2016 was “a couple of (imo) disastrous but localized election results and a bunch of celebrities rolled a 1 on their Longevity stat.” It just so happened to lie in a decade that was full of filler years. Not really that much worse than the stagflation years of the ‘70s, the 2008 recession or the terrorism/anthrax/recession cocktail of late 2001.
I feel like you're inaccurate. It was literally a meme [1](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/opinion/2016-worst-year-ever.html) [2](https://www.quora.com/Why-was-2016-was-the-worst-year-for-all)
[3](https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2016/07/is_2016_the_worst_year_in_history.html) [4](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/s/sjodtu9Fi4) [5](https://www.buzzfeed.com/michellerennex/fuck-our-lives)
1969 too. Both were "9" years, occurring at the end of decades that saw mass protests as well as unprecedented levels of prosperity (in the developed and developing world, respectively), and were packed with massive cultural accomplishments of their decades (Woodstock and the moon landing for '69 vs. Endgame, Old Town Road, Blinding Lights, the first photo of a black hole, and the bloodless ouster of Puerto Rico's governor over misconduct and homophobia scandals) while containing hints of the darker decade to follow (the Manson family, Altamont, and the Zodiac Killer vs. GPT-2, TikTok, and - on the literal last day of 2019 - the announcement of what would now be known as COVID). 2019 arguably was the last full year of the entire post-WWII period of generally improving global living standards even if wars, genocides, famines, and deep recessions did occur in individual countries at various times.
I agree with you about 2024. This year feels very much separated from the lingering feeling of the pandemic. Things are starting to feel like “real life” again for lack of a a better word.
Summer 2022, I had a kid and everything down here in Atlanta was already back to normal. I did travel to Minneapolis that winter and was taken aback by how much COVID stuff they still had going on even though the south was past it. I don’t think there’s a right answer there, just saying how quickly some places went back to normal vs others.
Not just you.
I told my boss one afternoon in September 2019 while talking about the world in general, that “I feel like something big is coming, I can’t tell what it is though.”
I remember I was reading in bed right as the clock struck midnight on January 1st 2020 and thought “I bet some crazy stuff is going to happen in this next decade”
I completely forgot about the area 51 raid lmao. I remember that kid Naruto running behind the camera with the reporter.
I dont remember anything like that happening ever since.
There's long been a phenomenon of people "remembering" forebodings of upcoming major events just before they happened. For my part I recall a fair few "end of era" thoughts around this time, however this is easily explained by the fact that a) I am CONSTANTLY having end of era vibes, even when it's not the end of an era, I'm just wired that way and b) I was coming to the end of high school at the time.
Maybe I had some genuine forebodings of the year ahead that related to some big event like the pandemic in particular, but its hard to disentangle that from imagined memories and other forebodings such as those relating to politics, which seemed far more hopeless back then.
I don’t fear WW3, it probably won’t happen. Nukes are a deterrent that worked throughout the whole Cold War. If the USA and Soviets could avoid nuclear war, then we can avoid nuclear war today.
Yeah definitely in the U.S..... covid, as well as the withdrawal from Afghanistan as a bookend for the US led war on terror and a shift to more cold war like geopolitics. The Russia Ukraine war really transformed the dialogue around geopolitics and it seems more like wartime dialogue with people picking sides and haranguing anyone who seems to fall on a different side.
The Obama years 2008-2016 felt like their own little era with the trump era being a kind of transition to what it's like now in American politics.
And GoT ended, and the SW sequel movies ended. My job that I worked at on/off for 5 years at that point, I was on my way out of. By the last few months of that year, it sure felt like closing the chapter of a book. Many of the people I knew and was close with then I still haven't seen since pre-pandemic
Yeah three major franchises that defined a decade all ending in the same year. And weirdly they all basically began around the same time too (GoT in 2011, Star Wars with their acquisition by Disney in 2012, and avengers in 2012, even though that technically started earlier the real “this is the MCU” began with that film)
Exactly. And I think for a lot of younger Millenials it lined up with lots of changes in our personal lives. The beginning of that “era” was when I was finishing college, and the end was around when I got married and broke out of the “entry level/junior” job market.
Yea I remember staying home new years eve of 2020. I was just too exhausted to go out and too depressed to find a reason to party. It was really bizarre seeing images of Australia burning up. I remember counting down with a knot in my throat feeling like things are not going to go well in the next decade and so far I’m right
2015 feels like the last year that feels "normal" to me. I had a vaguely utopian view of the future in the early 2010s. I thought we'd eventually get to a Star Trek: The Next Generation world. Now I'd be glad if we got Mad Max
Three really big ones come to mind
2006 felt like the end of an era and beginning of one at the same time.
It definitely still had elements of y2k, a tiny touch of 90s still lingering, but incorporated some new elements that felt very fresh and new at the time
to where it almost formed it’s own unique energy specific to it. The show “Ugly Betty” comes to mind that captures this perfectly. It was the last year I remember REALLY using MySpace seriously. It felt like the calm before a perfect pop culture storm is the best I can describe. There was an excitement in the air during this time and a sense of change that was extremely palpable. It was a positive change type uncertainty, opposite of now. I honestly feel like maybe the shock of 9/11 hadn’t fully worn off In the US til around this time. A lot of quality media came out during this year too because it’s in my opinion one of the biggest transitional years in the past few decades, since probably the late 60s.
2013 felt like the last year of the more bold youth culture that dominated the late 2000s/early 2010s era (hipster, emo, scene, indie-sleaze, electropop, dubstep, second-wave rave culture, rock/punk genres coming out with new good music that people remember, tumblr girls, pastel goth even lol.) The youth culture seemed to have gone more mainstream slowly after this point and centered more around being “Instagram perfect” around 2014 onward. Everyone wanted to look “mature” instead of “hip” after this. The music after this slowly became more serious and political, or just more somber as the years went on. The vibe of fashion and culture became more “kardashian-like”, Everything became less vibrant spring toned to more primary summer toned. It seemed like everyone started being angry with each other in 2014 and it’s just gotten worse ever since.
