I realized rather late (only last week, to be embarrassingly honest and exact) that 2009 marks the end of yet another decade in history. A decade that, as it nears its final hours, is still unfortunately without a name. There was the 70's, the 80's, the 90's - but what of the years from 2000 to 2009? It seems this first decade of the 21st Century (okay, that name obviously isn't going to catch on) has come and gone so quickly that as it ends, mankind still hasn't figured out what to call it.
Perhaps mankind is too busy watching videos on Youtube, or unfriending people on Facebook, or updating their status message with either of those on Twitter. It's insanely difficult to get a consensus when people are on different social networks.
In any case, a decade without a name is still a decade, and thankfully there are other ways to commemorate and remember the years 2000 to 2009 as a collective, such as the list below. I use the rather formal word "commemorate" loosely (and rather misleadingly), because to be quite honest, there is nothing formal and very serious about the following list. This is a personal blog, after all. So I'll leave the serious commemoration and evaluation of this unnamed decade to the likes of Wikipedia or Time magazine, and (hopefully) entertain you with a list for the 2000s inspired by the likes of this. I told you this wouldn't be very serious.
Is it too early to be nostalgic? In any case, I hope you enjoy this random list of superficial things that remind me of the 2000s. What would be on your list?
1. The iPod
I grew up with portable music players - I wasn't old enough to appreciate the boombox when it became popular (although this kind of makes me wish I did), but in the mid-90's I was gifted with a Walkman by a doting aunt. In the late 90's, I had a discman. And so far, at the end of 2009, I've had a handful of iPod units of various kinds and models, not unlike a lot of people from my generation. Yup, I'm definitely going to need a hearing aid when I get older (hopefully though, they would've already discovered a treatment to loss of hearing when that time comes - that's what I always tell myself whenever I turn the volume up on my iPod).
Of course, an iPod is never an iPod without the white earphones:
I also studied and now work in the field of marketing, and the story of the iPod has become a classic case study on innovation based on strong consumer insight. You can just Google that to learn more, if you're interested.
2. Revenge of the Nerds
Geeks are the new rockstars - it's just the way it is (and am I ever so thankful for it!). Bill Gates must have started it in the mid-90's, and the wave just continued on into the following decade. With previously geeks-only franchises like Star Trek and Lord of the Rings invading mainstream consciousness, you were probably living under a rock if you didn't notice or experience some aspect of this - phenomenon? - in the past decade.
These cool geeks even leveled up (geek pun intended) the "sexy" with "smexy" - yes, smexy, as in smart and sexy. I guess in the 2000s, people realized a person could be both.
Of course, this list is about the superficial only (or mostly), so at some point, you had to know that "Revenge of the Nerds" would also end up referring to some very cute and very geeky boys (oh, and a girl too. I don't want the guys reading this to be left out of all the geeky fun):
Adam Brody, aka Seth Cohen! He was probably my first geeky crush.
Shia LaBeouf, post Even Stevens. Yes. It was pretty cool though that he was still very geeky in Transformers.
Michael Cera is probably one of, if not the geekiest leading man of all time, which is why we all love him.
I've noticed a pattern here: promising geeky boy + preppy clothing = WIN.
Geekiness is all the rage nowadays that there's even a hit sitcom about it!
Yey for Big Bang Theory!
And seriously, who can forget this? Chicka Chicka Yeah!
And then there's Tina Fey, Queen of Geeks, in my opinion. She's awesome!
3. The Status Message.
I guess it started with blogging, didn't it? And then everyone just got too lazy or busy and decided using 140 characters would be enough to tell the world what they were thinking or doing.
Here's a random list of my status messages this year:
4. Skinny Jeans
I'm not sure which (cruel) fashion god thought of this one up, but it really caught on. It got so popular that even boys wear them (and it seems the motto is the tighter they are, the better!):
So I could've used pictures of other guys who wear skinny jeans that are much, much tighter than the ones these boys are wearing in order to drive my point further, but Choi Siwon in tight, baby pink pants...I couldn't resist.
(Honestly though, if I were a dude, I'd feel really...exposed, wearing these things. I mean, they reveal so much! Aaaah! It baffles me - although I'm really not complaining. =P)
5. Emo-ness.
Err, yeah, you'll need a teenager to tell you about this one. I never did get into the whole dark eyeliner, "I hate the world so I'll always wear black and write dark poetry" phase. We 90's kids expressed our teen angst in other ways.
