I feel like the 2010s are the first decade in 100 years that doesn’t have a recognizable aesthetic or vibe.
Every decade since the Roaring Twenties had its own recognizable culture, visual aesthetic, music and so on. In the 2010s, the Internet allowed us to become cultural omnivores. It’s good that everybody had access to whatever niche subculture they enjoy but it also meant that there was no more monoculture that we all shared.
Take off the nostalgia goggles. Every decade has different aesthetics, you just don’t notice the changes while they’re happening. Nor do they perfectly line up to nice, round numbers. 1981 looked a lot like 1978, while 1986 very clearly had that 80s vibe the 80s were known for. The late 90s had a lot in common with the early 2000s to the point we were saying the same things back then. Then 2010s going on into the 2020s may not seem like they had a particular style, but they do and we won’t know it until it’s 2045.
I think a lot about the music of this era. The 2010s had a large amount of influence from dubstep, drone, and other club genres. Bass drops became more popular between 2012 and now. Billie Ellish, for example, is a pop artist that has more in common with Suuns than she does Katie Perry. Years from now, people will be able to pick out songs from 2017 based solely on their style the same way you can tell something was made in 2007 or 1977.
I’m not quite so sure whether this still completely applies to our current times. Nowadays the feedback loop between the cultural industries and its consumers is the shortest it has ever been. The industry knows what you consume, when you consume it and they A/B test so they can figure out what leads you to consume more and more. It is certainly no accident that the average length of a tiktok video is also the average length of a tv advertisement (around 30 seconds) and like where do you go from there?
(Pssssst…the same thing was happening decades ago lol)
Pop music had a well-established formula back in the 90s, for example. It wasn’t Beastie Boys, Nirvana, and NWA playing on radio stations. It was Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, 98 Degrees, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, Mariah Carey, and dozens of other copycat Mickey Mouse Club kids. Then there were the Will Smith movie tie-ins and other soundtracks topping the charts.
Corporations had this shit down to a formula a long time ago. There’s ad placements in movies for as long as there have been movies (Marty McFly just so happens to say “Wow nice truck” as one drives by in the background in a film about a DeLorean? Totally not a paid ad by Ford).
The only thing that’s changed is the internet. They don’t use Tupperware parties anymore, they use food review channels on TikTok. The same half dozen companies that owned 98% of all media in 1995 still own 98% of all media in 2025.
fucking obviously this has been a process that has happened since decades. What I am saying is that the internet has given the industry such deep and granular analytical view of the consumer that there just isn’t any further room for change in that system.
The cool thing is that if you believe in Marxism there never was room for change in that system because the base (what we can possibly make and who decides what to make) determines the superstructure (culture).
You’re simply complaining about the change in strategy of selling cultural commodities, something that you never had a say in.
When I wrote “change” I obviously didn’t mean the fucking revolution, I meant that there’s no more space for mass culture to go. And sure if I lived in 1915 I’d think that would obviously be good because that’d mean capitalism was at its end but I sadly have to live in 2025 where we’ll destroy our planet before that happens
Yeah trap music is a good example shit was everywhere for a while.
Indie sleaze is another.
Mumblecore movies.
“Prestige TV” literally ongoing.
I can already tell tbh, 2025 is a lot more gradient-heavy and a bit more saturated than 2019
For US pop culture, it makes a lot more sense to demarcate based on presidential terms. So 1981-1985, 1993-1997, 2009-2013. I’ve noticed this with 1989-1992, which has a very particular vibe (watch the intro to Saved by the Bell or Do the Bartman to see what I mean) and which just so happened to be Bush Sr. term.
I remember like 10 years ago people saying they struggled to think of aesthetics for the 2000’s, and now people are beginning to notice them and even it’s shifts. I’m very curious to see what people will be nostalgic for with the 2010’s aesthetic wise. I have memories of how people would dress in high school, but I wonder what will come back.