The 2010s: A decade in pop culture
“Binge” is the word of the decade for consumers of pop culture.
But before there was bingeing, or selfies, or streaming, or “viral” as an adjective that has nothing to do with an illness, there was the rise of social media.
From cute cat videos to Baby Yoda, the 2010s began as The Social Media Era while the 2020s roll out as The Streaming Era. The decade also boasted a Golden Era in TV.
The embarrassment of TV riches include “Atlanta,” where creator and star Donald Glover played out stories on race, status and people who keep alligators in their homes (2016-present). “Lost” ended its run as a national weekly obsession (2004-10). On “Mad Men,” suave con man Don Draper could sell you anything, including a new persona for himself, and by the time the series ended, he’d created yet another one (2007-15). And what about Phoebe Waller-Bridge? The Brit actor/writer/ producer delivered her poignant, funny “Fleabag” for two seasons (2016-19), then gave us the delightfully twisted thriller “Killing Eve” (2018-present).
An especially buzzy year for TV was 2013, but we’ll get to that later ...
As for film, well, we can only say that Oscar was all over the place during the past decade.
Beginning with the “Masterpiece Theater”-ish “The King’s Speech” as the Best Picture of 2010, that award went to, among others: historic thriller “Argo” (2012); historic drama “12 Years a Slave” (2013); two excellent Michael Keaton films, “Birdman” (2014) and “Spotlight” (2015); and breakout indie flick “Moonlight” (2016). That last one came after a fiasco that had Warren Beatty accidentally announcing “La La Land” as the winner.
But “The Shape of Water” was a fantasy puzzler (2017), and heaven knows how a middling story that managed to cram in stereotypes of Italians and African Americans — “Green Book” — won the big prize last year.
Hollywood, though, as with all things seen on a screen, has undergone many changes in the past decade, some ongoing.
In pulling together this list, key considerations were viral sensations and the devices and platforms that are now a part of our minute-byminute existence. Here’s how we got from here to there over the past decade.
2010
Facebook finds its groove — Facebook, at just 7 years old, hit 550 million users as “The Social Network” told the service’s story in an Oscar-nominated film. Mark Zuckerberg was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. Instagram, now owned by Facebook, was introduced in 2010. (The end of the decade finds Zuckerberg in the hot seat, fending off allegations involving privacy issues and users’ election tampering. Yet Facebook still boasts 2.5 billion monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2019.) P.S.: Snapchat came along in 2011 and TikTok in 2016.
You better werk — Although “RuPaul’s Drag Race” technically began in 2009, 11 regular and four all-star seasons later, nothing brought drag down the runway that is popular culture better than Logo TV’s biggest hit. (The show is also on VH1 as well now, all the better to see those gorgeous queens in high def). Two winners had Pittsburgh ties: Season 4’s Goth queen Sharon Needles (Aaron Cody) and Season 2 all-star Alaska (Justin Honard).
2010 (and 2017)
We gained “The Walking Dead” (and lost George Romero) — “The Walking Dead” debuted in 2010 and brought zombies roaring back to cinematic life. But in the end, the AMC series owes it all to George Romero, the “Living Dead” filmmaker and former Pittsburgher who died July 16, 2017.
2011
“Game of Thrones” is water-cooler royalty — Now that “winter is here,” do you remember where you were when “Game of Thrones” debuted on April 17, 2011? HBO’s brilliant adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy book series began with unheard-of buzz as we watched heads roll — literally. Although it ended badly in 2019 and still awaits Martin’s book finale, the show’s influence stretches through our culture still. “You know nothing, Jon Snow” launched a thousand GIFs, at least. Speaking of zombies (for what else were the White Walkers?) ...
2012
A smorgasbord of pop headlines — Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes called it quits, Prince William and Kate announce their first royal pregnancy, we mourned the death of Whitney Houston, “Call Me Maybe” and “Gangnam
Style” were all the rage ... and Disney purchased the “Star Wars” franchise from George Lucas for more than $4 billion.
2013
It’s Billy Porter’s world. Deal with it — Billy Porter was back on Broadway after a 12-year absence to win the 2013 Tony as best actor in a musical for “Kinky Boots,” which also brought the Pittsburgh native a Grammy. In 2019, he made history as the first openly gay black man to win an Emmy, for the drag-ball drama “Pose” on FX, and he became the fashion icon of 2019 in a gender-bending tuxedo gown at the Oscars and a golden Met Gala entrance.
A perfectly “Bad” ending (and more) — “Breaking Bad” (2008-13) might just be the finest show of the decade, with Bryan Cranston’s Walter White losing his soul and corrupting those around him. Meanwhile, in the halls of Dunder Mifflin, “The Office” (2005-13) was a cheerfully crazy workplace that left no soul unbared.