I do know the emo bands though! I like Panic! at the Disco (yes I like the exclamation point and it will stay there forever if it were up to me - and yeah, all four of them would still be in one band together too) and Fall Out Boy.
------
So there are plenty more superficial things that remind me of the 2000s, but it's almost 2010 already and I'd really like to get this posted before that happens, so I won't elaborate on them as much, but I'll list them down below:
6. Social Networks.
Need I say more, really?
7. The Youtube Star, or any real-person-turned-celebrity kind of star.
In the 80's/90's, Video Killed the Radio Star. In the 2000s, the internet killed the video star (or something like that). From Susan Boyle to Paris Hilton, in the 2000s the term "celebrity" had a much wider spectrum to cover, with great thanks to the internet, where all the world's a stage indeed, and anyone can be a star in the making.
(That screencap, by the way, is from a music video by Justice for their song "D.A.N.C.E". The video is so awesome - check it out here!)
8. (Digital) Pictures or It Never Happened, i.e. The Art of Camwhoring.
We said goodbye to negatives this decade, and thanks to the digital camera, it's never been easier to take pictures. Add Photoshop or any other editing software into the mix, plus social networks like Facebook for a platform to showcase one's photos in, and it's not difficult to see how conducive this decade was to the art of camwhoring.
I'll make an ironic statement here and not post a picture for this number. Just because. :P
9. Urban Dictionary
With terms like "ROFL", "LOL", "LMAO" (all of which pretty much refer to the same thing), "smexy", "unfriend", "Chrismukkah", "fo shizzle" (yeah I really can't do ghetto, even in writing), one can say that Urban Dictionary played an important role in keeping communication during the 2000s understandable for even the most "out of it" individual.
10. WiFi!
God's gift to every netizen - especially if it's free.
--------
But wait, there's more! I just had to put these random superficial things on my list as well:
11. Acoustic Nights
This is a trend that lived and (sort of) died on this decade. I remember being a freshman in college, during the first few weeks of school. I'd hear Paolo Santos performing at the restaurant on the ground floor of the building where my dorm was. There were even acoustic nights held on the roofdeck of one of our university's buildings. These days there are still a lot of acoustic gigs everywhere, but they don't get as much attention as they used to, like back in the day - unless of course, you're Jason Mraz. :)
12. Flip Flops / Havaianas
13. Budget airfare in the Philippines (YES!)
14. The rebirth of Chuck Taylors
15. Leggings / Tights
16. The Blair Band
17. The Comeback of Aging (Western) Boybands (this is just too hilarious, and...odd, I just had to put this in here somewhere)
18. DVDs
19. Sex and the City. If the 90's = Girl Power = The Spice Girls, then 2000's = Girl Power = Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha.
20. The continuously shrinking mobile phone. This is so painfully obvious, but I was running out of things to include, so it gets the last spot on this list.
---------
If somehow you're still in need of more lists to commemorate the decade that was (don't worry, you're not alone - making and looking into lists is apparently a human survival instinct, or something like that), here are some other (superficial) ones that I stumbled upon:
Rotten Tomatoes has a pretty comprehensive list of the decade's best movies (props to "High Fidelity" - it was one of the best R-rated movies of the decade!)
Paste Magazine also has an insanely extensive archive of "best of the decade" lists here.
Of course, an iPod is never an iPod without the white earphones:
I also studied and now work in the field of marketing, and the story of the iPod has become a classic case study on innovation based on strong consumer insight. You can just Google that to learn more, if you're interested.
2. Revenge of the Nerds
Geeks are the new rockstars - it's just the way it is (and am I ever so thankful for it!). Bill Gates must have started it in the mid-90's, and the wave just continued on into the following decade. With previously geeks-only franchises like Star Trek and Lord of the Rings invading mainstream consciousness, you were probably living under a rock if you didn't notice or experience some aspect of this - phenomenon? - in the past decade.
These cool geeks even leveled up (geek pun intended) the "sexy" with "smexy" - yes, smexy, as in smart and sexy. I guess in the 2000s, people realized a person could be both.
Of course, this list is about the superficial only (or mostly), so at some point, you had to know that "Revenge of the Nerds" would also end up referring to some very cute and very geeky boys (oh, and a girl too. I don't want the guys reading this to be left out of all the geeky fun):
Adam Brody, aka Seth Cohen! He was probably my first geeky crush.
Shia LaBeouf, post Even Stevens. Yes. It was pretty cool though that he was still very geeky in Transformers.
