POP CULTURE SHOCK
From streaming to #Metoo, the 2010s were a sea of change
In an industry in which many only ever reach 15 minutes of fame, moments or movements that leave a legacy are few and far between.
But the past decade has seen many seismic shifts that have transcended the entertainment industry. Following is a roundup of top 10 game-changers of 2010 to 2019.
10 College admissions scandal Aunt Becky, what have you (allegedly) done?!
On March 12, 2019, the U.S. federal government indicted a college admissions consultant and 33 parents (with more indictments since) for crimes related to illicitly paying their children’s way into the country’s top universities. Among the parents facing charges were Lori Loughlin (Full House) and Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives). Huffman pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 days in jail (she served 11). Loughlin pleaded not guilty and will face trial next year, but prosecutors told ABC News they will seek a “substantially higher” sentence than Huffman received.
The story brought up questions of privilege and income inequality, with many on social media pointing to the case of Tanya Mcdowell, a reportedly homeless mother who lied about her address in order to send her son to a better school. Mcdowell received a five-year sentence (though she also faced a combined drug charge).
9 “Conscious uncoupling”
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and musician Chris Martin were ridiculed for using this new-age term in a separation announcement published on Paltrow’s lifestyle website Goop in 2014.
Since then, the term has found its way into our collective cultural lexicon and signifies the public relations balancing act that is announcing a celebrity breakup. Notable splits of the decade include Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (a.k.a. “Brangelina”), Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth (who divorced after eight months of marriage in August, their third public breakup of the decade), Sandra Bullock and Jesse James (after a cheating scandal and photos of James in Nazi paraphernalia surfaced), Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (a.k.a. “Tomkat”) and Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries (whose marriage famously ended after 72 days).
8 Facebook’s fall from grace
Once the flagship of social media, Facebook has lost 15 million users since 2017, according to studies from Edison Research and emarketer.
This comes after the explosive revelation that Facebook exposed user data to Cambridge Analytica, a company hired to consult for U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Amid privacy concerns and Russian-made fake news that appeared on the site, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been hauled in front of Congress and committees to answer for Facebook’s problems.
But despite the erosion of trust and coolness, Zuckerberg has acquired the more millennial-friendly Instagram and Whatsapp, securing his longevity in the tech world, if not his brainchild.
7 Podcasting
Noticed an uptick in the number of mattress ads in your life? It’s probably because you, like many people, are listening to podcasts. In fact, according to The New York Times, one in three Americans listens to podcasts at least once a month.
Investigative podcasts captured the attention of true crime fans, with shows like Dirty John and My Favorite Murder becoming wildly successful and spawning TV series and book deals.
6 Trans representation
When the “Call me Caitlyn” Vanity Fair cover hit newsstands in the summer of 2015, it was accompanied by a tweet from Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympian decathlete: “I’m so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn.”
Before that, Amazon’s Transparent, about quite literally a trans parent, had been on the air since 2014, with over 80 trans people employed by the show over the course of its five seasons. And before that, Laverne Cox graced our screens on the runaway hit Orange Is the New Black as a trans woman of colour and hairstylist in a prison. The role gave Cox a larger platform as a trans activist, and she became the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category.
Jenner and Transparent, however, faced criticism from within the trans community, with many online lamenting Jenner’s Republican leanings and Transparent’s decision to cast a cisgender male actor as its lead.
5 Influencers
In a post-billy Mays world, many rely on the advice of social media magnates to guide us through consumerism. You may have seen such people on Youtube or Instagram, talking about how much they enjoyed a “flat tummy tea” or a liquid lipstick kit from Kylie Jenner’s cosmetic company. Think Paltrow’s Goop, without the preceding movie career. They often provide links or promo codes to products and earn a commission off any purchase their followers make in their name.
Of late, influencers have gone from shilling someone else’s product to selling their own. Jeffree Star, a former musician who began filming makeup tutorials online in the mid-2000s, levied his success into his own cosmetics line. According to Forbes, Jeffree Star Cosmetics sells about $100 million worth of products annually, and his recent launch in collaboration with fellow Youtuber Shane Dawson sold more than one million units on its first day.
4 Cancel culture
An internet trend so controversial even former U.S. president Barack Obama has weighed in, “cancel culture” is the practice of boycotting a public figure who has committed some offence. After the feud between Taylor Swift and Kanye West came to a crescendo in 2016, Twitter users who sided with West trended using the hashtag #Taylorswiftisoverparty, and Swift for the most part disappeared from the public eye for months. In a much worse transgression, after Louis C.K. was accused of sexual misconduct, many fellow comedians denounced him and FX dumped him and his TV projects.
But these two examples also highlight that cancel culture isn’t really a thing, or at least not a thing that works: Swift is now the American Music Awards’ most decorated artist of all time, and C.K. is back on the standup circuit internationally.
3 #Oscarssowhite
In 2016, the second year in a row in which all 20 of the Oscars’ acting nominees were white, this Twitter hashtag created by Broadway Black managing editor April Reign resurfaced to call out the lack of diversity. Big names such as Spike Lee, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith said they would boycott the ceremonies in protest. Following the controversy, the Oscars board voted to double female and minority members of the academy by 2020. As a result, the number of female voters rose from 25 per cent in 2015 to 32 per cent in 2019, and the number of minority voters rose from eight per cent to 16 per cent during the same period.
2 Streaming services
How has streaming changed the game? Let us count the ways.
Tailor-fit for a generation of broke millennials, streaming services such as Netflix, Crave and Amazon Prime allow for homebodies to stay, well, home. Some experts argue that this is killing the movie theatre and cable businesses, both of which are struggling to keep viewers.
Gone are the days of cliffhangers. Now, TV fans can immediately “binge” episode after episode. No longer must comedies run 30 minutes and dramas run 60 minutes — now episodes can be 12 minutes (I Think You Should Leave, Netflix) or 80 minutes (Game of Thrones, HBO/ Crave).
Music can also be streamed on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music, causing declining record sales and bitter battles over compensation for artists.
Streaming has even changed the ways in which we watch — a tech-obsessed population can view or listen to all their favourite media on-the-go on tiny screens or with tiny earbuds.
And don’t even get me started on “Netflix and chill.”
1 #Metoo
No cultural trend this decade has been more consequential than #Metoo, but the movement actually began in 2006 when activist Tarana Burke described hearing a survivor’s story and struggling to respond with “me too.”
But in October 2017, The
New York Times and The New Yorker would publish explosive reports of harassment and rape allegedly committed by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. What followed were months and, now, years of people in every industry speaking up and publicly naming those in power accused of harassment or assault. Journalist Matt Lauer was fired from NBC. CBS Corporation CEO Les Moonves resigned. Actor Kevin Spacey was written out of the final season of Netflix’s House of Cards.
When Oprah Winfrey, herself a survivor of childhood sexual assault, accepted the Cecil B. demille Award at the 2018 Golden Globes, she said: “I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, (are) fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again.”