.  In the beginning, Android brought smartphones to more people than the iPhone did simply because it was so much more affordable.  Remember that back in 2008, if you wanted an iPhone, you had to pay $500 for the entire phone.  AT&T didn't offer plans where you get the phone for $100 with a 2-year contract like they do now.

I am not going to deny that Gaga and Perry were the beginning of early 2010s music, but like everything, music didn't change overnight.  In terms of the musical transition, I believe a much better case can be made for 2009 being the big year rather than 2008.  In the fall of 2009, we had Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, new Miley Cyrus, and Lady Gaga's Fame Monster making a much bigger impact on music than the beginning of electropop the previous year did.

I have always considered Daughtry and the ilk post-Grunge.  Was it actually alternative metal?


I guess it's different for everyone. I just remember seeing stuff on TV in 2008 and 2009 about Selena Gomez's latest tweets or whatever but I do see how it's considered more of a 2010's thing since it didn't have the impact back then as YouTube or even Facebook did.

I knew quite a bit of people. I also remember my 2nd cousins bugging their parents (which would be my first cousins) for iPhones because they were the latest thing. They'd buy the iPod Touch and then they'd want the iPhone.

That is true. 2009 was much more 2010's musically than 2008 was.

Yeah, bands like Daughtry are definitely Alt. Metal. I think Nickelback are the only Post-Grunge band that stayed Post-Grunge and kept up their popularity but even then they leaned towards Alt. Metal on their "All The Right Reasons" onward material. Take that song one song "Animals" for example. That is an Alt. Metal song. Around 2003-2005, bands like Puddle of Mudd, Default, Greenwheel, Staind (who popped up every once in a while but never reclaimed their 2001/2002 success) and a billion others just faded away or changed their sound and couldn't find the same success. Breaking Benjamin is another good example. They started out with that Y2K era Post-Grunge/Pop Punk mix in 2002, got really popular in 2004-2006-ish and by time that happened, they were two feet in the Alt. Metal category.

This.

It seems many people tend to forget but 2008 was more like the 2000's than what most people give that era credit for. Now I do agree with most people that in 2008, especially around in the late portion, was when the 10's culture was rapidly starting to emerge, but all in all 2008 is much different than today. Id argue that the change between 2008 & 2015 is larger than 1998 & 2005, lifestyle wise that is

Anyways heres a few more differences from that era:

2008: Reality TV At an all time high

2015: Much more diversity in TV


2008: Much more conservative

2015: Much more liberal


2008: HDTVs start to become popular, SDTVs still dominant

2015: HDTVs are dominant, 4K TVs are starting to become popular


2008: Tweens/Teens were into YouTube

2015: Tweens/Teens are into Vine


2008: Iraq War was still being fought

2015: Post Iraq War


2008: Name brands like Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister are still popular

2015: Thrift Shops and lesser known brands are the 'hip' thing


2008: Baggy/Straight Leg Jeans were popular with guys, Skinny jeans were seen as 'gay' or 'emo'

2015: Straight/Skinny Jeans are popular with guys, Baggy jeans are seen as 'out of touch' or 'retro'


2008: IPOD is at peak of popularity

2015: IPHONE/Androids at peak of popularity


It''s true. I definitely don't see 2008 as the start of the 2010s. It's very different from now. It makes me realize how lame the current culture is. I hope things change for the better in the coming years.

Yeah, I don't see 2008 as the official beginning of the 2010s.  It's more to the early 2010s what the last third of 1996 was to the late 90s - the period where incoming culture from the following era first began to really roll in, but still not to the point that it was dominant.  Lady Gaga didn't even peak on the charts until 2009, and the electropop movement wasn't totally established until about a year after the release of The Fame.  Late 2008 was the last time snap music was still very popular in the same way late 1996 was the last time pre-Chronic 2001 gangsta rap was still a significant movement, but a lot of songs that were popular early in 2009 were still pretty 2000s-style, especially in the rock category.  The biggest hits of the year tended to lean much more towards the new than the old, but even songs like Boom Boom Pow and Hotel Room Service don't sound purely 2010s.  What ultimately puts 2009 in the early 2010s category for me is, ultimately, far-reaching fundamental factors like Obama being President, Facebook being more popular than MySpace, iPhones being somewhat popular, and the Great Recession being in full effect, but it was still a transitional year first and foremost.

Anyway, here are some of the main comparisons between 2008 and 2015:

2008:  Facebook and MySpace are evenly matched in popularity.
2015:  MySpace is a nostalgic artifact and Facebook has plateaued.

2008:  MacBooks are must-haves for everybody.
2015:  Touchscreen phones and/or tablets are must-haves for everybody.

2008:  Lil' Wayne is the most popular rapper of the day
2015:  The Weeked is the most popular rapper of the day

2008:  Taylor Swift is the new Jewel (Pieces of You era).
2015:  Taylor Swift is the new Jewel (0304 era).

2008:  The Nostalgia Critic reviews cheesy films and tv shows from the 90s and late 80s.
2015:  The Nostalgia Critic crudely recreates films that are still in theaters.

2008:  Iron Man is a cool little film of its own that exceeded everybody's expectations.
2015:  Iron Man is just another superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

2008:  Nintendo is still in the midst of its modern heyday, with Wii and DS hardware + software sales through the roof.
2015:  Nintendo is in a dark period of uncertainty and transition.

2008:  9/11 happened seven years ago.
2015:  The onset of the Great Recession was seven years ago.

2008:  YouTube is quick and accessible.
2015:  YouTube bombards you with ads with every video you watch.

2008:  Hairdos are predominantly neutral.
2015:  It's hip to have a pompadour or side buzz if you're a guy, or a side shave if you're a girl.

2008:  New technology is fun and cutting edge.
2015:  New technology is zombifying everybody.

2008:  The leading Republican Presidential candidate is a well-respected senator who has served in Washington for over two decades.
2015:  The leading Republican Presidential candidate is Biff Tannen from Back to the Future Part II's alternate 1985.

2008:  Popular music is extremely commercial but spans a fairly broad range of genres.
2015:  Popular music is extremely commercial and is either beginner's book EDM or "edgy" trap.

2008:  All of the most popular video games put emphasis on story and "gritty realism" rather than gameplay innovation.  More often than not, they're FPS's.
2015:  All of the most popular video games put emphasis on story and "gritty realism" rather than gameplay innovation.  More often than not, they're FPS's.

Anyway, here are some of the main comparisons between 2008 and 2015:

2008:  Facebook and MySpace are evenly matched in popularity.
2015:  MySpace is a nostalgic artifact and Facebook has plateaued.

2008:  MacBooks are must-haves for everybody.
2015:  Touchscreen phones and/or tablets are must-haves for everybody.

2008:  Lil' Wayne is the most popular rapper of the day
2015:  The Weeked is the most popular rapper of the day

2008:  Taylor Swift is the new Jewel (Pieces of You era).
2015:  Taylor Swift is the new Jewel (0304 era).

2008:  The Nostalgia Critic reviews cheesy films and tv shows from the 90s and late 80s.
2015:  The Nostalgia Critic crudely recreates films that are still in theaters.

2008:  Iron Man is a cool little film of its own that exceeded everybody's expectations.
2015:  Iron Man is just another superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

2008:  Nintendo is still in the midst of its modern heyday, with Wii and DS hardware + software sales through the roof.
2015:  Nintendo is in a dark period of uncertainty and transition.

2008:  9/11 happened seven years ago.
2015:  The onset of the Great Recession was seven years ago.

2008:  YouTube is quick and accessible.
2015:  YouTube bombards you with ads with every video you watch.