Michael Cera is probably one of, if not the geekiest leading man of all time, which is why we all love him.I've noticed a pattern here: promising geeky boy + preppy clothing = WIN.
Yey for Big Bang Theory!
And then there's Tina Fey, Queen of Geeks, in my opinion. She's awesome!3. The Status Message.
I guess it started with blogging, didn't it? And then everyone just got too lazy or busy and decided using 140 characters would be enough to tell the world what they were thinking or doing.
Here's a random list of my status messages this year:
4. Skinny Jeans
I'm not sure which (cruel) fashion god thought of this one up, but it really caught on. It got so popular that even boys wear them (and it seems the motto is the tighter they are, the better!):
So I could've used pictures of other guys who wear skinny jeans that are much, much tighter than the ones these boys are wearing in order to drive my point further, but Choi Siwon in tight, baby pink pants...I couldn't resist.
(Honestly though, if I were a dude, I'd feel really...exposed, wearing these things. I mean, they reveal so much! Aaaah! It baffles me - although I'm really not complaining. =P)
5. Emo-ness.
Err, yeah, you'll need a teenager to tell you about this one. I never did get into the whole dark eyeliner, "I hate the world so I'll always wear black and write dark poetry" phase. We 90's kids expressed our teen angst in other ways.
I do know the emo bands though! I like Panic! at the Disco (yes I like the exclamation point and it will stay there forever if it were up to me - and yeah, all four of them would still be in one band together too) and Fall Out Boy.
------
So there are plenty more superficial things that remind me of the 2000s, but it's almost 2010 already and I'd really like to get this posted before that happens, so I won't elaborate on them as much, but I'll list them down below:
6. Social Networks.
Need I say more, really?7. The Youtube Star, or any real-person-turned-celebrity kind of star.
In the 80's/90's, Video Killed the Radio Star. In the 2000s, the internet killed the video star (or something like that). From Susan Boyle to Paris Hilton, in the 2000s the term "celebrity" had a much wider spectrum to cover, with great thanks to the internet, where all the world's a stage indeed, and anyone can be a star in the making.
(That screencap, by the way, is from a music video by Justice for their song "D.A.N.C.E". The video is so awesome - check it out here!)
8. (Digital) Pictures or It Never Happened, i.e. The Art of Camwhoring.
We said goodbye to negatives this decade, and thanks to the digital camera, it's never been easier to take pictures. Add Photoshop or any other editing software into the mix, plus social networks like Facebook for a platform to showcase one's photos in, and it's not difficult to see how conducive this decade was to the art of camwhoring.
I'll make an ironic statement here and not post a picture for this number. Just because. :P
9. Urban Dictionary
With terms like "ROFL", "LOL", "LMAO" (all of which pretty much refer to the same thing), "smexy", "unfriend", "Chrismukkah", "fo shizzle" (yeah I really can't do ghetto, even in writing), one can say that Urban Dictionary played an important role in keeping communication during the 2000s understandable for even the most "out of it" individual.
10. WiFi!
God's gift to every netizen - especially if it's free.--------
But wait, there's more! I just had to put these random superficial things on my list as well:
11. Acoustic Nights
This is a trend that lived and (sort of) died on this decade. I remember being a freshman in college, during the first few weeks of school. I'd hear Paolo Santos performing at the restaurant on the ground floor of the building where my dorm was. There were even acoustic nights held on the roofdeck of one of our university's buildings. These days there are still a lot of acoustic gigs everywhere, but they don't get as much attention as they used to, like back in the day - unless of course, you're Jason Mraz. :)
12. Flip Flops / Havaianas
13. Budget airfare in the Philippines (YES!)
14. The rebirth of Chuck Taylors
15. Leggings / Tights
16. The Blair Band
17. The Comeback of Aging (Western) Boybands (this is just too hilarious, and...odd, I just had to put this in here somewhere)
18. DVDs
19. Sex and the City. If the 90's = Girl Power = The Spice Girls, then 2000's = Girl Power = Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha.
20. The continuously shrinking mobile phone. This is so painfully obvious, but I was running out of things to include, so it gets the last spot on this list.
---------
If somehow you're still in need of more lists to commemorate the decade that was (don't worry, you're not alone - making and looking into lists is apparently a human survival instinct, or something like that), here are some other (superficial) ones that I stumbled upon:
Rotten Tomatoes has a pretty comprehensive list of the decade's best movies (props to "High Fidelity" - it was one of the best R-rated movies of the decade!)
Paste Magazine also has an insanely extensive archive of "best of the decade" lists here.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment