The 10 cultural moments that defined the year Calum Marsh

Amid the most ludicrous tumult in recent political history, the culture machine continued whirring – sometimes responsive to the turbulence at home and abroad, more often not. It does take time for our writers, musicians, filmmakers and the otherwise creative to reflect on the Age, whatever age that may be, and articulate something coherent to say about it. Meanwhile we languish on in dumbfounded wonder, stupefied by world events and seeking whatever minor solace we can glean from the books and movies and TV shows around us. Here’s what, for better or worse, emerged to catch our eye in 2017.

10. Stephen King has a moment Stephen King’s cultural cachet this year was so inexhaustibly rich that an unanimously loathed blockbuster (The Dark Tower) and an almost entirely unwatched series (The Mist) were not enough to diminish it. Instead audiences gravitated to Gerald’s Game and 1922, well-received thrillers made for Netflix; and of course It, the highest-grossing horror film of all time. 9. Gamers revolt against microtransactions Microtransactions, bane of gamers’ existence: these infernal in-game purchases have for years been the domain of free-to-play apps as a moneymaking scheme, but it was this November, with their implementation in Star Wars Battlefront II, that they made the leap to the triple-A mainstream. Gamers refused to abide it. A campaign to boycott Battlefront cost its publisher, Electronic Arts, more than $3 billion in stock value. 8. HBO thrives, amazingly,

despite major leaks When HBO suffered a cataclysmic siege of piracy earlier this year – hackers spirited more than a terabyte and a half of stolen data away – it was widely speculated that the cost of the breach would be dire. Then HBO blundered even worse: unaired episodes of its flagship show Game of Thrones leaked online, not once but twice. What’s amazing is that it hardly seemed to matter. Thrones still conquered: its finale drew 16.5 million viewers, the most widely watched episode in network history. 7. Taylor Swift finds poptimism

in decline More than a decade after “poptimism” – an informal manifesto and call to arms that insisted upon pop music as a valid mode of artistic expression – redefined the landscape of music criticism, its influence seems suddenly on the wane. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the chilly reception that met Taylor Swift’s Reputation, her sixth album and first to be widely scorned. 6. The Sun and Her Flowers makes poetry hip the worst poems ever written sold millions to teens who instagram but don’t read – rupi kaur 5. Twin Peaks redefines television (maybe) David Lynch said it was an 18-hour movie. Its producers have said they’d be happy to roll it out theatrically. But since film critics have begun to embrace Twin Peaks: The Return as the de facto

movie of the year, TV pundits have balked and lost it – and the debate about “what it is” rages on loudly. In any event, it’s obvious that The Return is an artistic achievement so high that its greatness will endure forever. Whether in the multiplex or on the tube, there won’t soon be anything like it. 4. Tasteless charcoal ice cream rules Instagram Are we really so anxious to prove ourselves a merry part of the culinary zeitgeist that we are willing to queue 90 minutes for the privilege of overpaying for mediocre photogenic dessert? Well, yes, if the lineups streaming out of Sweet Jesus are any indication. But the trend has reached a new nadir with black ice cream – the year’s confection de jour, even though we all know activated charcoal is ridiculous. Golly. What price, Instagram? 3. We’ve given up on The Walk

ing Dead, finally Roughly 15-million Americans have been tuning in to watch – or perhaps endure – new instalments of The Walking Dead every Sunday night for years now, and for a long time it seemed as if AMC’s ratings juggernaut was invulnerable to indifference. But this year boredom finally triumphed over excitement, and even the promise of “All Out War” was not enough to prevent viewers from revolt. Its fifth season finale was seen by 17-million people. Lately they can barely muster seven. 2. Tiffany Haddish basks in glory I am not sure the critical establishment has ever agreed on anything with such uniform ardour as it agreed, this summer, on the genius of Tiffany Haddish in Girls Trip. A thunderclap of bravura exuberance, Haddish supercharges the screen every moment she graces it, lighting up each frame with bawdy brio and irrepressible ribaldry. Is the universal praise so surprising? The world is galvanized. Give this woman the Oscar. 1. “Despacito” ascends to miraculous ubiquity There are songs that top charts and songs that dominate the airwaves. Then there are songs whose ascent to ubiquity is so swift and so irrevocable that they seem to have materialized in the universal consciousness: thus “Despacito” felt not merely popular but eternal, inescapable. It was unsurprising, last August, when it became the first video in YouTube history to surpass three billion views. What’s alarming is that four months later it has nearly five. Will it ever stop?