The '00s: A Reflection

Good evening Tyler,

I figure a decade-in-review post is appropriate, and better late than never right? The years 2000-2009 were big for me. I went from being a little kid, to an awkward pre-teen, to an awkward teen, and now I'm probably the coolest guy from the greater Nashville area (just play along). Let's break it down, yes? Yes.

On Pop Culture:
Since half the world started off 2000 hidden in bunkers filled with distilled water, pork'n'beans, and shotguns I'd say we set the tone for the '00s pretty well (and at least we're halfway prepared for 2012 now). Boy bands were still acceptable and Lance Bass was still straight. Metrosexual was a term that was legitimately used to describe men who wore atrocious clothing. Now we just call them tools and they wear Ed Hardy. And the Hipster! The Hipster didn't really exist in the early '00s. We still had the Emo kids back then and man you had better hope you weren't called an Emo or your days were numbered in certain social groups. I think Paste's "Evolution of the Hipster" pretty much sums up my thoughts (yes, I am 2004).

Remember when Britney Spears was in Austin Powers: Goldmember? Remember how she was America's darling? Too bad 2006 rolled around. You've really worked hard to hit rock bottom when Christina Aguilera looks like a wholesome woman when compared to you (sorry Brit). The other great Beatle died in 2001 (George), Paul was getting divorced when he was 64, and Ringo... Uh... Made a website? For some reason Ashton Kutcher became popular. He proved that you can be a complete douche bag to all your friends in Hollywood and still somehow get work. Did you see Butterfly Effect? Oh my god that was awful. American Idol became the biggest reality show in America and the most annoying for everyone who passed 9th grade algebra.

The '00s also brought about an internet revolution. The internet finally served a purpose other than chronic pornography browsing and forwarding forwarded emails that threatened to burn your house down if you didn't forward them. MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and the Fucking Weather were all created and literally changed the way our society communicated. MySpace taught pre-teens how to catch predators, YouTube pissed off the America's Funniest Home Video's execs, Facebook brought children closer to their parents whether they wanted that or not, Twitter killed Michael Jackson and Rush Limbaugh (but brought the latter back to life), and the Fucking Weather made meteorology finally tolerable. This about-face in the way we communicate will either be the beginning of the next step in our species' level of thinking or it will kill us with our own stupidity. Either way, I eagerly await to find out what happens.

And let us not forget about HIGH DEFINITION (or caps lock). What would our lives be like without HIGH DEFINITION? Probably a lot like 1998: tube TVs and VHS tapes (oh and Ross and Rachel would still be on a break). I'm not going to lie, I enjoy HD quality programming. Planet Earth was single-handedly the best thing to ever happen to television and my life. And despite the US Dollar's value getting smaller and smaller, the televisions just seemed to get bigger and bigger. As much as I love nature and getting back to the basics of life, I do enjoy watching Star Wars in HD on a 50 inch plasma-filled television with speakers that blow my pants right off (and thus inspire pantsless tweets).


I think my favorite pop culture moment of the '00s however, would have to be the Kanye West/Taylor Swift debacle. Kanye was well on his way to striking out. First he said that George Bush didn't care about black people (and almost gave Mike Meyers a heart attack). Then he got mad at everyone for calling him a gay fish. And then he stumbled up on stage, yanked the mic from innocent little Taylor Swift (p.s. why is she famous?) and rambled on about how Beyonce had the best music video. All the hilarity that ensued is why it was my favorite pop culture moment. People were actually upset that Kanye did that. Oh the tweets! The tweets said it all! "OMG I CANT BELEEV KANYE DID THAT TOO TAYLRO"... Now, I'm an old man trapped in a 21 year old body, so naturally I was watching Animal Planet and eating hard-boiled eggs when the tweets started streaming in. I think that actually helped put it all in perspective: Kanye West did what to who? And I care why? Oh that's right I don't, but that lion is about to eat that elephant and it's going to be fucking awesome.

So there you have it, my analysis of pop culture in the '00s.

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Now on a more serious note. I have the feeling the year 2000 will be looked back upon as some kind of strange anomaly in history. It was the beginning of the new Millennium, but we were still so innocent. I'm of course talking about 9/11/2001. That day obviously changed the game completely for everyone. It's strange watching films that came out just after 9/11 because they are so delicate with violence (The Bourne Identity was almost shut down). Now we live in a world where "terrorist" conjures images of bearded men in turbans and we're not allowed to read books for the last hour of our flights. We started out this decade in complete turmoil and confusion and we ended it not much farther than where we started off. We're still fighting two wars, one that was set off on 9/11 and another that was based on lies (yeah I'm going to offend all my conservative readers right now). We watched the Almighty Dollar plummet into fire-starters and our concept of human rights become limited to American citizens only. Echos of Vietnam were seen and heard in the early years of the Iraq War, but lost with the lack of passion from those against the war.

It's interesting to see the progression through this decade. It's a rollercoaster of fear, anger, patriotism and morality. Everyone is always right or always wrong. We've had to question what price we're willing to pay for our own safety. Sure, Americans were relatively safe on their own turf while President Bush was in office, but what about everyone not on American soil? We don't hear about it in the news so it doesn't really happen? The photos from Abu Ghraib didn't lie. Those opposed to the war questioned the Constitutionality of torturing human beings, and now those opposed to health care reform for Americans raise the same concerns of Constitutionality. More than ever, we live in confusing times. We are being forced to question our own morality as a country, and redefining what exactly "civil" and "human" rights mean. All that being said, we are living in a very pivotal time in American history and I, for one, am happy to be a part of it.

Now, if you're still reading this... I have no idea why. Here's to a great 2010 and decade!