2008:  Hairdos are predominantly neutral.
2015:  It's hip to have a pompadour or side buzz if you're a guy, or a side shave if you're a girl.

2008:  New technology is fun and cutting edge.
2015:  New technology is zombifying everybody.

2008:  The leading Republican Presidential candidate is a well-respected senator who has served in Washington for over two decades.
2015:  The leading Republican Presidential candidate is Biff Tannen from Back to the Future Part II's alternate 1985.

2008:  Popular music is extremely commercial but spans a fairly broad range of genres.
2015:  Popular music is extremely commercial and is either beginner's book EDM or "edgy" trap.

2008:  All of the most popular video games put emphasis on story and "gritty realism" rather than gameplay innovation.  More often than not, they're FPS's.
2015:  All of the most popular video games put emphasis on story and "gritty realism" rather than gameplay innovation.  More often than not, they're FPS's.


I agree with all of these as well.  I also think, like you mentioned, that 2009 was a much bigger transitional year than 2008 was. 

I like how for video games you have the same thing for both years.  Honestly, video games is the one thing that has not evolved since the mid 2000s, even though we are now in a completely new generation of consoles.  The types of games people are playing today are the same games they were playing 8 years ago (i.e. Call of Duty).  The exception to that is that party games like Guitar Hero and Rockband were huge in 2008, but aren't as popular today.

2008 was a seminal year. If I were transported back to that year i would definitely tell the difference. Things changed quite a lot between 2008-2015 and pardon the cliche but midpoint of those two years brought forth much of what is in the zeitgeist of today, snapchat, instagram. Thinking back I first heard of twitter in the spring of 09 and it really caught on during july 2009 with the death of MJ which was spread quickly by tweets. Ahh off topic Lol. but 2008 in my opinion is what i would call i highly evolved 2000s year. culturally with phones and music there were still links to the mid aughts. Myspace was still a factor but was shrinking away. Facebook was gaining influence and was either equal to myspace or surpassing it.

2008 was the first year of the 2010s or at the very least was a true tranistionary year.  Even more so than 2009 which in my mind i see as just the second part of 08 as we went into 2010! 2008 I argue brought forth our current era.

2008 was a seminal year. If I were transported back to that year i would definitely tell the difference. Things changed quite a lot between 2008-2015 and pardon the cliche but midpoint of those two years brought forth much of what is in the zeitgeist of today, snapchat, instagram. Thinking back I first heard of twitter in the spring of 09 and it really caught on during july 2009 with the death of MJ which was spread quickly by tweets. Ahh off topic Lol. but 2008 in my opinion is what i would call i highly evolved 2000s year. culturally with phones and music there were still links to the mid aughts. Myspace was still a factor but was shrinking away. Facebook was gaining influence and was either equal to myspace or surpassing it.

2008 was the first year of the 2010s or at the very least was a true tranistionary year.  Even more so than 2009 which in my mind i see as just the second part of 08 as we went into 2010! 2008 I argue brought forth our current era.


Your two paragraphs somewhat contradict each other.  First, you say that 2008 was a highly evolved 2000s year, which I agree with.  Most music in 2008 still had links to the mid '00s but was a little more evolved.  The exception was Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, which I would consider transformative artists.  They were more popular in 2009 than they were in 2008.  The big shift in music occurred in 2009, specifically the fall of that year, when electropop took over in full force. 

Then you go on to say that 2008 was the first year of the '10s and brought forth the current culture.  I strongly disagree with that.  First, I believe 2012 brought forth our current culture which became fully evident in 2013.  What 2008 did bring about is the early 2010s recession-era culture that lasted roughly 2009-mid 2012.  Notice I didn't include 2008 in that because like you said in the first paragraph, 2008 belongs with the '00s.

Then you go on to say that 2008 was the first year of the '10s and brought forth the current culture.  I strongly disagree with that.  First, I believe 2012 brought forth our current culture which became fully evident in 2013.  What 2008 did bring about is the early 2010s recession-era culture that lasted roughly 2009-mid 2012.  Notice I didn't include 2008 in that because like you said in the first paragraph, 2008 belongs with the '00s.


Well 2013 was the start of mid 2010's culture, so where would the early 2010's culture go? That would have to be before 2012/2013 for sure. 2008 is a late 2000's year I agree with that, however, you can't deny that the earliest signs of early 2010's culture started coming in by the late part of that year, and by 2009 it seemed like early 2010's culture started becoming more and more dominant than late 2000's, about half n' half I'd say. I don't think 2009 and 2010 are that much different culturally, although 2010 was the year the iPad came out, Angry Birds got popular, and the XBOX 360 and PS3 became more popular than the Wii. 2011 is debatably the last full year of late 2000's influences, it marked the end of franchises like Harry Potter or Shrek.

Well 2013 was the start of mid 2010's culture, so where would the early 2010's culture go? That would have to be before 2012/2013 for sure. 2008 is a late 2000's year I agree with that, however, you can't deny that the earliest signs of early 2010's culture started coming in by the late part of that year, and by 2009 it seemed like early 2010's culture started becoming more and more dominant than late 2000's, about half n' half I'd say. I don't think 2009 and 2010 are that much different culturally, although 2010 was the year the iPad came out, Angry Birds got popular, and the XBOX 360 and PS3 became more popular than the Wii. 2011 is debatably the last full year of late 2000's influences, it marked the end of franchises like Harry Potter or Shrek.


Yeah from what I observed the 2007-2008 school year was the last Core 2000's School year while 2008-2009 was a transitional year between core 2000's culture & late 00's/early 10's culture aka electropop culture

Well 2013 was the start of mid 2010's culture, so where would the early 2010's culture go? That would have to be before 2012/2013 for sure. 2008 is a late 2000's year I agree with that, however, you can't deny that the earliest signs of early 2010's culture started coming in by the late part of that year, and by 2009 it seemed like early 2010's culture started becoming more and more dominant than late 2000's, about half n' half I'd say. I don't think 2009 and 2010 are that much different culturally, although 2010 was the year the iPad came out, Angry Birds got popular, and the XBOX 360 and PS3 became more popular than the Wii. 2011 is debatably the last full year of late 2000's influences, it marked the end of franchises like Harry Potter or Shrek.


I would consider early 2010s culture to be mid 2009-mid 2012.  By the middle of 2012 you had 'Call Me Maybe' and 'Gangnam Style', both of which I would consider to be more mid '10s culture.  Late '00s influences hung around until 2011, especially in movies (Harry Potter) and hip-hop, which evolved to its current sound towards the end of 2011.  In 2012 you had the Hunger Games and the superhero craze was in full swing.  The hipster fad had become mainstream by that point.

Yeah from what I observed the 2007-2008 school year was the last Core 2000's School year while 2008-2009 was a transitional year between core 2000's culture & late 00's/early 10's culture aka electropop culture


IMO 2008 as a full year was the transition from core 2000's to late 00's/early 10's culture. I don't consider 2008 as a core 2000's year but it's the quintessential year of the late 2000's without a question.

IMO 2008 as a full year was the transition from core 2000's to late 00's/early 10's culture. I don't consider 2008 as a core 2000's year but it's the quintessential year of the late 2000's without a question.


