Happy Monday Tuesday!

Apologies for the delayed newsletter, but I wanted to make sure I got this right. I love the 2010s, despite my hesitation about our constant nostalgia over the era. Since I’ve noticed so many people get it wrong online, I decided to make a visual and cultural guide to the decade. The first half is in this edition and the second half will be in Thursday’s send. Now, enjoy the first part of my magnum opus. If you think I misplaced something, drop me a line.

I have been successfully ragebaited into making this post. Last week, I wrote a bit about 2016 making a comeback, which I’ll reiterate is simply a repackaged version of the 2010s nostalgia we’ve been obsessed with throughout this decade so far. 

I talk about the 2010s quite a bit in this newsletter. I also see people discussing specific years online with no actual regard or understanding as to what that year actually looked/sounded/felt like. (I’m certain people are doing this to engagement farm, but I genuinely think people conflate each year.) I decided to make my definitive guide to the decade, which the internet and Gen Z seems to constantly come back to. This is culture told from the POV of a Zillennial who was a tween/teen/twentysomething at the time, so that colors the look of it all.

Transitioning out of the dirty aughts and the Great Recession, we took the remnants of the cultural escapism and optimism from the end of the decade into the early 2010s. Visually, almost everything reflected excess in this first year. On one side of culture, sleazy partygirl culture was reaching its peak. We were still in the clubs. Kesha’s (formerly Ke$ha, another perfect relic of the time) “TiK ToK” became one of the biggest hits of the year. Jersey Shore had just become a massive success and was entering its second season (during which we got the infamous Note). The Black-Eyed Peas were still basking in the glow of The E.N.D., which gave us iconic bangers like “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling.” 

In another corner of culture, we entered a bubblegum-pink fantasy land, with Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream and Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday releasing this year. Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s collab “Telephone” was a pop art-fueled joyride. Even middle schoolers (me) were indulging in the bright colors, donning “I ❤️Boobies” bracelets, graphic tees, and Silly Bandz.

While we were a few years away from the Stan Twitter boom, fandom became front-and-center with the rise of Bieber Fever after Justin Bieber released “Baby.” Tween culture was still alive and well, with programming on the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon still thriving. Kids were online (on Club Penguin!), but not really on social media.

The chaotic feeling of the post-recession culture continued, with club bangers continuing to dominate the radio, celebrities pulling crazy stunts (“WINNING!”), and the rise of viral phenoms. Rihanna was at the top of her game and still had time to be one of the best celebs on Twitter, which had become the place for fans and artists to connect. This is when the barriers between fame and normalcy began to break down, with the rise of social media opening the doors for anyone to gain notoriety. People began paying attention to the latest megaviral videos on YouTube, such as Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” concerning food challenges from Epic Meal Time, or the “Super Bass” cover by Sophia Grace and Rosie that landed them on the Ellen Show. Things were still visually busy, with swag aesthetics reaching new heights around this time. Swag went hand-in-hand with the continued interest in dance, as evidenced by the popularity of America’s Best Dance Crew and LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem,” which had a music video featuring ABDC season 3 winners Quest Crew.

This was an iconic year, perhaps because people thought it would be the end of the world? Hipster vibes went triple platinum in the mainstream with the premiere of Girls, the popularization of flower crowns at Coachella (thank you, Vanessa Hudgens), and renewed interest in one-of-a-kind vintage following Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop.” We also saw a modern British invasion, with One Direction, Doctor Who, Sherlock, and even Cher Lloyd growing fandoms online. Stan wars between Beliebers and Directioners were also popping off on Twitter around this time.

Cracks in the optimist sheen of this era began to show. People began questioning the intentions behind online activism. Kony 2012, which advocated for the capture of Ugandan militia leader Joseph Kony, went viral on YouTube, receiving both high-profile support and criticism for being one of the early instances of online “slacktivism.” Mental health psuedoactivism became huge on Tumblr with cheesy “You Are Not Alone” posts and renewed interest in the nonprofit To Write Love on Her Arms. Elsewhere in culture, dystopian YA became all the rage with the release of the first Hunger Games movie. Meanwhile, apocalypse conspiracies stemming from the Mayan calendar were propelled by the internet.

Millennial optimism began to die out here, at least for elder Gen Z teens lurking online, although aesthetically things were still quite bright and colorful. Vintage became all the rage, with the online retailer ModCloth blowing up and high-waisted bottoms coming back in vogue. I recall visions of Peter Pan collars, chevron print, and A-line skirts. Miley Cyrus was in our faces with her Bangerz era, making parents mad and her young fans (me) feral. But things started getting more muted and moodier, with “pastel goth” rising in popularity on Tumblr (which would transition into the monochrome look of “soft grunge” the following year). Artists like Lana Del Rey, Lorde, and The 1975 would usher in a more existential and nihilistic tone with their alternative pop bangers.

YouTube was reaching a new level of success, with early vloggers like those in the Brit Crew and Bethany Mota exploding in popularity. They were selling their lifestyles and laying the groundwork for the influencer model we have today, which relies on a cult of personality and parasocial relationships to attract consumers. Shortform video also emerged at this time with the introduction of Vine, the six-second video app that launched the careers of many popular creators.

Beyoncé also “changed the game with that digital drop” with the release of her self-titled visual album. This set the standard for album releases, not just for visuals, but also the actual release day for projects.

Ah, the much-beloved, much-discussed year of 2014. It’s funny that people recall this year when they think about Tumblr. If you ask any avid user of that platform at the time, they can probably tell you that this is when they became less active on their blogs. This is something that I spoke to ex-Tumblr evangelists about when I did this story about 2014 Tumblr. Still, the cultural imagination about this year on that site persists, perhaps it’s because of recency bias compared to the other years I’ve discussed so far. 

Things got more “aesthetic” online, with people trying to be artsy on Instagram and Tumblr. Warm, diffused filters covered every color photo and feeds were full of flatlays. A lot of people associate this time with indie sleaze, but minimalist styles became more popular here, with looks becoming more black, white, and neutral. Analog media came back into vogue, with vinyls and Polaroid cameras (see: Taylor Swift’s 1989 album cover) making a resurgence. 

The Kardashians solidified their cultural dominance, leveraging their social media savvy to set trends. Kim Kardashian posed for that iconic “Break the Internet” PAPER magazine cover and flaunted her curves. Kylie Jenner was just entering her “King Kylie” era, popularizing colorful hair and overlined lips among teens.

The internet also became a more insidious place, with attacks against women during GamerGate and CelebGate serving as an unsettling precursor for things to come. Could this be why people have tried to preserve this year in their minds? Was this the beginning of the end of fun internet? 

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. I made a ukulele playlist inspired by the instrument’s prominence in the 2010s. I found this column from the Honolulu Star Advertiser from 2011 talking about how the uke became ubiquitous in the wake of the Great Recession because it was portable, inexpensive, and easy to learn. The more you know! (P.S.: My Spotify is buggy and won’t let me put a playlist cover, but you get the idea.)

In this week’s playlist:

Other things I want to share with you.