It’s 10 seconds to midnight — massive crowds are packed in Times Square, counting down the seconds until the shift from 1999 to the new year. Audiences clustered around their TVs as the Y2K glitch feared to crash power grids, water systems, banking networks, and air traffic control was running high. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
Of course, when the clock struck midnight, it would not be the end of the world — it would give rise to a vibrant and transitional cultural decade. Y2K fashion captured a cultural zeitgeist of technological optimism with a futuristic aesthetic defined by the dawning of shiny metallic fabrics and futuristic sunglasses. At the same time, Blockbuster was running strong as the golden age of DVD swept the nation — a world caught, both emphasizing the aesthetics of the future while bound by physical media rituals of the past. Yet, the world of tech was preparing a wave of years that would begin changing this world forever.
By 2001, Apple would release the first iPod for sale, which boosted the MP3 boom launched in the mainstream through free MP3-grabbing websites like Napster, which arose in 1999 — permanently disrupting the record industry. While the former reliance on physical media began its fracture, 2007 would prove a devastating, final blow. By that year, Steve Jobs would shake the world forever with the announcement of the iPhone, which marked the beginning of the end for physical media and storefronts as the world became increasingly online and connected like never before through the multifunctional device.
With increasing accessibility, the online world of the 2000s marked a shift from private journaling to a culture of online “oversharing” through the likes of public blogging and early social media platforms such as MySpace, which served as the breeding ground for the rise of many notable subcultures of the time such as indie sleaze, scene, and emo culture. On this growing visual stage, skinny jeans, tight band tees, fitted hoodies, canvas sneakers, and heavy, side-swept hair dominated profile pictures everywhere. This bold style was soundtracked by the boom of alternative and pop-punk bands of the time, such as My Chemical Romance, Paramore, and Fall Out Boy, that fueled dark eyeliner all across the web.
In the broader music world, monoculture was still unifying and dominating the masses. The massive pop and R&B wave of the time was being spearheaded by Beyoncé, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake, the latter two of whom strongly influenced the at the time denim-on-denim outfit obsession. Meanwhile, television was running strong as a cultural anchor as millions tuned into appointment-television staples such as American Idol, Survivor, House, M.D., and Curb Your Enthusiasm alongside darker, acclaimed dramas like The Sopranos and later Breaking Bad.
Despite the massive cultural unity of this monoculture and bold fashion, real-world events would give the era an early, massive reality check. Following the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, this post-9/11 era was characterized by institutional skepticism, the creation of the TSA, and persistent foreign wars under the mission of the War on Terror. Coupled with economic devastation in the 2008 financial crisis, pop culture was becoming increasingly influenced through the lens of escapism, survival, and corrupt futures. While earlier readers in the decade sought comfort in the escapist worlds of Harry Potter and Twilight, this environment laid the groundwork for the literary and cinematic boom of young adult franchises such as The Hunger Games in the closing years of the decade.
Yet, as the 2000s began reaching the end, this somewhat volatile and largely transitional period in history would begin seeking a new mindset and clean break for the following decade. Barack Obama’s election as president of the United States in 2008 on the platform of “Hope and Change” signaled one of the first massive symbolic closures of the 2000s era — directly addressing the skepticism, anxiety, and volatility of the post-9/11 era and financial devastation through a seeking of hope and stabilizing change. Along with the sudden death of Michael Jackson in 2009 and the continued, exponential growth of the internet that would widely define later decades, the 2000s time in the spotlight with all of its bold style, real-world tragedy and response, and foundational, experimental nature had finally begun to pass.