I think 2007 was the quintessential year of the late 2000s, personally.  Timbaland productions were huge throughout the entire year (as opposed to the first half only), Crank That (Soulja Boy) was a #1 single that year, emo still had a lot of relevance, MySpace was definitely still bigger than Facebook (though 2007 was the first full year the latter was significant), and far more of the decade's most iconic video games, music albums, and movies came out in 2007 than 2008.  The gaming world saw the releases of Call of Duty 4, Super Mario Galaxy, Portal, BioShock, Rock Band, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, and the conclusions of the Metroid Prime and Halo trilogies.  In film, 2007 produced No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Superbad, Juno, The Bourne Ultimatum, the first Michael Bay Transformers movie, Sweeney Todd, Knocked Up, and American Gangster.  Musically, 2007 was probably the best year for indie rock, having seen the releases of Arcade Fire and Arctic Monkeys' sophomore albums, Strawberry Jam, Person Pitch, For Emma, Forever Ago; Boxer, Icky Thump, and Radiohead's seminal In Rainbows album; 2008 can't match up nearly as well in that sense.  There were also popular releases by Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Avril Lavigne, Linkin Park, Common, and the Foo Fighters, among others.

2008 did have some important late 2000s culture, like Obamanania, The Dark Knight, and the initial onset of the Great Recession, but to me, it felt more like the dry purgatory period still awaiting the onset of early 2010s culture.

IMO 2010s culture didn't begin until 2011. "Pants On the Ground" still feels like a 2000s relic, and that happened in 2010.

2008: Nickelodeon more or less pretends its old shows don't exist.
2011: Nickelodeon launches The 90s Are All That on TeenNick.
2015: TeenNick rebrands The 90s Are All That as The Splat and expands the lineup, keeping it nostalgic and predominantly 90s.

2008: Power Rangers on life support under Disney's ownership.
2015: Power Rangers nearly as big as it was in 1993-1995, with a new movie in 2017.

2008: Osama Bin Laden, Gaddafi, and Kim Jong-Il are alive.
2015: Osama Bin Laden, Gaddafi, and Kim Jong-Il are dead.

2008: Biggest film of the year: The Dark Knight
2015: Biggest films of the year: Jurassic World and Star Wars

2008: Myspace and Facebook dominate social media.
2015: Myspace is more of a ghost town that Adam Lambert's heart, while Facebook and Twitter keep beating.

2008: American Idol still popular
2015: American Idol ending; The X Factor mildly popular(ish), cancelled in US after three seasons; The Voice overwhelmingly popular

2008: TRL ends
2015: Virtually no music on MTV at all, save for the VMAs and/or the Movie Awards, or when (big MTV music star a la Michael Jackson) dies.

2000s: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street each had at least one installment released; Halloween and Friday the 13th had at least two.
2010s: As of 2015, only A Nightmare on Elm Street has had a film come out this decade.

2008: Rock music still popular via Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
2015: What's rock?

2008: iTunes, MP3s, and CDs
2015: Pono, FLAC, DSD, vinyl

2008: Super Audio CD (SACD) becomes obsolete.
2015: DSD (the file format used for SACD) is finally becoming popular

2008: Breaking Bad and Mad Men
2015: Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead

2008: Lots of gory horror remakes
2015: Lots of suspenseful slow-burn originals, some going for a 70s-80s feel.

2008: Slasher remakes are in
2015: Ghosts/supernatural entities are popular

2008: Economy tanks
2015: Economy slowly but surely recovering

2008: Republican President is an idiot
2015: Republican presidential front-runner is a rich idiot

2008: A James Cameron movie is the highest grossing movie of all time.
2015: A (different) James Cameron movie is the highest grossing movie of all time.

1980s: Conservative
1990s: Liberal
2000s: Conservative
2010s: Liberal

1990s: People are more easygoing and can take a joke
2000s: People take things too seriously
2010s: People are too PC and easily offended

2008: David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien (On NBC)
2015: Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmell, Conan O'Brien (This time on TBS)

And that's just scratching the surface.

IMO 2010s culture didn't begin until 2011. "Pants On the Ground" still feels like a 2000s relic, and that happened in 2010.

2008: Nickelodeon more or less pretends its old shows don't exist.
2011: Nickelodeon launches The 90s Are All That on TeenNick.
2015: TeenNick rebrands The 90s Are All That as The Splat and expands the lineup, keeping it nostalgic and predominantly 90s.

2008: Power Rangers on life support under Disney's ownership.
2015: Power Rangers nearly as big as it was in 1993-1995, with a new movie in 2017.

2008: Osama Bin Laden, Gaddafi, and Kim Jong-Il are alive.
2015: Osama Bin Laden, Gaddafi, and Kim Jong-Il are dead.

2008: Biggest film of the year: The Dark Knight
2015: Biggest films of the year: Jurassic World and Star Wars

2008: Myspace and Facebook dominate social media.
2015: Myspace is more of a ghost town that Adam Lambert's heart, while Facebook and Twitter keep beating.

2008: American Idol still popular
2015: American Idol ending; The X Factor mildly popular(ish), cancelled in US after three seasons; The Voice overwhelmingly popular

2008: TRL ends
2015: Virtually no music on MTV at all, save for the VMAs and/or the Movie Awards, or when (big MTV music star a la Michael Jackson) dies.

2000s: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street each had at least one installment released; Halloween and Friday the 13th had at least two.
2010s: As of 2015, only A Nightmare on Elm Street has had a film come out this decade.

2008: Rock music still popular via Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
2015: What's rock?

2008: iTunes, MP3s, and CDs
2015: Pono, FLAC, DSD, vinyl

2008: Super Audio CD (SACD) becomes obsolete.
2015: DSD (the file format used for SACD) is finally becoming popular

2008: Breaking Bad and Mad Men
2015: Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead

2008: Lots of gory horror remakes
2015: Lots of suspenseful slow-burn originals, some going for a 70s-80s feel.

2008: Slasher remakes are in
2015: Ghosts/supernatural entities are popular

2008: Economy tanks
2015: Economy slowly but surely recovering

2008: Republican President is an idiot
2015: Republican presidential front-runner is a rich idiot

2008: A James Cameron movie is the highest grossing movie of all time.
2015: A (different) James Cameron movie is the highest grossing movie of all time.

1980s: Conservative
1990s: Liberal
2000s: Conservative
2010s: Liberal

1990s: People are more easygoing and can take a joke
2000s: People take things too seriously
2010s: People are too PC and easily offended

2008: David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien (On NBC)
2015: Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmell, Conan O'Brien (This time on TBS)

And that's just scratching the surface.


There's one thing you got completely wrong. Rock music is not dead, it's in a state of dormancy. There is still a possibility of rock becoming popular in the future.

I've given this quite a bit of thought and I think that 2007 to mid-2012 is it's own transition era. 2007-2010 being more 00's where as 2011 and early-mid 2012 being more 10's.

There's one thing you got completely wrong. Rock music is not dead, it's in a state of dormancy. There is still a possibility of rock becoming popular in the future.


Also, Power Rangers, while it has seen somewhat of a resurgence, is nowhere near what it was in the mid-90s. Power Rangers mania during the MMPR era was on par with Pokemania during the Y2K era.

I would say that MP3 is still the dominant music format. CD was already on its way out in 2008 and is even less popular today. Vinyl has seen a resurgence but is still a niche market.

Also, what James Cameron movie is the top grossing film of 2015? Jurassic World wasn't directed by James Cameron.

Other than that, I agree with most of the differences he pointed out.

Also, what James Cameron movie is the top grossing film of 2015? Jurassic World wasn't directed by James Cameron.

He was referring to Avatar, which was the highest-grossing movie of all time, not for that specific year.  In 2008, the highest-grossing movie ever was still Titanic.

2008: America voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.
2015: That very same candidate we voted for is still in office today at the very end of his second term.

2008: What little rock was left was mostly of the emo and pop variety.
2015: Indie rock, which emerged in the 2000s, has become mainstream. It's in the forms of folk, electronic, dance, soft, acoustic, neo-psychedelia, and hard.