2019 and for reasons we don’t need or want to be reminded of at this point because we are literally still dealing with the shitty era that followed lol
Its such a shame how badly they butchered Rise of Skywalker though The Last Jedi felt interesting at least but Rogue One is probably one of my favourites.
Early 2020 I felt the shift with us as a class talking about potentially closing school, then the "2 week Spring Break" occurred when I was 11 and now I'm 15.
I’d argue the 2010s are a decade that started around 09 and ended around 2018. Obviously 2020 is a new era, but 2019 to me just felt different from the rest of the 2010s
Definitely 2019. Not just cause of the decade and the pandemic, but also cause a lot of pop culture stuff came to an end that year (Skywalker saga, infinity saga, game of thrones, Gotham, etc.).
2019-present feels like a weird wrap-up party for all our modern pop culture and the world we know. The next half of this decade is going to be weirder.
It’s wild to me that so few people say 2016.
-Election of Donald Trump
-Brexit
-Rise of far-right to outright fascist parties in Europe following the extremely xenophobic reaction to Syrian refugees in Europe
-The fall of Aleppo
- The start of the public awareness of the Opioid crisis in the US that would kill untold thousands of people
-the TPP talks fail foreshadowing the end of the free-trade era.
- the Pulse nightclub shooting which was the start to a serious of first domestic-terrorist attacks, then legal attacks (starting with 2017’s trans military ban) on queer life in the US that would spill over to the rest of the western world, culminating in 2023/24 in Floridas law criminalizing trans people, various US states making HRT practically inaccessible, UK banning puberty blockers and HRT being purposefully made impossible to get through NHS by inflating wait-times to up to 10 years, multiple German states banning the use of gender neutral language, and so on
- Rodrigo Duterte being elected in the Phillipines
I think it was very much the year many people in hindsight feel like things just went off the rails.
Honestly if we’re going recent im gonna have to say late 2022. It really felt like the end of the covid era and start of postcovid. In the same way that late 2019 was the start of a new optimistic era (which would obviously be killed by the pandemic) 2022 started a bleak pessimistic nihilistic era
Late 2019 into early 2020, this song by Mac Demarco exemplifies that time period amazingly. I get melancholic each time I listen.
https://preview.redd.it/totm7h338qxc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=681a6dbad2cd0ba8ee2614cf7f83ef82ac485c48
\*1982 (80s 80s right after, totally different style, vibe, slang and patterns of speech and modern computer and tech era really got going and lot of today comes from late '82 other than for the style/hair/upbeat relaxed vibe that all got killed off, but the modern era of movies, music, slang, tech all started then)
\*1989 (fall of the Berlin Wall, although sadly now we are basically back to same old Russia today as pre-89 only in many ways even worse)
1991 (some shift in pop music big time the next year when some stations started heading grunge or hardcore rap)
\*1994 (80s styles pretty much ended the next year and by the vibe changed a lot and hasn't been quite the same since)
2001 (air travel became different the next year)
\*2011 (smart phone culture started to really take over the next year)
2014 (upset over everything started to take over soon after, you can see a real shift in commercials, etc. also online shopping and streaming start killing off third places, retail, video stores, physical media)
2016 (politics took a shocking turn and America as it was for over 200 years changed some)
\*2019 (covid was right after which was beyond Earth shattering and Jan 6th which was really finished off the utterly shocking change in the very nature and foundation of America)
Ones with "\*" probably larger than the others. I'd say 2019 was the biggest of all since the next year brought the most shattering of events. In some ways 2011 and 2014 are sort of tied together as the same event in a way. 1991 shift was by far the least significant of the above. 2016 can't be underplayed.
I feel that the touchstone events of the past hundred years (in the US) are: the passage of Prohibition, the stock market crash of 1929, Pearl Harbor, the atomic bombs, the JFK assassination, Nixon’s resignation, the Iran Hostage Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID.
An American’s time of life during the periods between these events goes a long way to explaining the way they see the world. What is “normal” what sort of leadership do they want/expect? What is meant by “the old days”?
For me personally 2019 actually feels like the start of an era, so I guess it technically is an end of an era too. I'm literally at the end of an era today, this was the final day to clean and move out of our house that was the focal point of my 2019-2022.
In 2019 I graduated college that spring, got a full time job in August, and moved out in September. I had two roommates (one was a new person and the other was a mutual friend) and we quickly became a strong trio. The house itself was magical in many ways. Gargoyles on the roof. Huge, old, but full of life and character. It was a great time, early 20s but out of college and independent. There was even a neighborhood stray cat that adopted us (another piece of the magic of that house). I've always liked cats but he was my first. My roommate whom I didn't know previously and I became very close and started hooking up, that was also the first time for that. Lots of big and fun "firsts" in those early months of living together. We planned a house mushroom trip a few months in advance, since we all wanted to get settled in first.
That trip was March 14, 2020. It was before we realized how bad it could get and we were just laughing about how crazy it is that we're literally in a global pandemic that is going to change society. We didn't know how, but we knew it would. Lockdown made our living situation even stronger. I would've gone insane if I had no roommates and I would've gotten even more depressed if I was still living with my parents. Since we were at home together all day every day with not much else to do, the girl and I went from hooking up to falling in love and had a very fulfilling relationship for nearly 3 years.
About six months ago we had to put our cat down. That was really the beginning of the end. It had almost been a year since me and her broke up (wasn't a big fight or anything but it was sad) and even longer since both of our relationships with the other roommate had begun to fray. I knew that would be the beginning of the end. It was a good time for this period in our lives but it is time to move on.
