Cultural touchstones of the 2020s?

[Letthecarhuntbegin]

I think I am getting old.

I hear music from the 80s, 90s or 00s and I get a feeling that takes me back to the time. Then there’s TV shows everyone seems to know and love (in another thread tonight a poster compared her husband to Victor Meldrew - of course everyone over the age 30 and possibly younger knows who Victor Meldrew is!) or fads everyone went through (remember when everyone was wearing Ponchos, heels with jeans, massive earrings and scarf-like belts in the early 00s?) There was a certain zeitgeist that ‘takes me back’.

I’m not feeling it for this decade. Maybe because we’re still in the middle of it? Or maybe because I am too old to be in touch with new things. I am not on Tik Tok…

So what cultural gifts / touchstones do you think the 2020s have brought us so far? Things that almost everyone will recognise and remember from this period.

(culturally, not stupid covid and shitty politics)

I actually think covid IS a huge thing, culturally. Masks, those social distancing stickers, and far more casual dress will probably things that will be forever linked with the era.

Well it's all a bit grim isn't it?

COVID, lockdown, food banks, strikes, Ukraine war, a corrupt government lining their pockets, Cost of Living crisis, cold winter and exceptional heating costs.

Yes. But I’m thinking music and art.
I mean we all remember big events like 9/11 and the Iraq War. Or further back, the Cold War and 80s strikes. But that’s more National / World Events. Previously I can think of music that ran alongside this, films or TV series everyone watched and talked about- Friends, the Harry Potter books, Coldplay, to name a few from the 00s.

What is there these days? It feels like it’s missing, but maybe I’m out of touch. That’s what I’m trying to figure out.

If it truly IS missing - no wonder everyone’s so bloody depressed!

Taylor Swift

The 1975

Emily in Paris

certain types of trainers

using the word "aesthetic" to cover everything from an individual look to a stage set

very solid colour nail polish - not sure what the right word is

There'll be loads more but I'm too tired to think of them.

I don't think that we'll see one type of music define a decade again, which is good. Like casual dressing and trainers with evening dresses, there's no 'must have/listen to/see'. Although there's a lot of turkey teeth about.

Oh, oversized everything

not a trend I will miss

I swear, at one point everything on Asos and Zalando was "oversized".

Wearing Dryrobes as coats

Casual wear

Oodies

Oldest and youngest Glastonbury headliners

We're only a couple of years in and we've managed a pandemic, I think you're being a bit premature tbh

I had to google turkey teeth. Scary.

I agree re type of music. I think now, with so many all kinds of everything going on across so many platforms, it's much more likely that a huge group of people into one band will not have heard of another, similarly successful, band.

I don't think there'll be anything as widely recognised as acid house or the 90s clubbing, Ministry era.

in no particular order:

• tik tok
• covid
• the unprecedented use of the word unprecedented
• face masks
• everyone learning what the word furlough meant
• hybrid working changing office work permanently
• trans ideology
• the very short fall and return of skinny jeans
• the Royal Family suddenly being more publicly dramatic than the producers of The Crown could have ever dreamt of
• Only Fans
• The full return of the pro and anti vaccine arguments
• Office wear as going out outfits

going back to 2019 but won all the awards in 2020 so...Fleabag.

also, Killing Eve.

Contouring. Bleached eyebrows (looks so weird). Those false eyelashes that look like the brush draught excluders on the bottom of doors. 🤣
Harry Stiles. Being "non-binary" 5 million genders.
Wednesday Addams
Stranger Things and the return of Kate Bush

The thing is, we can't know what will remind us of this era until we can look back on it. We'll just have to wait and see.

Tiger king!!!! 😆🐅

Lips that have been blown up with a bicycle pump.

I’m sure there will be things. I remember in the middle of the 90s having a similar conversation with my friends at school thinking nothing defined that decade, our fashion wasn’t anything special etc. How wrong was I? I think it’s hard to spot it when you’re in the middle of it.

I agree that covid will make this decade more than anything when we look back when we’re older.

But also these so far:

-Lip fillers/face fillers
-loungewear
-DMs being super popular even though they’ve been around forever
-Show houses/ being obsessed with —-organising and tidyness/ Grey scale/crushed velvet
-Everyone having a designer dog
-90s fashion made a massive come back
-Dua Lipa
-bella and Gigi Hadid being top models

The above is not my favourite things by the way, just very main stream popular 😂

Covid will mark this*

Hopefully space flight will be a feature, back to the moon, commercial flights etc. it looks like a lot is going to focused on celeb kids coming of age.

Cancel culture and all the sex/gender kerfuffle with no one being able to define what a woman is to the satisfaction of all, and the subsequent impact on theatre, film, books and free speech.
Designer chimera dogs.
Streaming and choice rather than mainstream TV
Working remotely, living life online.

I think TBH I used the wrong word in my title.

I think I mean ‘artistic’ rather than cultural.

Things we enjoy, things that bring us together, the music that will be played in weddings and pantomimes in 30 years time and everyone will want to get up and dance, the films or TV shows that can be put in a family quiz.

I don’t think we have it any more - streaming platforms mean that we don’t really share these things with each other any more.

I think this may be partly (not wholly of course, but a small part of) why people feel so isolated and disconnected these days. We have less and less in common.

OP "Things we enjoy, things that bring us together, the music that will be played in weddings and pantomimes in 30 years time and everyone will want to get up and dance, the films or TV shows that can be put in a family quiz."

all in the replies bar the family quiz, I'm not good with stuff like that so I'm not sure on that one. You will absolutely hear Lover and About You etc at weddings of the future.

other things have longer echoes - you'll still hear George Michael in future. One of my friends' teens is obsessed with 80s music!

i do think the 2020s are a bit young for the question. The Big Bang Theory is probably the "Friends" equivalent for the 21st century.

we are very lucky to live in an age of fab music and the arts generally.

I feel isolated but it's a personal thing. Plus, is it Cal Newport who said "social media makes you needy"? I've probably got a bit of that going on.

Working from home

I see. In that case no idea. I still listen to music from the 80 and 90ies. I can't think of anything that would define this decade so I guess I agree with you. Someone younger might have a better idea though and we've still got another 8 years to go so not all is lost.

The only thing I can think of ..maybe this is the decade of the influencer??

Ooh this is interesting!

I think there’s sort of so many more ‘trends’ and things flying about at once if that makes sense?

For example, there’s so many reality programmes to choose from, Netflix will drop a series that will be ‘trending’ for about a week before something else comes along, more films come out. it didn’t feel like that 20 years ago in the early 2000s.

Clothes-wise current fashion feels like 90s/2000s recycled.

Does it not depend a bit on what age you are at these times?
If I listen to garage it takes me right back to the 00s but that's because I was a teenager then. But it probably wouldn't mean much/anything to people who were in their 40s(?)+ then.

True we are more likely to stream TV shows now but I agree with Stranger Things above - that seems to have crossed a lot of age boundaries. The opening music will probably remind me of the 2020s in a couple of decades' time!

Oh yes...and thanks to the poster who mentioned Kate Bush. The fact that Running up that Hill reached a whole new generation pleased me and mum hugely 😍

It's a bit pre 2020, but if you say "Bent Neck Lady" to a group of people in 30 years, you'd still get a gap, I reckon. Remarkable (as Sheldon Cooper might say).