2008: The Millennial gay rights movement was just getting started.
2015: The Millennials gay rights movement has pretty much ended.

2008: Guitar Hero and Rock Band were the most anticipated releases of the year.
2015: No game in my head immediately comes to mind that has such a large mainstream following that is highly anticipated.

2008: Skinny jeans were nearing their peak (which would occur in 2009).
2015: Skinny jeans are almost out.

2008: Neon colors
2015: Neutrals

2008: Low-rise was the style of the day.
2015: High-rise is becoming the norm (finally!).

2008: Neon hipsters (nearing their peak)
2015: Earthy hipsters (past their peak)

2008: Fast fashion clothing stores like Forever 21, Zara, and H&M are the new normal.
2015: American corporation Gap Inc. is becoming the new normal.

2008: Hip-hop reached its commercial peak; received a boost in quality in the second half of the year, beginning a miniature "Hip-Hop Renaissance".
2015: Very little hip-hop is good. The quality has moved to other genres.

2008: Music was getting faster and more synthetic -- to the point were slow songs = bad.
2015: Slow songs are cool again. Mid tempo is more popular than uptempo.

2008: Scene kids, Guidos, Emos, and Neon Hipsters; almost entirely counterculture for anyone under the age of 25.
2015: Business Casual (25+); Athleisure (anti-fashion); Prep (mainstream) and Earthy Hipster (counterculture).

2008: The Hollywood eating disorder stick-skinny girls trend was at its worst.
2015: It's gotten better, but it's still not that great.

2008: The Great Recession.
2015: The American economy is getting better, but not as good as it was in 2014-early 2015.

2008: America voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.
2015: That very same candidate we voted for is still in office today at the very end of his second term.

2008: What little rock was left was mostly of the emo and pop variety.
2015: Indie rock, which emerged in the 2000s, has become mainstream. It's in the forms of folk, electronic, dance, soft, acoustic, neo-psychedelia, and hard.

2008: The Millennial gay rights movement was just getting started.
2015: The Millennials gay rights movement has pretty much ended.

2008: Guitar Hero and Rock Band were the most anticipated releases of the year.
2015: No game in my head immediately comes to mind that has such a large mainstream following that is highly anticipated.

2008: Skinny jeans were nearing their peak (which would occur in 2009).
2015: Skinny jeans are almost out.

2008: Neon colors
2015: Neutrals

2008: Low-rise was the style of the day.
2015: High-rise is becoming the norm (finally!).

2008: Neon hipsters (nearing their peak)
2015: Earthy hipsters (past their peak)

2008: Fast fashion clothing stores like Forever 21, Zara, and H&M are the new normal.
2015: American corporation Gap Inc. is becoming the new normal.

2008: Hip-hop reached its commercial peak; received a boost in quality in the second half of the year, beginning a miniature "Hip-Hop Renaissance".
2015: Very little hip-hop is good. The quality has moved to other genres.

2008: Music was getting faster and more synthetic -- to the point were slow songs = bad.
2015: Slow songs are cool again. Mid tempo is more popular than uptempo.

2008: Scene kids, Guidos, Emos, and Neon Hipsters; almost entirely counterculture for anyone under the age of 25.
2015: Business Casual (25+); Athleisure (anti-fashion); Prep (mainstream) and Earthy Hipster (counterculture).

2008: The Hollywood eating disorder stick-skinny girls trend was at its worst.
2015: It's gotten better, but it's still not that great.

2008: The Great Recession.
2015: The American economy is getting better, but not as good as it was in 2014-early 2015.


I really hope the whole "earthy hipster" look is really past it's peak. I see it dying out aroun 2017/2018. Hopefully music will be better by that point too, though I don't think things will get significantly better until 2021ish.

As for indie rock, most of these bands are barely "rock". I'll admit, Mumford and Sons most recent album is a bit rockier. However overall, these groups are more pop than rock. For example, I would consider groups like Imagine Dragons to be indie pop or folk pop, but they definitely aren't rock. Groups like CHVRCHES would be synthpop or electronic, but not rock.

Hopefully something meatier replaces this wave of hipster pop groups in the future. That's why I prefer looking for music outside the mainstream nowadays. Not because I hate mainstream music, but because we seem to be in the "Dark Age" of mainstream music. Hell, I'd argue that we're in a "Dark Age" of entertainment in general. I really hope the late 2010s starts the move away from this current culture.

2008: Iraq War was still being fought

2015: ISIS


Fixed ;D



I guess it's different for everyone. I just remember seeing stuff on TV in 2008 and 2009 about Selena Gomez's latest tweets or whatever but I do see how it's considered more of a 2010's thing since it didn't have the impact back then as YouTube or even Facebook did.
Wow really? I never ever even heard of mych less saw twitter on TV. TV was only just acknowledging youtube's growing popularity at the time.

2008: 720p TV's were becoming popular
2015: 1080p is standard, moving onto 4k

2008: Hiphop, specifically Alternative, dominated the airways with Kanye, Lupe fiasco and k-os dropping record albums. Emo, post grunge and nu-metal were still around. Plus some foreign language artists had hits over here. 
2015: Mostly mellowed out EDM, trap and a few smatterings of disco revival.

2008: Classic Internet 2.0
2015: Internet 3.0 of things. Streaming and cloud services are everywhere, and people from home can make thousands off the Web through ideas.

2008:Experimental films like Speed racer, Mama mia and Beowulf. Plus a new Batman film.
2015: Mostly superhero films and remakes.

I really hope the whole "earthy hipster" look is really past it's peak. I see it dying out aroun 2017/2018. Hopefully music will be better by that point too, though I don't think things will get significantly better until 2021ish.


Look around you. I am constantly around young people my age at work and school -- the hipster look is out of style. Hairstyles such as the side-buzz and man bun are no where near as big as they were before. The matronly and old man-ish prints and patterns on clothing are no longer around. It's all about solid colors now. Any prints on the clothes are unnoticeable. A big trend for women is robe-sweaters (which started in 2014). Guys are wearing turtlenecks again. Leather jackets are also back in style.

I don't get why you think that music will get miraculously better in 2021. That is very far away. 2011 was already a pretty big transitional year for music like 1991 was but in a very different way. Instead of albums like "Nevermind" and "Achtung Baby" you had "21" and "Cole World: The Sideline Story". And instead of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", you had "We Found Love", both of which convinced the industry to try new genres (grunge instead of hair metal, actual EDM instead of electropop).


As for indie rock, most of these bands are barely "rock". I'll admit, Mumford and Sons most recent album is a bit rockier. However overall, these groups are more pop than rock. For example, I would consider groups like Imagine Dragons to be indie pop or folk pop, but they definitely aren't rock. Groups like CHVRCHES would be synthpop or electronic, but not rock.


Might as well call Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gin Blossoms, U2, The Wallflowers, Oasis, and Blind Melon "pop" also.  ::) "Pop" actually originated as a watered-down spin-off of Rock'n'Roll in the late 1950's. It evolved into a genre of music that just reflects what current trends are in popular music while focusing on lyrical themes such as love and relationships. You seem to only think true rock is that of an aggressive and extremely abrasive nature, such as grunge and punk. But that's only a very small portion of the case. Imagine Dragons is not pop. Sure, they have pop hooks, but every successful song has that. Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Nirvana have that. Imagine Dragons are mostly two extremes. "Radioactive" is an electronic rock power ballad (albeit a fast one at 137 BPM), "It's Time" is an Indie Folk/Folk-Rock song, "Demons" is more of a Power Pop/Alternative Hip-Hop hybrid. "I Bet My Life" is folk-rock. Recent hits such as Matt McAndrew's "The Blower's Daughter" and Sawyer Fredericks's "Please" are also rock, but of the acoustic and soft variety of the former and latter.

You want to know what's actually pop? Avril Lavigne, Saving Jane, Howie Day, Ryan Cabrera, Nickelback, Hoobastank, The Click Five, Teddy Geiger, and My Chemical Romance. And by the way, CHVRCHES is not mainstream music. They are alternative (aka not mainstream). And their genre is Indietronica (independent electronica), not synthpop.


Hopefully something meatier replaces this wave of hipster pop groups in the future. That's why I prefer looking for music outside the mainstream nowadays. Not because I hate mainstream music, but because we seem to be in the "Dark Age" of mainstream music. Hell, I'd argue that we're in a "Dark Age" of entertainment in general. I really hope the late 2010s starts the move away from this current culture.


I don't get what you mean by "meatier". "Hipster pop groups"? "Dark Age of mainstream entertainment"? You don't know what you're talking about. Everything we have now is certainly one hell of a lot better than the early 2010's. The aughts also. That was the poster child of aiming for the lowest common denominator. You had movies like Spider-Man 3, The Simpsons Movie, Stardust, The Golden Compass, Knocked Up, The Scary Movie series, non-Pixar Disney animated films, and Daredevil. Songs like "Laddy Taffy", "Crank That", "Chasing Cars", and "Party Rock Anthem" dominate the charts. None of which are respected today. I can hardly find any good tv shows from that period. Almost all of it was reality tv. The kid culture of the 2000s was better than the mainstream culture! You seem to be straight-up out of touch. While our current culture isn't golden, I can appreciate it because it's a definite improvement over what we have had in the recent past (2000's/early 2010s).

I don't get why you think that music will get miraculously better in 2021. That is very far away. 2011 was already a pretty big transitional year for music like 1991 was but in a very different way. Instead of albums like "Nevermind" and "Achtung Baby" you had "21" and "Cole World: The Sideline Story". And instead of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", you had "We Found Love", both of which convinced the industry to try new genres (grunge instead of hair metal, actual EDM instead of electropop).


What makes you believe 2011 was a transition year for music? I thought 2012 was more of a transition, from the electropop era to the modern teen pop era?

Look around you. I am constantly around young people my age at work and school -- the hipster look is out of style. Hairstyles such as the side-buzz and man bun are no where near as big as they were before. The matronly and old man-ish prints and patterns on clothing are no longer around. It's all about solid colors now. Any prints on the clothes are unnoticeable. A big trend for women is robe-sweaters (which started in 2014). Guys are wearing turtlenecks again. Leather jackets are also back in style.

You must be looking for fashion to change or something because it doesn't seem to me like hairdos and apparel today are all that different from what they had been the past couple of years and a half.

I don't get why you think that music will get miraculously better in 2021. That is very far away. 2011 was already a pretty big transitional year for music like 1991 was but in a very different way. Instead of albums like "Nevermind" and "Achtung Baby" you had "21" and "Cole World: The Sideline Story". And instead of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", you had "We Found Love", both of which convinced the industry to try new genres (grunge instead of hair metal, actual EDM instead of electropop).

I agree with mqg96 that 2011 wasn't really that transitional a year for music the way 2012 was.  I don't even see how We Found Love is such a turning point for music, considering it's just another song by already established artists Rihanna and Calvin Harris.  I always thought Call Me Maybe was the jumping the shark moment for 2010s pop (technically, it's from 2011, but it didn't achieve international success until the following year).

Might as well call Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gin Blossoms, U2, The Wallflowers, Oasis, and Blind Melon "pop" also.  ::) "Pop" actually originated as a watered-down spin-off of Rock'n'Roll in the late 1950's. It evolved into a genre of music that just reflects what current trends are in popular music while focusing on lyrical themes such as love and relationships. You seem to only think true rock is that of an aggressive and extremely abrasive nature, such as grunge and punk. But that's only a very small portion of the case. Imagine Dragons is not pop. Sure, they have pop hooks, but every successful song has that. Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Nirvana have that. Imagine Dragons are mostly two extremes. "Radioactive" is an electronic rock power ballad (albeit a fast one at 137 BPM), "It's Time" is an Indie Folk/Folk-Rock song, "Demons" is more of a Power Pop/Alternative Hip-Hop hybrid. "I Bet My Life" is folk-rock. Recent hits such as Matt McAndrew's "The Blower's Daughter" and Sawyer Fredericks's "Please" are also rock, but of the acoustic and soft variety of the former and latter.

You want to know what's actually pop? Avril Lavigne, Saving Jane, Howie Day, Ryan Cabrera, Nickelback, Hoobastank, The Click Five, Teddy Geiger, and My Chemical Romance. And by the way, CHVRCHES is not mainstream music. They are alternative (aka not mainstream). And their genre is Indietronica (independent electronica), not synth pop.

Hang on, Gin Blossoms, The Wallflowers, U2, etc. aren't pop, but Avril Lavigne, Saving Jane, Hoobastank, My Chemical Romance, and the like are?  It seems more like you're trying to contrast the nature of mainstream 90s bands from 2000s ones in general.  The bands you listed are all pop-rock, meaning they're unmistakably of the rock genre, but they're also accessible and radio-friendly.  The 2000s were just a shallower and more commercial decade for mainstream music in general, with a far greater bulk of the most respected bands coming from the indie scene than in the 90s, when the most popular bands would have achieved mainstream success, if not in America, at least in Great Britain.  It's not necessarily a matter of quality, and being in a completely different caliber of quality and originality (though I personally really like Avril Lavigne) doesn't mean being in a different genre altogether.  Whatever the case, you certainly can't compare the Gin Blossoms, The Wallflowers, or the like to bands like Fear Factory or Tool, nor are Hoobastank, early Avril Lavigne, or My Chemical Romance nearly the same type of music as Beyoncé, Britney Spears, or Fergie.

As for current indie-pop groups like Imagine Dragons, I think musicguy93's main point was that they weren't just swamped up in electronic synthesizers and drum machines, but pretty much weren't rock at all.  Unlike Hoobastank or pre-comeback Fall Out Boy, Imagine Dragons lack the traditional rock style in their very instrumentation, not just their song structures or lyrical content compared to 70s bands like Led Zeppelin.  Groups like Paramore and the aforementioned Fall Out Boy are now following that direction, going full-on electronic when they were originally pop-rock.

I don't get what you mean by "meatier". "Hipster pop groups"? "Dark Age of mainstream entertainment"? You don't know what you're talking about. Everything we have now is certainly one hell of a lot better than the early 2010's. The aughts also. That was the poster child of aiming for the lowest common denominator. You had movies like Spider-Man 3, The Simpsons Movie, Stardust, The Golden Compass, Knocked Up, The Scary Movie series, non-Pixar Disney animated films, and Daredevil. Songs like "Laddy Taffy", "Crank That", "Chasing Cars", and "Party Rock Anthem" dominate the charts. None of which are respected today. I can hardly find any good tv shows from that period. Almost all of it was reality tv. The kid culture of the 2000s was better than the mainstream culture! You seem to be straight-up out of touch. While our current culture isn't golden, I can appreciate it because it's a definite improvement over what we have had in the recent past (2000's/early 2010s).

This paragraph is entirely subjective, and considering all of us here were old enough to have completely remembered 2000s culture, I'm pretty sure musicguy93 knows what he's talking about.  You're apparently just mentioning specific things that you personally disliked from the 2000s and early 2010s, much of it not even bad by any means (The Simpsons Movie? Chasing Cars? Stardust?).  While I can agree things like the snap movement and the Great Recession were horrible stains on the mid-late 2000s and early 2010s, respectively, both of those periods produced a ton of wonderful media that I wish had never ended or changed.