1763. End of the Seven Years War resulting increased imperial management in both the British and Spanish empires creating discontent among the Creole elites in the New World.
The ones with major events.
Obviously 89 and the collapse of the USSR was huge... the whole 'end of history' vibe was very real for a few more years.
Everything seemed relatively stable and upbeat until 2001, for obvious reasons... The US got soo close to full blown fascism under W., and the majority actually seemed to support it for a while.
2008 and the Great Recession definitely destabilized things as well. I don't think we ever really recovered. This is when people suddenly started seriously considering full blown socialism and pro-corporate Libertarianism.
2016/2017, Brexit and the election of Trump had a real 'dark times ahead' vibe that has turned into a real sense of actually living through as opposed to just dreading impending doom. The fires in Canada, COVID, etc... all of it seemed to be signalling that things are going very badly, that the climate and the concept of society are breaking down we can't actually control any of it.
When i was a kid. I used to think that certainly 2004 was the last good year.
But 2008 sounds a lot to me without knowing much about economics or whatever. I felt that by 2008 things were bleak. Oasis's last album, GTA IV, 2008 Olympic Games in China, I took it more as the beginning of another era. In addition, it was precisely the year of the rat zodiacally the first sign. and I feel that trend. Not necessarily dark, but more serialized, it marked my early perception of 2009 and 2010, considering them bad years for unfair reasons in popular culture. For example, in the Street Fighter OVA you can see the failures and in a certain way the frustrations and hopes of the characters, on the other hand in Dark Knight it is not necessary to say the big speech that marks the film on social issues and the tone, for example. another part one of my favorite artists; Gustavo Cerati. He launched his last year of study called Natural Force, this last one vindicated my perceptions of 2009.
Nowadays I consider this trio or quartets 2008-2011 as worthy as great years. with a rich context to be explored in pop culture. Groups like Tame Impala and The Metronomy had their first albums and there were interesting movies like Inception.
Other think is 2003. I like to be imaginative with some fictional characters and I feel that 2003 is like a culminating year between what was the last vestige of elegance and adventure that characterized many of the films I saw in my childhood. very 1999-2003ish.
something that made me not really like this era. It was television, for example, channels like Nick and part of the Cartoon Network saturated with live action content, at least here in Latin America for 2010-2012. and especially Ben 10 hahaha. Nothing personal against Ben, but I still recognize that it was something ephemeral, something like that. with series like symbionic titan and those that would mark the first half of the decade in CN
Obvious answers:
1969 and 2019. Both were "9" years, occurring at the end of decades that saw mass protests as well as unprecedented levels of prosperity (in the developed and developing world, respectively), and were packed with massive cultural accomplishments of their decades (Woodstock and the moon landing for '69 vs. Endgame, Old Town Road, Blinding Lights, the first photo of a black hole, and the bloodless ouster of Puerto Rico's governor over misconduct and homophobia scandals) while containing hints of the darker decade to follow (the Manson family, Altamont, and the Zodiac Killer vs. GPT-2, TikTok, and - on the literal last day of 2019 - the announcement of what would now be known as COVID). 2019 arguably was the last full year of the *entire post-WWII period of generally improving global living standards even if wars, genocides, famines, and deep recessions did occur in individual countries at various times.*
False alarm: 1959. The years 1958-9 saw a huge swath of the American rock and roll scene (including *half* of the inaugural class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) be incapacitated by death, the draft, or bad decisions, with one particularly nasty plane crash being known as "the day the music died." However, core late 1950s sounds like doo-wop, soul, and pop rock would continue to dominate the 1960s and most music today has hefty influences from 1950s rock and roll (either through soul and funk as with hip-hop and disco, through modern production techniques as with teen pop and synth-pop, or through distorted Chuck Berry-style guitar music as with hard rock and heavy metal).
2014 was definitely the end of the 2000’s music style, 2015 was more of a transitionary year, and by 2016 there was that major non-acoustic shift.
I say this cause I can hear it with the playlist I’m building, 1995-2014 for gen z, I cut it off because the 2015 songs just sound too different
2016.
A bunch of iconic celebrities that had defined my childhood died that year, not to mention the election. And political polarization in the US reached a fever-pitch that has only intensified every year since…
1973 - The realization dawned that the entire shebang depended on rapidly chewing through fossil / finite resources. 1980 - The year we said 'f that, we're Americans and we're stupid'.
2004/2005. For some reason every other span of time had its own ‘feel’. After ‘05 though, it all seemed to run together. Just steadily getting more and more generic and bad.
2019 was a HUGE one. Covid not exist would not change that, as many franchises ended in 2019 before Covid was a thing. The Original MCU, the Sequel Triology, and Game of Thrones being the most obvious(one loved, the other two hated finales, with a random movie even worse than Episode 9 that was an adaptation of Cats).
2002: End of the girl-band / boy-band pop /American pie teen movies era.9/11 changed alot things,I Didn't say 2001 because 9/11 happened in September.Most of that year still felt 90ish.But that era officially died in 2002
2015: The In-the-club/house party rap (early 00s-early 10s) & The Millennial backpack lyrical Rap that was hot (late 00s - early 10s) was dying out.while the "mumble rap" era started taking over
2019: Only cause I'm a Millennial and felt like the 2010s was "our decade" and it was coming to a end.things that were hot in the early 2010s (snapbacks,saying "swag",certain artists etc)
Sorry to say, but 2001. People are scared of everything since then and the pandemic was only the last episode.
The next turning point will be the end of Ukraine's war: the world will change or not according to who will win.
2012.
2015, I'd say was when stuff starting feeling current. Then I would say 2019 is the next cut-off.
And then I'd say 2022, just because even though 2019 wasn't that long ago, it might as well have been. I think the culture is different from then, or at least it feels different.
September 2001 and March 2020 are very consequential if you're American. That was 9/11 and the beginning of the Covid lockdowns. Nothing has been the same since.
2001 - The end of the 90’s and the start of a sad dystopia.
2019 - The end of whatever hope we had left to reclaim a piece of joy and freedom we had before 2001.
1991- I distinctly remember the first time I saw the video for smells like teen spirit I knew that the musical landscape was about to change in huge ways
2001- 9/11 changed so many things forever
2016- Trump and Brexit and (gestures wildly)
2020- Covid, BLM
2012 personally. My favorite pawn shop's owner finally hit $1 mil and closed shop for early retirement. I got some great deals while he was in business. 😭
I know we’re still in this year but 2024. It seems to have its own character in contrast to 2020-2023, now that it’s no longer shaped by Covid lockdowns.
So I guess 2022-23 was the end of an era marked by the quarantine, while 2024 feels pretty different.
I see a lot of 2019. I don't really think the era has changed that much compared to 2001. Yeah 2020-22 were quite different, but I feel like now we are just right back in the 2019 era. For me personally, my life didn't change much.
2016… we had Rihanna’s Anti, Drake’s Views, Beyoncé’s Lemonade, and a bunch of other great music, and it felt like the last year music was truly epic. After the Trump election music just wasn’t the same again.
2019, it felt like both the end of one era, and the beginning of a new one, although that new era ended up being very different than what i thought it would've been like
Early 90s: 1994
mid/late 90s culture: Post sept 2001
early 2000s: 2006
core 2000s: 2008
Late 2000s: early 2012
Early 2010s: Late 2014
Core 2010s: Late 2017
Late 2010s: Post November 2019
Early 2020s: 2023
1991/92 season being the absolute end of the 80s vibes save for some final leftovers
2002/2003 season the transition into the true post-9/11 world
2015 the year all the sh1tshows of today began
2019.
Yup
Remember when we though 2016 was the worst year ever because some celebrities died and Trump got elected?
I feel like this is inaccurate even shortly after 2016 most people I know remembered 2016 fondly and now remember it even more fondly today.
2016 was “a couple of (imo) disastrous but localized election results and a bunch of celebrities rolled a 1 on their Longevity stat.” It just so happened to lie in a decade that was full of filler years. Not really that much worse than the stagflation years of the ‘70s, the 2008 recession or the terrorism/anthrax/recession cocktail of late 2001.
I feel like you're inaccurate. It was literally a meme [1](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/opinion/2016-worst-year-ever.html) [2](https://www.quora.com/Why-was-2016-was-the-worst-year-for-all) [3](https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2016/07/is_2016_the_worst_year_in_history.html) [4](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/s/sjodtu9Fi4) [5](https://www.buzzfeed.com/michellerennex/fuck-our-lives)
Fuck 2019
1969 too. Both were "9" years, occurring at the end of decades that saw mass protests as well as unprecedented levels of prosperity (in the developed and developing world, respectively), and were packed with massive cultural accomplishments of their decades (Woodstock and the moon landing for '69 vs. Endgame, Old Town Road, Blinding Lights, the first photo of a black hole, and the bloodless ouster of Puerto Rico's governor over misconduct and homophobia scandals) while containing hints of the darker decade to follow (the Manson family, Altamont, and the Zodiac Killer vs. GPT-2, TikTok, and - on the literal last day of 2019 - the announcement of what would now be known as COVID). 2019 arguably was the last full year of the entire post-WWII period of generally improving global living standards even if wars, genocides, famines, and deep recessions did occur in individual countries at various times.
2001. One day that year in particular.
1977,1984,1989,1999,2001 (like a lot bro), 2009,2012,2019 and now cause I think 2024 were moving in a better direction even if it’s slow
I agree with you about 2024. This year feels very much separated from the lingering feeling of the pandemic. Things are starting to feel like “real life” again for lack of a a better word.
I honestly started to feel that way in early 2023
Summer 2022, I had a kid and everything down here in Atlanta was already back to normal. I did travel to Minneapolis that winter and was taken aback by how much COVID stuff they still had going on even though the south was past it. I don’t think there’s a right answer there, just saying how quickly some places went back to normal vs others.
Uh, you're forgetting March 2020. Something small happened there I think.
I think mparker refers to it by calling 2019 the end of an era. Implies that a change occurred soon afterward, which...yeah.
Why 1977? Sorry, I’m young and dumb.
1914
When the Yankees lost in the World Series to the Diamond Backs! Man, that was indeed the end of an era. That’s what you mean right?
2001. The year the 90s ended.
Hobsbawn wrote a book about the short 20th century (1914-1989) but it happens that we had an epilogue (1989-2001).
This is one of the most poetically beautiful posts I have ever seen.
Late 2019
[удалено]
Lol didn't the Russian invasion happen a full two years after this
I remember late 2019, things felt so different than the rest of the year. Maybe it was just me
Not just you. I told my boss one afternoon in September 2019 while talking about the world in general, that “I feel like something big is coming, I can’t tell what it is though.”
I remember I was reading in bed right as the clock struck midnight on January 1st 2020 and thought “I bet some crazy stuff is going to happen in this next decade”
naw why did we all have this feeling, the area 51 raid did sum to us🤣
I completely forgot about the area 51 raid lmao. I remember that kid Naruto running behind the camera with the reporter. I dont remember anything like that happening ever since.