2014
The true crime podcast catalyst — The investigative series “Serial,” hosted by Sarah Koenig and developed by “This American Life,” debuted in September 2014 atop the iTunes charts. The podcast that delved into the 1999 murder conviction of a Baltimore teen won a Peabody Award — seasons 1 and 2 were downloaded a world-record 340 million times and counting — and established a foothold for true-crime podcasts and TV series such as “The Jinx” and “Dirty John.”
We can’t “Let It Go” — “Let It Go,” from the Disney animated hit “Frozen,” became a viral sensation, with kids trying to belt like Idina Menzel, and it was named best original song at the 2014 Oscars. It also gave us a viral moment from that Academy Awards ceremony, when John Travolta introduced Menzel as “Adele Dazeem.”
2015
“Hamilton” revolutionizes musical theater — Lin-Manuel Miranda, who had a Tony Award for “In the Heights,” read a biography of Alexander Hamilton on vacation — and the rest is theater history. The show, with a diverse cast as America’s Founding Fathers, debuted on Aug. 6, 2015, and is still going strong on Broadway and in tours worldwide. After a sold-out run in Pittsburgh this year, it’s coming back for the 2020-21 season.
2016
Revenge is best served with “Lemonade” — No end-of-decade list is complete without a mention of Beyonce and “Lemonade,” her platinum “visual album” that was released in 2016 and debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200, her sixth consecutive chart-topper. “Lemonade” was accompanied by the release of a film of the same title that premiered on HBO on April 23, 2016, and divided into 11 chapters — in which the Diva of the Decade very publicly accused husband Jay-Z of adultery and then forgave him.
Prantl’s turns 50 — There are lots of food and diet stories that could make this list, including Oprah Winfrey’s takeover of WW (the former Weight Watchers) and a bunch of new sandwiches introduced by Primanti Bros. But Pittsburgh’s claim to the best cake in Pennsylvania — as judged by the Food Network in 2018 — is Prantl’s Bakery’s Burnt Almond Torte. Henry Prantl opened the flagship Shadyside shop in 1966; it’s still there today, but that famous torte can go out to anyone through online ordering.
2017
The Twitter president — Our president wields his Twitter account with dozens of tweets daily in an unprecedented direct communication between POTUS and the world.
#MeToo — The symbol of justice for sexual-abuse survivors, notably in the highprofile entertainment industry, signaled a movement that is ongoing. As #MeToo and #TimesUp took hold, victims became advocates and toppled the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose.
2018
Netflix as an Oscar contender — With “Roma,” “The Irishman” and others, the streaming service has paved a new path to movies’ biggest prize: limited release in movie theaters, then a quick pullback for its online subscribers. (There’s at least one person who says Netflix isn’t playing fair: Steven Spielberg believes the streaming service should only compete for TV’s Emmy Awards.)
Mister Rogers’ big comeback — Two documentaries released in 2018 — “It’s You I Like” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” — gave way to a Hollywood movie starring Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, thrusting the Pittsburgh icon and his message of kindness and compassion back into the spotlight. Kids today know his earnest, gentle soul through “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” which launched on PBS in 2012, and Hanks is an Oscar contender for his turn in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” released Nov. 22, 2019.
The death of Mac Miller — This one hit the music world and Pittsburgh hard. The award-winning rapper from Squirrel Hill, who put Pittsburgh’s “Blue Slide Park” on the national map after taking its nickname for his debut album, died in 2018 at age 26 of a drug overdose. His legacy includes The Mac Miller Fund, administered by The Pittsburgh Foundation, which supports programming and opportunities for youth from underserved communities.
HQ2 destination revealed — The HQ2 buzz finally died down when Amazon picked New York City and Washington, D.C., for its new headquarters, over bidding cities including Pittsburgh. Jeff Bezos’ empire was set to hire more than 25,000 employees in each location, along with an Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville, Tenn., with more than 5,000 jobs. Later, Amazon pulled back on its New York City plans.
2019
Everyone wants to stream — Netflix released more than 370 original movies and series this year — which is a good thing for the service, because reruns are becoming scarce for standalone subscription services. Today, everyone wants in on the act, so TV networks and production companies are pulling content that was running on various platforms to create their own services, such as Disney+ and CBS All Access.
Scorsese vs. Marvel — “It’s not cinema!” says the great director Martin Scorsese. To which Marvel’s Kevin Feige responds, via The Hollywood Reporter, “I think that’s not true. I think it’s unfortunate.” What is fortunate for the superhero film series? “Avengers: Endgame,” released in April, laughed all the way to the bank — soaring past “Avatar” to become the biggest movie of all time, at nearly $2.8 billion.
Baby Yoda makes an end-of-year entrance — Stealing some of the thunder from the end of the “Star Wars” Skywalker saga is a little green guy with big pointy ears, in a Disney+ series, “The Mandalorian.” When fans saw him and cried, “Where’s the merch?” Disney said it had ceded to the filmmakers’ request to keep the new character under wraps — and then it immediately got to work taking preorders for all things Baby Yoda, whose popularity seems a sure bet to last into the 2020s.