For me personally, new technology like YouTube and Wikipedia was still really exciting at the time, and web series such as The Angry Video Game Nerd, The Nostalgia Critic, Smosh, and others were still in the midst of their golden periods, producing a lot of really funny episodes at a fast pace.  Nowadays, they've either slowed down tremendously or just changed in structure.  I also far prefer music from the late 2000s and early 2010s over the shallow, one-note EDM we have now (although the 2005/2006 school year is right down there with the mid 2010s).  People in general also weren't so phone-centric, nor were they jackhammering their politically correct biases down your throat everywhere you went.

I know you want us to focus on the positive instead of the negative, but I think everybody already knows to do that, and they're also sure that pop culture certainly isn't on the ups now the way it was merely a few years ago.

Might as well call Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gin Blossoms, U2, The Wallflowers, Oasis, and Blind Melon "pop" also.  ::) "Pop" actually originated as a watered-down spin-off of Rock'n'Roll in the late 1950's. It evolved into a genre of music that just reflects what current trends are in popular music while focusing on lyrical themes such as love and relationships. You seem to only think true rock is that of an aggressive and extremely abrasive nature, such as grunge and punk. But that's only a very small portion of the case. Imagine Dragons is not pop. Sure, they have pop hooks, but every successful song has that. Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Nirvana have that. Imagine Dragons are mostly two extremes. "Radioactive" is an electronic rock power ballad (albeit a fast one at 137 BPM), "It's Time" is an Indie Folk/Folk-Rock song, "Demons" is more of a Power Pop/Alternative Hip-Hop hybrid. "I Bet My Life" is folk-rock. Recent hits such as Matt McAndrew's "The Blower's Daughter" and Sawyer Fredericks's "Please" are also rock, but of the acoustic and soft variety of the former and latter.

You want to know what's actually pop? Avril Lavigne, Saving Jane, Howie Day, Ryan Cabrera, Nickelback, Hoobastank, The Click Five, Teddy Geiger, and My Chemical Romance. And by the way, CHVRCHES is not mainstream music. They are alternative (aka not mainstream). And their genre is Indietronica (independent electronica), not synthpop.


Imagine Dragons is not Pop but Nickelback is...?? Yeah, that sure makes a lot of sense.

Post-Grunge is a Rock genre whether you like it or not. Same with My Chemical Romance. They started off as Post-Hardcore (which is another Rock Genre) on their only good album (in my opinion) and then moved onto Pop Rock (which is also still a genre of Rock).

Also, Alternative music has been mainstream since Nevermind hit in 1991. Hell, even when R.E.M. released Document in 1987 Alternative was getting into the Mainstream. And Indie in 2015 is a style of music; it hardly means independent anymore.


I don't get what you mean by "meatier". "Hipster pop groups"? "Dark Age of mainstream entertainment"? You don't know what you're talking about. Everything we have now is certainly one hell of a lot better than the early 2010's. The aughts also. That was the poster child of aiming for the lowest common denominator. You had movies like Spider-Man 3, The Simpsons Movie, Stardust, The Golden Compass, Knocked Up, The Scary Movie series, non-Pixar Disney animated films, and Daredevil. Songs like "Laddy Taffy", "Crank That", "Chasing Cars", and "Party Rock Anthem" dominate the charts. None of which are respected today. I can hardly find any good tv shows from that period. Almost all of it was reality tv. The kid culture of the 2000s was better than the mainstream culture! You seem to be straight-up out of touch. While our current culture isn't golden, I can appreciate it because it's a definite improvement over what we have had in the recent past (2000's/early 2010s).


If you can't find anything from the 2000's that is respected today, I'd say you're the one who's out of touch, dude. All this here is your opinion so you should probably stop treating it like it's the facts. What's better or worse isn't some set in stone thing. musicguy93 is just as entitled to his viewpoint as you are.

*takes deep breath* I don't want to start an ongoing debate so I'm going to give my final answers. If anyone responds their replies must be as conclusive as mine.


You must be looking for fashion to change or something because it doesn't seem to me like hairdos and apparel today are all that different from what they had been the past couple of years and a half.


I'm not looking for it to change - I'm reporting what I'm seeing at the moment. If you really don't see what I'm seeing, it's regional differences that give us such contrasting views. The United States of America is not a homogeneous country and there will be very different cultures in different regions. Different politics, different music tastes, different racial make-ups, different weather, different landscapes, so why not different fashion? I was just looking up photos from San Diego that were taken over the past four years and especially the current year, and to be honest I can see what you're saying. The clothing that San Diegoans wear is very plain. Boring. The most "edgy" look I found was in this link: http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/San-Diego-Magazine/July-2015/Things-to-Do-July-13-19/ . The people in that top picture look non-conformist with just a hipster twist. Anybody that does look good is not visible, and they're probably in the back of the crowd. If you were to go to a place like San Antonio, Houston, Tampa, or Orlando you would have a much more fun time people watching.

As to what I see, it's definitely more attractive. Where I live, P/leather jackets are everywhere, as well as Vans. For men, I see a lot of khakis, twill pants, regular-fit jeans, boat shoes, pullovers, and sweaters. It's too warm where I live for guys to grow beards here. Among young people, Calvin Klein is cool again. For people of all ages, Gap Inc. is cool again as well. I think there's a reason for this; both brands have (largely) returned to their style back in the '90s - the styles that made them so popular and relevant back in that decade. Are you sure you don't like A-line skirts and dresses, high-waisted trousers, ankle booties, stack heels, block heels, leather jackets, and cable-knit sweaters? If you don't see any of those things, then it's entirely possible that those kinds of clothing aren't even available at retail. Regarding other stories I've read about your life (and the 2010s), you seem to be poorly located. I don't know you at all, but it seems to me, Miss #Infinty Suburbanite, that San Diego is not right for you. You need to move. A more appropriate place for you to live would be Florida, Virginia, or Pennsylvania. I also don't know your life circumstances, but if appears to be that the wild west is not for you.


Hang on, Gin Blossoms, The Wallflowers, U2, etc. aren't pop, but Avril Lavigne, Saving Jane, Hoobastank, My Chemical Romance, and the like are?  It seems more like you're trying to contrast the nature of mainstream 90s bands from 2000s ones in general.  The bands you listed are all pop-rock, meaning they're unmistakably of the rock genre, but they're also accessible and radio-friendly.  The 2000s were just a shallower and more commercial decade for mainstream music in general, with a far greater bulk of the most respected bands coming from the indie scene than in the 90s, when the most popular bands would have achieved mainstream success, if not in America, at least in Great Britain.  It's not necessarily a matter of quality, and being in a completely different caliber of quality and originality (though I personally really like Avril Lavigne) doesn't mean being in a different genre altogether.  Whatever the case, you certainly can't compare the Gin Blossoms, The Wallflowers, or the like to bands like Fear Factory or Tool, nor are Hoobastank, early Avril Lavigne, or My Chemical Romance nearly the same type of music as Beyoncé, Britney Spears, or Fergie.