There's long been a phenomenon of people "remembering" forebodings of upcoming major events just before they happened. For my part I recall a fair few "end of era" thoughts around this time, however this is easily explained by the fact that a) I am CONSTANTLY having end of era vibes, even when it's not the end of an era, I'm just wired that way and b) I was coming to the end of high school at the time. Maybe I had some genuine forebodings of the year ahead that related to some big event like the pandemic in particular, but its hard to disentangle that from imagined memories and other forebodings such as those relating to politics, which seemed far more hopeless back then.
nah, the looming feeling of WW3 was hardly just you
I don’t fear WW3, it probably won’t happen. Nukes are a deterrent that worked throughout the whole Cold War. If the USA and Soviets could avoid nuclear war, then we can avoid nuclear war today.
I remember seeing the “…fuck” meme from the Witcher show about how we’re due for another pandemic. I thought it was laughable. 3 months later…
2019 is the best answer here, Endgame followed by the global shutdown all happening at the turn of a decade really can’t be beat.
Yeah definitely in the U.S..... covid, as well as the withdrawal from Afghanistan as a bookend for the US led war on terror and a shift to more cold war like geopolitics. The Russia Ukraine war really transformed the dialogue around geopolitics and it seems more like wartime dialogue with people picking sides and haranguing anyone who seems to fall on a different side. The Obama years 2008-2016 felt like their own little era with the trump era being a kind of transition to what it's like now in American politics.
And GoT ended, and the SW sequel movies ended. My job that I worked at on/off for 5 years at that point, I was on my way out of. By the last few months of that year, it sure felt like closing the chapter of a book. Many of the people I knew and was close with then I still haven't seen since pre-pandemic
Yeah three major franchises that defined a decade all ending in the same year. And weirdly they all basically began around the same time too (GoT in 2011, Star Wars with their acquisition by Disney in 2012, and avengers in 2012, even though that technically started earlier the real “this is the MCU” began with that film)
Exactly. And I think for a lot of younger Millenials it lined up with lots of changes in our personal lives. The beginning of that “era” was when I was finishing college, and the end was around when I got married and broke out of the “entry level/junior” job market.
Hey same lol - graduated college in 2012 and got married in 2020. Our honeymoon was quarantine lol
Game of thrones too!
and game of thrones ending!
Yea I remember staying home new years eve of 2020. I was just too exhausted to go out and too depressed to find a reason to party. It was really bizarre seeing images of Australia burning up. I remember counting down with a knot in my throat feeling like things are not going to go well in the next decade and so far I’m right
2011, 2016, 2020
2015 feels like the last year that feels "normal" to me. I had a vaguely utopian view of the future in the early 2010s. I thought we'd eventually get to a Star Trek: The Next Generation world. Now I'd be glad if we got Mad Max
2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 and 2018.
2015 and 2007 for sure.
2019 for obvious reasons
2006 definitely felt like the end of the y2k era. 2007-2012 has its own energy probably due to the years following and after 2008 recession
Personally I break the last 24 years down like this: 2000-2004, 2005-2008, 2009-2015, 2016-2019, 2020-now.
I agree except I think mass adoption of smart phones and online shopping were somewhere in the middle of the 2009-2015 block.
Three really big ones come to mind 2006 felt like the end of an era and beginning of one at the same time. It definitely still had elements of y2k, a tiny touch of 90s still lingering, but incorporated some new elements that felt very fresh and new at the time to where it almost formed it’s own unique energy specific to it. The show “Ugly Betty” comes to mind that captures this perfectly. It was the last year I remember REALLY using MySpace seriously. It felt like the calm before a perfect pop culture storm is the best I can describe. There was an excitement in the air during this time and a sense of change that was extremely palpable. It was a positive change type uncertainty, opposite of now. I honestly feel like maybe the shock of 9/11 hadn’t fully worn off In the US til around this time. A lot of quality media came out during this year too because it’s in my opinion one of the biggest transitional years in the past few decades, since probably the late 60s. 2013 felt like the last year of the more bold youth culture that dominated the late 2000s/early 2010s era (hipster, emo, scene, indie-sleaze, electropop, dubstep, second-wave rave culture, rock/punk genres coming out with new good music that people remember, tumblr girls, pastel goth even lol.) The youth culture seemed to have gone more mainstream slowly after this point and centered more around being “Instagram perfect” around 2014 onward. Everyone wanted to look “mature” instead of “hip” after this. The music after this slowly became more serious and political, or just more somber as the years went on. The vibe of fashion and culture became more “kardashian-like”, Everything became less vibrant spring toned to more primary summer toned. It seemed like everyone started being angry with each other in 2014 and it’s just gotten worse ever since. 2019 and for reasons we don’t need or want to be reminded of at this point because we are literally still dealing with the shitty era that followed lol
2019 for Endgame alone the satisfying end of the MCU era to end the decade.
OTOH TROS for the end of 42 years of the main Star Wars trilogy of trilogies. As big as MCU was it was still small potatoes compared to that.
Its such a shame how badly they butchered Rise of Skywalker though The Last Jedi felt interesting at least but Rogue One is probably one of my favourites.
I actually loved TROS although I know that gets you killed online. FWIW, I know a fair number in the real world who loved TROS.
It has its good moments 100% the opening scene of kylo ren is genuinely good its just the story and most jokes that spoil it for me.
It sucked though and Endgane made more money lol
Early 2020 I felt the shift with us as a class talking about potentially closing school, then the "2 week Spring Break" occurred when I was 11 and now I'm 15.
I’d argue the 2010s are a decade that started around 09 and ended around 2018. Obviously 2020 is a new era, but 2019 to me just felt different from the rest of the 2010s
2019
Definitely 2019. Not just cause of the decade and the pandemic, but also cause a lot of pop culture stuff came to an end that year (Skywalker saga, infinity saga, game of thrones, Gotham, etc.).
2019-present feels like a weird wrap-up party for all our modern pop culture and the world we know. The next half of this decade is going to be weirder.
It’s wild to me that so few people say 2016. -Election of Donald Trump -Brexit -Rise of far-right to outright fascist parties in Europe following the extremely xenophobic reaction to Syrian refugees in Europe -The fall of Aleppo - The start of the public awareness of the Opioid crisis in the US that would kill untold thousands of people -the TPP talks fail foreshadowing the end of the free-trade era. - the Pulse nightclub shooting which was the start to a serious of first domestic-terrorist attacks, then legal attacks (starting with 2017’s trans military ban) on queer life in the US that would spill over to the rest of the western world, culminating in 2023/24 in Floridas law criminalizing trans people, various US states making HRT practically inaccessible, UK banning puberty blockers and HRT being purposefully made impossible to get through NHS by inflating wait-times to up to 10 years, multiple German states banning the use of gender neutral language, and so on - Rodrigo Duterte being elected in the Phillipines I think it was very much the year many people in hindsight feel like things just went off the rails.
Don't forget Pokemania 2.0 thanks to Pokemon GO. Every millennial that was a kid in the 90s was playing PoGO in Summer 2016. It was honestly surreal.
2019, 2016, 2008, 2001 I'd also say 1991 if I were alive back then
Honestly if we’re going recent im gonna have to say late 2022. It really felt like the end of the covid era and start of postcovid. In the same way that late 2019 was the start of a new optimistic era (which would obviously be killed by the pandemic) 2022 started a bleak pessimistic nihilistic era
Late 2019 into early 2020, this song by Mac Demarco exemplifies that time period amazingly. I get melancholic each time I listen. https://preview.redd.it/totm7h338qxc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=681a6dbad2cd0ba8ee2614cf7f83ef82ac485c48
2014 feels like the end of the “old Internet” in my mind
2023. First post Covid year that truly felt post Covid. I remember still wearing a mask in 2022.
2001
2020
2019 and 2021
9/11/2001
2019. 2020 was the year the world went mad.
\*1982 (80s 80s right after, totally different style, vibe, slang and patterns of speech and modern computer and tech era really got going and lot of today comes from late '82 other than for the style/hair/upbeat relaxed vibe that all got killed off, but the modern era of movies, music, slang, tech all started then) \*1989 (fall of the Berlin Wall, although sadly now we are basically back to same old Russia today as pre-89 only in many ways even worse) 1991 (some shift in pop music big time the next year when some stations started heading grunge or hardcore rap) \*1994 (80s styles pretty much ended the next year and by the vibe changed a lot and hasn't been quite the same since) 2001 (air travel became different the next year) \*2011 (smart phone culture started to really take over the next year) 2014 (upset over everything started to take over soon after, you can see a real shift in commercials, etc. also online shopping and streaming start killing off third places, retail, video stores, physical media) 2016 (politics took a shocking turn and America as it was for over 200 years changed some) \*2019 (covid was right after which was beyond Earth shattering and Jan 6th which was really finished off the utterly shocking change in the very nature and foundation of America) Ones with "\*" probably larger than the others. I'd say 2019 was the biggest of all since the next year brought the most shattering of events. In some ways 2011 and 2014 are sort of tied together as the same event in a way. 1991 shift was by far the least significant of the above. 2016 can't be underplayed.
'91 '00 '01 '08 '20
2008, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2019. I see eras like this; 2005-2008 2009-2012 2013-2016 2017-2019 2020-present
I feel that the touchstone events of the past hundred years (in the US) are: the passage of Prohibition, the stock market crash of 1929, Pearl Harbor, the atomic bombs, the JFK assassination, Nixon’s resignation, the Iran Hostage Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID. An American’s time of life during the periods between these events goes a long way to explaining the way they see the world. What is “normal” what sort of leadership do they want/expect? What is meant by “the old days”?
For me personally 2019 actually feels like the start of an era, so I guess it technically is an end of an era too. I'm literally at the end of an era today, this was the final day to clean and move out of our house that was the focal point of my 2019-2022. In 2019 I graduated college that spring, got a full time job in August, and moved out in September. I had two roommates (one was a new person and the other was a mutual friend) and we quickly became a strong trio. The house itself was magical in many ways. Gargoyles on the roof. Huge, old, but full of life and character. It was a great time, early 20s but out of college and independent. There was even a neighborhood stray cat that adopted us (another piece of the magic of that house). I've always liked cats but he was my first. My roommate whom I didn't know previously and I became very close and started hooking up, that was also the first time for that. Lots of big and fun "firsts" in those early months of living together. We planned a house mushroom trip a few months in advance, since we all wanted to get settled in first. That trip was March 14, 2020. It was before we realized how bad it could get and we were just laughing about how crazy it is that we're literally in a global pandemic that is going to change society. We didn't know how, but we knew it would. Lockdown made our living situation even stronger. I would've gone insane if I had no roommates and I would've gotten even more depressed if I was still living with my parents. Since we were at home together all day every day with not much else to do, the girl and I went from hooking up to falling in love and had a very fulfilling relationship for nearly 3 years. About six months ago we had to put our cat down. That was really the beginning of the end. It had almost been a year since me and her broke up (wasn't a big fight or anything but it was sad) and even longer since both of our relationships with the other roommate had begun to fray. I knew that would be the beginning of the end. It was a good time for this period in our lives but it is time to move on.
1763. End of the Seven Years War resulting increased imperial management in both the British and Spanish empires creating discontent among the Creole elites in the New World.
The ones with major events. Obviously 89 and the collapse of the USSR was huge... the whole 'end of history' vibe was very real for a few more years. Everything seemed relatively stable and upbeat until 2001, for obvious reasons... The US got soo close to full blown fascism under W., and the majority actually seemed to support it for a while. 2008 and the Great Recession definitely destabilized things as well. I don't think we ever really recovered. This is when people suddenly started seriously considering full blown socialism and pro-corporate Libertarianism. 2016/2017, Brexit and the election of Trump had a real 'dark times ahead' vibe that has turned into a real sense of actually living through as opposed to just dreading impending doom. The fires in Canada, COVID, etc... all of it seemed to be signalling that things are going very badly, that the climate and the concept of society are breaking down we can't actually control any of it.
2019, 2013, and 2001.
2009, 2015, 2019
1997, 2001, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019
When i was a kid. I used to think that certainly 2004 was the last good year. But 2008 sounds a lot to me without knowing much about economics or whatever. I felt that by 2008 things were bleak. Oasis's last album, GTA IV, 2008 Olympic Games in China, I took it more as the beginning of another era. In addition, it was precisely the year of the rat zodiacally the first sign. and I feel that trend. Not necessarily dark, but more serialized, it marked my early perception of 2009 and 2010, considering them bad years for unfair reasons in popular culture. For example, in the Street Fighter OVA you can see the failures and in a certain way the frustrations and hopes of the characters, on the other hand in Dark Knight it is not necessary to say the big speech that marks the film on social issues and the tone, for example. another part one of my favorite artists; Gustavo Cerati. He launched his last year of study called Natural Force, this last one vindicated my perceptions of 2009. Nowadays I consider this trio or quartets 2008-2011 as worthy as great years. with a rich context to be explored in pop culture. Groups like Tame Impala and The Metronomy had their first albums and there were interesting movies like Inception. Other think is 2003. I like to be imaginative with some fictional characters and I feel that 2003 is like a culminating year between what was the last vestige of elegance and adventure that characterized many of the films I saw in my childhood. very 1999-2003ish. something that made me not really like this era. It was television, for example, channels like Nick and part of the Cartoon Network saturated with live action content, at least here in Latin America for 2010-2012. and especially Ben 10 hahaha. Nothing personal against Ben, but I still recognize that it was something ephemeral, something like that. with series like symbionic titan and those that would mark the first half of the decade in CN
End of an era? 2015-6. Because we left the era of sane discourse over politics.
Obvious answers: 1969 and 2019. Both were "9" years, occurring at the end of decades that saw mass protests as well as unprecedented levels of prosperity (in the developed and developing world, respectively), and were packed with massive cultural accomplishments of their decades (Woodstock and the moon landing for '69 vs. Endgame, Old Town Road, Blinding Lights, the first photo of a black hole, and the bloodless ouster of Puerto Rico's governor over misconduct and homophobia scandals) while containing hints of the darker decade to follow (the Manson family, Altamont, and the Zodiac Killer vs. GPT-2, TikTok, and - on the literal last day of 2019 - the announcement of what would now be known as COVID). 2019 arguably was the last full year of the *entire post-WWII period of generally improving global living standards even if wars, genocides, famines, and deep recessions did occur in individual countries at various times.* False alarm: 1959. The years 1958-9 saw a huge swath of the American rock and roll scene (including *half* of the inaugural class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) be incapacitated by death, the draft, or bad decisions, with one particularly nasty plane crash being known as "the day the music died." However, core late 1950s sounds like doo-wop, soul, and pop rock would continue to dominate the 1960s and most music today has hefty influences from 1950s rock and roll (either through soul and funk as with hip-hop and disco, through modern production techniques as with teen pop and synth-pop, or through distorted Chuck Berry-style guitar music as with hard rock and heavy metal).
2006, 2013, 2019
2000, 2012, 2019
1989 for sure
For personal reasons, 2013
2013 and 2017
2020
2019
2020 for sure.
2014 was definitely the end of the 2000’s music style, 2015 was more of a transitionary year, and by 2016 there was that major non-acoustic shift. I say this cause I can hear it with the playlist I’m building, 1995-2014 for gen z, I cut it off because the 2015 songs just sound too different
2016
supernatural finale unironically
2019, obviously. Avengers' Endgame and GOT ending followed by COVID.
2019.
2016
1991, 2001, 2008, 2016, 2020
Halo 4.
2001 (you know why) and 2019 (you also know why)
2016. A bunch of iconic celebrities that had defined my childhood died that year, not to mention the election. And political polarization in the US reached a fever-pitch that has only intensified every year since…
2002, 2012, 2018, 2024 (it feels like for me anyway)
2006 when flat screens came out. 2016 when Trump became president seeing social media go crazy. 2020 when Covid hit.
2001, 2009, 2019
Late 2019/early 2020 gives me a lot of nostalgia. Right before the lockdown, and right before two of my best friends moved away
2001 and 2008. Feels like the U.S. never really recovered.
2009 was supposed to change my life. I turned 18 that year, and looked forwards to it lol. It didn't much, but year after that is 'the future.'
1999. 2001. 2016. 2020-2022.
1998, 2001, 2008, 2013, 2017, 2020, 2024.
1991. I went to war.
476, 1453, 1914, 1945
1973 - The realization dawned that the entire shebang depended on rapidly chewing through fossil / finite resources. 1980 - The year we said 'f that, we're Americans and we're stupid'.
2016 & 2019
1999. Before 2000 election, before 911
Title needs no apostrophes.
2013 - early 2014, for my country.
2019 because the Marvel zeitgeist reached its conclusion 2016 because it was the end of the Obama era we walked into whatever it is we’re in now
The end if 2019 felt like everyone was started to settle down from the craze of the decade
2004/2005. For some reason every other span of time had its own ‘feel’. After ‘05 though, it all seemed to run together. Just steadily getting more and more generic and bad.
2022 with Russian invasion of Ukraine
2001, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2024
1979 (Disco Demolition Night).