As I said earlier, it's not like that. Pop the genre was created in the late 1950's as a watered-down, safer spin-off of Rock'n'Roll. It had the same instrumentation and same structures, just that it was made for the masses who did not feel comfortable with aggressive and rebellious music. Pop also focused more on melodic vocals and harmonies, turning down the music as a result and lyrics were primarliy based on love and relationships. Rock and roll cranked up the music and lyrics were a bit rowdier and more suggestive. Pop moved on from its Rock'n'Roll roots in the 1960's, reflecting whatever current trends in the industry. Two examples: Paul Anka and Odia Coates's "One Woman Man/One Man Woman", while I consider it more "Easy Listening", is pop. It is a mix of what was then-popular being a watered-fusion mix of R&B, Funk, Disco, and even Jazz. Keith Sweat's "Twisted" is pop. It's R&B-based pop, but it's still pop. This song, while a great one, is a perfect representation of what the pop genre is. Its lyrics are based on love and relationships, it reflected the current trend at the time, the vocals are very melodic with great harmonies, the song is very catchy and sing-alongy with memorable hooks, and it is somewhat watered down. It's not as intense as Toni Braxton's "You're Making Me High" and Groove Theory's "Tell Me". Calling something " pop rock" is really a tautological oxymoron, as pop and rock were once the same yet pop was safer, making the term seem redundant. It has been a topic of debate for decades, and people really should know their musical history more.


For me personally, new technology like YouTube and Wikipedia was still really exciting at the time, and web series such as The Angry Video Game Nerd, The Nostalgia Critic, Smosh, and others were still in the midst of their golden periods, producing a lot of really funny episodes at a fast pace.  Nowadays, they've either slowed down tremendously or just changed in structure.  I also far prefer music from the late 2000s and early 2010s over the shallow, one-note EDM we have now (although the 2005/2006 school year is right down there with the mid 2010s).  People in general also weren't so phone-centric, nor were they jackhammering their politically correct biases down your throat everywhere you went.

I know you want us to focus on the positive instead of the negative, but I think everybody already knows to do that, and they're also sure that pop culture certainly isn't on the ups now the way it was merely a few years ago.


For music, I think you should listen to my best of 2014 songs list. About 61 songs. I'd prefer you listen to all of them completely, but if free time is low, then preview-listen to the R&B and Indie songs because I know you'll like all of them. I will be very, very surprised if you dislike any of them.

Regarding technology, things like that are fleeting. I never took YouTubers seriously as all they're doing is making videos and posting them on the internet. It's not a serious job so them "selling out" and doing it for a living just shows laziness on their part. Those people need to go to school.

Regarding smartphone lifestyles and political correctness, both of those things were comfortably set in stone by 2011. I remember thinking in the summer of 2011: "People are glued to their phones these days and they get offended so easily. It's annoying." The current political correctness movement also first seriously started in the late '00s. Honestly, I say what I want regardless if I offend. Both on the internet and in real life. Whenever I post something I usually get a reaction of some kind, a lot of the time negative. One guy on here that was quite frankly a bully and really had a strong dislike for me was Inlandsvagen1986. Pretty much everything I said was offensive to him. He's German, which is stereotyped as the most humorless and uptight nation in the world and is in fact one of the most oppressive countries for free speech. I am completely pro-Free Speech. I am a devout advocate of the first amendment. However, I do not say anything that sounds ludicrous and uneducated. I use proper grammar, a respectable vocabulary, and I think before I say anything. Whether I open my mouth or type on the keyboard, all of it is completely intended. I mean everything I say, which is why I am rarely apologetic for my words. It's also one of the reasons why I truly hate the mainstream press. Regardless of political ideology, they will do anything to fulfill their agenda, which has resulted in the corruption and degradation of journalism. They want to brainwash as many people as possible instead of letting them think for themselves. 20th century journalism was much more professional and actually meant something to the people and actually contributed to making society better.

I'm not looking for it to change - I'm reporting what I'm seeing at the moment. If you really don't see what I'm seeing, it's regional differences that give us such contrasting views. The United States of America is not a homogeneous country and there will be very different cultures in different regions. Different politics, different music tastes, different racial make-ups, different weather, different landscapes, so why not different fashion? I was just looking up photos from San Diego that were taken over the past four years and especially the current year, and to be honest I can see what you're saying. The clothing that San Diegoans wear is very plain. Boring. The most "edgy" look I found was in this link: http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/San-Diego-Magazine/July-2015/Things-to-Do-July-13-19/ . The people in that top picture look non-conformist with just a hipster twist. Anybody that does look good is not visible, and they're probably in the back of the crowd. If you were to go to a place like San Antonio, Houston, Tampa, or Orlando you would have a much more fun time people watching.

You make a very good point, fashion trends vary quite heavily by region.  I'm probably not even the best person to judge fashion even by San Diego standards because I'm not particularly invested in the hip, cutting-edge crowd and pretty much expose myself as much to culture from the 80s, mid-90s, and millennial era as possible, even though I won't give up my MacBook or iPhone.

As to what I see, it's definitely more attractive. Where I live, P/leather jackets are everywhere, as well as Vans. For men, I see a lot of khakis, twill pants, regular-fit jeans, boat shoes, pullovers, and sweaters. It's too warm where I live for guys to grow beards here. Among young people, Calvin Klein is cool again. For people of all ages, Gap Inc. is cool again as well. I think there's a reason for this; both brands have (largely) returned to their style back in the '90s - the styles that made them so popular and relevant back in that decade. Are you sure you don't like A-line skirts and dresses, high-waisted trousers, ankle booties, stack heels, block heels, leather jackets, and cable-knit sweaters? If you don't see any of those things, then it's entirely possible that those kinds of clothing aren't even available at retail. Regarding other stories I've read about your life (and the 2010s), you seem to be poorly located. I don't know you at all, but it seems to me, Miss #Infinty Suburbanite, that San Diego is not right for you. You need to move. A more appropriate place for you to live would be Florida, Virginia, or Pennsylvania. I also don't know your life circumstances, but if appears to be that the wild west is not for you.

Interesting.  What makes you believe Florida, Virginia, and Pennsylvania would be better places for me to live than San Diego?  Ironically, I actually went to college in Pennsylvania and became incredibly desperate to move back to San Diego while I was there, due to the extreme weather and lack of things like good Mexican food, gorgeous beaches, and laid-back atmosphere.

The thing with San Diego, though, is that it's actually an incredibly diverse city.  Most people stereotype it as just a fun-in-the-sun beach community with a strong military presence and lots of tourist attractions, but it becomes an extremely different place depending on what part of the county you visit.  East County cities like Santee, for example, are less than 20 miles away from beach communities like La Jolla and Pacific Beach, yet they have a very arid, semi-redneck type of culture.  The far northern areas near the Riverside County border like Fallbrook and Valley Center are mostly rural developments with lots of avocado farms and gorgeous hills.  In particular, however, most San Diegans will tell you that the city's culture is heavily divided between the two sides of the Interstate 8 - the northern areas are generally wealthier, whiter, and more suburban, whereas the communities south of the 8 are much more culturally diverse and contain most of the city's popular clubs and tourist spots.  I personally grew up in the northern suburbs, which are predominantly white (with some Asians), rich, and politically libertarian.  Usually, I hang around places like La Jolla, Rancho Bernardo, Poway, and Solana Beach.  Occasionally I travel closer to downtown for certain events, but that place isn't really what I consider my "home."  In general, I'm very happy and comfortable in northern San Diego County and don't consider it nearly the same type of Californian community as, say, Los Angeles or Berkeley.