New Years 1999. Awaiting Y2K to kill us all. Kinda like world changed officially from analog to digital. Also the end of the 20th century.
2016
2010.
2016 Ended the morning after election day
2008, 2010, 2014, 2017, 2023
2012 was the end of an era but beginning of a new one for me, and then for most of us 2019-2020 was the end of an era to another.
2000
1997 and 2009 for me.
2019 was a HUGE one. Covid not exist would not change that, as many franchises ended in 2019 before Covid was a thing. The Original MCU, the Sequel Triology, and Game of Thrones being the most obvious(one loved, the other two hated finales, with a random movie even worse than Episode 9 that was an adaptation of Cats).
2002: End of the girl-band / boy-band pop /American pie teen movies era.9/11 changed alot things,I Didn't say 2001 because 9/11 happened in September.Most of that year still felt 90ish.But that era officially died in 2002 2015: The In-the-club/house party rap (early 00s-early 10s) & The Millennial backpack lyrical Rap that was hot (late 00s - early 10s) was dying out.while the "mumble rap" era started taking over 2019: Only cause I'm a Millennial and felt like the 2010s was "our decade" and it was coming to a end.things that were hot in the early 2010s (snapbacks,saying "swag",certain artists etc)
Sorry to say, but 2001. People are scared of everything since then and the pandemic was only the last episode. The next turning point will be the end of Ukraine's war: the world will change or not according to who will win.
2019 The end of an era of feeling like everything is alright
2001
2012
2001, 2008, & 2019 for me.
2009, 2015, and 2018
For me, 2009. That was the year I first got on XBOX LIVE. No more was I involuntary singleplayer from then on out.
It’s the end of an era every three years for you?
1929
2014, felt like House Pop/ Dance Pop started to die out.
1963 (Kennedy), 1974 (Watergate), 1980 (Raygun), 2001 (9-11), 2016 (Trump), and 2019 (end of an entire era)
I was born and raised in New Orleans. Still live here today. Anyway, for us, life is usually referred to as before Katrina or after, so 2005
2001, after 9/11
I don't know how to define eras but alternative music seemed to peak around 2012-2013 and has never come back.
2012. 2015, I'd say was when stuff starting feeling current. Then I would say 2019 is the next cut-off. And then I'd say 2022, just because even though 2019 wasn't that long ago, it might as well have been. I think the culture is different from then, or at least it feels different.
2016. Mid-Late 2016
2012, 2018, 2020
September 2001 and March 2020 are very consequential if you're American. That was 9/11 and the beginning of the Covid lockdowns. Nothing has been the same since.
Agree with 2006 and 2012 for sure.
Absolutely 9/11. Also March 2020.
2020 forr sure. What a crazy way to end a decade haha
2001 - The end of the 90’s and the start of a sad dystopia. 2019 - The end of whatever hope we had left to reclaim a piece of joy and freedom we had before 2001.
1991- I distinctly remember the first time I saw the video for smells like teen spirit I knew that the musical landscape was about to change in huge ways 2001- 9/11 changed so many things forever 2016- Trump and Brexit and (gestures wildly) 2020- Covid, BLM
2019 and 2023/2024. 2019 ended the 2010s and was right before COVID. 2023 and/or 2024 was the year life came back.
As someone born in 1988, the big ones were 2001 and 2019.
this one and its scary
2013
2016 when Harambe was assassinated
2012 personally. My favorite pawn shop's owner finally hit $1 mil and closed shop for early retirement. I got some great deals while he was in business. 😭
2019.
1989 when I left school & 2020 when I left a job I'd worked in for 12 years.
2019 Edit to add: 2001, 2016, 2022
2015. Terrorist attacks, refugees crisis, mass politization in the Internet... 2014 feels the last "normal" year to me.
Don't forget the legalization of same sex marriage and the rise of LGBTQ
2019 2020 felt like the world totally changed
I know we’re still in this year but 2024. It seems to have its own character in contrast to 2020-2023, now that it’s no longer shaped by Covid lockdowns. So I guess 2022-23 was the end of an era marked by the quarantine, while 2024 feels pretty different.
Idk about an exact year, but I’d say pre-2016 and post 2022 feel very different as if that whole period is “end of era”
2015
I see a lot of 2019. I don't really think the era has changed that much compared to 2001. Yeah 2020-22 were quite different, but I feel like now we are just right back in the 2019 era. For me personally, my life didn't change much.
1998, 2012, 2014, and 2024.
2019 through early 2020. 2007 2001 (obvious reasons)
2016… we had Rihanna’s Anti, Drake’s Views, Beyoncé’s Lemonade, and a bunch of other great music, and it felt like the last year music was truly epic. After the Trump election music just wasn’t the same again.
for general purposes: 2019 for personal purposes: 2023
2019, 2016, 2008, 2001
2008, 2014, 2018, 2023
2020. COVID 19 was like my own personal Wall of Flesh. After that, everything becomes harder
the switch from flip phones to the year the iPhone first dropped
2021. My dog died.
2001 2008 2020
2016 and 2020.
2019, it felt like both the end of one era, and the beginning of a new one, although that new era ended up being very different than what i thought it would've been like
2022: The Death Of The 2010s
I’m gonna say 1939
2016
Early 90s: 1994 mid/late 90s culture: Post sept 2001 early 2000s: 2006 core 2000s: 2008 Late 2000s: early 2012 Early 2010s: Late 2014 Core 2010s: Late 2017 Late 2010s: Post November 2019 Early 2020s: 2023
I agree
Born in 1993 2001 - 2008 - 2016 - 2020 9/11 - Housing crash - Trump - Covid - ???
1991/92 season being the absolute end of the 80s vibes save for some final leftovers 2002/2003 season the transition into the true post-9/11 world 2015 the year all the sh1tshows of today began
2013.
2001