As I said earlier, it's not like that. Pop the genre was created in the late 1950's as a watered-down, safer spin-off of Rock'n'Roll. It had the same instrumentation and same structures, just that it was made for the masses who did not feel comfortable with aggressive and rebellious music. Pop also focused more on melodic vocals and harmonies, turning down the music as a result and lyrics were primarliy based on love and relationships. Rock and roll cranked up the music and lyrics were a bit rowdier and more suggestive. Pop moved on from its Rock'n'Roll roots in the 1960's, reflecting whatever current trends in the industry. Two examples: Paul Anka and Odia Coates's "One Woman Man/One Man Woman", while I consider it more "Easy Listening", is pop. It is a mix of what was then-popular being a watered-fusion mix of R&B, Funk, Disco, and even Jazz. Keith Sweat's "Twisted" is pop. It's R&B-based pop, but it's still pop. This song, while a great one, is a perfect representation of what the pop genre is. Its lyrics are based on love and relationships, it reflected the current trend at the time, the vocals are very melodic with great harmonies, the song is very catchy and sing-alongy with memorable hooks, and it is somewhat watered down. It's not as intense as Toni Braxton's "You're Making Me High" and Groove Theory's "Tell Me". Calling something " pop rock" is really a tautological oxymoron, as pop and rock were once the same yet pop was safer, making the term seem redundant. It has been a topic of debate for decades, and people really should know their musical history more.

I won't deny Keith Sweat's Twisted is pop-r&b (contemporary r&b, to be more precise), but even based on your descriptions of pop, I don't see how groups like Gin Blossoms, The Wallflowers, and the like aren't pop as well.  Gin Blossoms songs were overwhelmingly about relationships, even high schools ones (check out the lyrics to Found Out About You).  They may have far less polished production than later groups like The Fray, but they absolutely qualify as pop-rock.  And speaking of pop-rock, I don't consider it an oxymoron so much as just a middle-ground.  Synthesized pop of the Britney Spears and Michael Jackson variety didn't exist back in the 50s, but slowly emerged over time, establishing itself apart from both rock and r&b/soul by the 1980s.  Groups like the Gin Blossoms balance the raw, unpretentious rock band setup with lyrics, melodies, and image that aren't as outright rebellious as The Smiths or Nirvana.

For music, I think you should listen to my best of 2014 songs list. About 61 songs. I'd prefer you listen to all of them completely, but if free time is low, then preview-listen to the R&B and Indie songs because I know you'll like all of them. I will be very, very surprised if you dislike any of them.

I'll let you know soon after I've gotten the chance to hear all of these songs, but again, just keep in mind it's a subjective thing.  The thing about current pop hits, by the way, is that I don't tend to outright dislike very many songs (aside from, say, Jason Derulo's Wiggle) the way I did with so many 2005/2006 school year tracks, but the vast bulk of them are so aggressively mediocre that they hardly leave any impact on me at all.

Regarding technology, things like that are fleeting. I never took YouTubers seriously as all they're doing is making videos and posting them on the internet. It's not a serious job so them "selling out" and doing it for a living just shows laziness on their part. Those people need to go to school.

They made not have the same studio budget as the most popular Netflix and HBO shows of today, but there's definitely still a level of verbal, intellectual, and directional talent required to produce a online YouTube franchise as popular and entertaining as AVGN or Smosh.  If anything, the homemade, YouTube-geared style of these shows can sometimes work quite in their favor - just compare the popularity of the movies based on the aforementioned series to the episodes themselves.

Regarding smartphone lifestyles and political correctness, both of those things were comfortably set in stone by 2011. I remember thinking in the summer of 2011: "People are glued to their phones these days and they get offended so easily. It's annoying." The current political correctness movement also first seriously started in the late '00s. Honestly, I say what I want regardless if I offend. Both on the internet and in real life. Whenever I post something I usually get a reaction of some kind, a lot of the time negative. One guy on here that was quite frankly a bully and really had a strong dislike for me was Inlandsvagen1986. Pretty much everything I said was offensive to him. He's German, which is stereotyped as the most humorless and uptight nation in the world and is in fact one of the most oppressive countries for free speech. I am completely pro-Free Speech. I am a devout advocate of the first amendment. However, I do not say anything that sounds ludicrous and uneducated. I use proper grammar, a respectable vocabulary, and I think before I say anything. Whether I open my mouth or type on the keyboard, all of it is completely intended. I mean everything I say, which is why I am rarely apologetic for my words. It's also one of the reasons why I truly hate the mainstream press. Regardless of political ideology, they will do anything to fulfill their agenda, which has resulted in the corruption and degradation of journalism. They want to brainwash as many people as possible instead of letting them think for themselves. 20th century journalism was much more professional and actually meant something to the people and actually contributed to making society better.


2011 was when I started college and also when my high school crush blocked me on Facebook (the latter of which set the sour tone of the core 2010s for me personally), but I didn't start truly noticing the abrasively politically correct culture we have now until about the spring semester of 2013.

It depends if you mean the first half of 2008 or the second half because there is a big difference.

To what extent would you say are there hints of the late '00s today?

To what extent would you say are there hints of the late '00s today?


Mostly in terms of technology, as well as social expression, to a smaller degree.  In this regard, the 2010s are to the late 2000s what the early 80s were to the late 70s, in that they have been dominated by things that were already reasonably popular in the late 2000s, but which had not yet peaked in popularity.  These include iPhones, HDTV, YouTube, Blu-Ray, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and hipster trends.

Video games, as bchris02 and I have noted, has hardly changed since the late 2000s.  True, graphics are better and some 2000s franchises like DDR and Guitar Hero, which were still significant seven years ago, are no longer relevant, but the dynamics are otherwise fairly unchanged.

The film industry still has some ties to the late 2000s.  The Marvel Cinematic Universe technically began with Iron Man in 2008, though it didn't truly emerge as a serious thing until The Avengers was announced.  Michael Bay's infamous Transformers franchise is still going strong, as well.

Television is just starting to break away from its late 2000s connections, due to the recent conclusions of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, How I Met Your Mother, and Mad Men, although The Big Bang Theory is still on tv.  More importantly, however, is that Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video series now represent a huge part of the tv industry, in addition to the drastic expansion of popular YouTube channels since the late 2000s.  Even though shows like AVGN, Smosh, Kajetokun, and HISHE were already around in 2007, today's YouTube has something for practically everyone.

Musically, we're in a very different place now than we were in the late 2000s.  Some artists popular today were already famous in 2007, but hardly anyone relevant in the top 40 still adheres to whatever style they had back then.  Katy Perry and Taylor Swift are major examples of this.  Pop rock, in the form of post-grunge and pop punk, was still huge during the 2000s, whereas now it's nothing but an underground thing.  Trap music of today borrows some elements of late 2000s snap, but the two subgenera of rap are still extremely different from each other.  Full-on electronic dance music was not a huge thing in the late 2000s until near decade's end, whereas now it nearly monopolizes the Billboard Hot 100, albeit in a watered-down form compared to the early 2010s.

Overall, I would say that although the late 2000s and present day are unmistakably distinct from one another, the difference is not that great considering, first, the amount of time elapsed between both times, and second, how much present-day culture already existed in 2007 with a fair amount of popularity.  The late 2000s are chronologically equidistant from the whole millennial era, before most people had even adapted to the Internet or owned portable cell phones instead of pagers.  It's harder to trace direct connections between 2007 and 1999 than 2007 and 2015.  I suppose Abercrombie & Fitch clothing, which was big enough in 1999 to earn a reference in LFO's Summer Girls, was still huge in 2007 (though emo and scene fashion were not yet mainstream), not to mention both years mark the beginning and ending points, respectively, of The Sopranos, but otherwise, I find it shocking to believe that the first full year of YouTube and Facebook as a cultural force, plus the introduction of the iPhone and beginning of the 2008 Election Season, is now the midway point between present day and the initial breakthrough of Pokémania, Windows 98, and Britney Spears, during a time that pagers, VHS tapes, and portable CD players were still very common.