Top 10 Trends of the 2000s

MP3s changed the way we listen to music. But on top of being able to carry thousands of songs in your pocket, listeners wanted open access to their favorite tunes. Thus, the ability to share your files between peers, whether it was popular music, movies, or TV shows, became the wave of the future. Starting with Napster in the late-‘90s, the trend continued throughout the 2000s with sites like services like LimeWire and sites like Pirate Bay. Many criticized illegal file sharing and its effect on the music industry, but those in search of free media shouted them down.

#9: UFC

Also in:

Top 10 Toy Lines of the 2000s

No one’s saying that UFC in any way pioneered televised fighting, but you could make the argument that the company did perfect it. Starting in the early-‘90s and seeing huge popularity throughout the 2000s, the Ultimate Fighting Championship allowed mixed martial arts fighters to use a variety of techniques and fighting styles, ranging from boxing and wrestling to Muay-Thai and Karate, to basically just kick some ass inside the octagon. Spawning a new generation of fighters, UFC continues to dominate popular fighting competitions today.

Coffee culture rose to prominence in the ‘90s, but there came a time in the ‘aughts’ where a cuppa joe just didn’t do the trick anymore for those with the always on-the-go lifestyle. And so the era of the energy drink was ushered in. Viral marketing and product placement led energy drinks like Rockstar, Monster and Red Bull to gain huge popularity, particularly among youth and those involved in teen culture – despite their alleged negative health effects. Just remember, Red Bull may have a Formula One team, but it doesn’t actually give you wings.

#7: Texas Hold ‘Em

Also in:

Top 10 Texas Embarrassments

Who doesn’t love finding new ways to gamble away your hard earned cash? Although standard poker has always been popular, Texas Hold ‘Em rose to popularity due to its relative simplicity, its expansion online and its use in popular media, even enticing James Bond to take a seat at the table in 2006’s “Casino Royale.” Now a staple on TV thanks to the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour, Texas Hold ‘Em is the go-to game of strategy and psychology for friends to casually play over a few beers.

As the quality of consumer-based technology increased over the decades, the 2000s saw it reach a point where users could create content from home and upload it onto the internet for mass viewing. This meant gifs, flash animations, comedic home videos and many more pieces of online media were viewable to anyone with a web connection. With the launch of YouTube in 2005, it wasn’t long before users were able to find a large viewer base. And we gotta say thanks for that.

Though the term “indie” had been around since at least the ‘80s, new digital technologies and the internet that rose to prominence in the 2000s gave bands the chance to not only record on their own, but also to get their music to a wider audience on their own, with MySpace and later iTunes providing especially vital platforms for many groups. Because of this, the 2000s saw a huge rise in independent music, meaning artists could not only avoid conventional means of distribution, but also style choices. This allowed the alternative music genre to flourish, and mainstream music to be affected by new sounds.

#4: Emo

Also in:

Top 10 Trends of the 1980s

Emo originally started as a style of music known as emotional hardcore, where artists expressed dark and emotional ideas through their work. Not only did that genre of music gain mainstream recognition in the early-2000s, it also transformed from a type of music into music more, where fashion choices and even behavior were influenced. Emo culture allowed those who saw themselves as social outcasts to own what made them different. In conjunction with the music, emo style sometimes and stereotypically meant dyed hair, heavy make-up, sharp contrasty colors and lots of black – plus, a few piercings didn’t hurt.

Back in the day, male grooming and style consciousness were traits exhibited almost exclusively by the gay community – at least out in the open. Though the definition of a metrosexual was also similar to that of the ‘80s’ yuppie males, the 2000s saw the rise of the metrosexual, as straight men began taking fashion advice, and putting an abundance of effort and funds into grooming – a trend popularized by the fashion show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” The term metrosexual itself is a combination of the words ‘Metropolitan’ and ‘Heterosexual,’ and it’s since shifted the constantly changing idea of modern masculinity.

The misnomer that is Reality TV began with the idea that hidden cameras would follow people through a series of unscripted events, juxtaposed with talking head interviews with the subjects discussing their thoughts and feelings on those events. Though “Survivor,” the various “Idols” and “Big Brother” are a few pioneers of the genre, celebrities began to exploit trend, with shows like “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,” “The Osbournes” and “Keeping up with the Kardashians” making the personalities even more household names than they already were. Some say this marked the fall of intelligent television; all we can say is that “Jersey Shore” is many folks’ number one guilty pleasure. Before we move onto our top trend, here are a few honorable mentions: - New Era Cap Stickers - Crocs - Livestrong Wristbands - Auto-Tune - Souped-Up Cars & Street Racing Culture

Out of all the things that technology changed during this decade, its greatest impact was on how humans connect with each other. Early networks like Friendster and MySpace gave way to titans like Facebook and Twitter. The draw of expressing yourself, keeping in touch with friends and sharing social lives have encouraged millions of users to log onto these sites. Whether you like them or not, they are a huge part of our lives and have changed the way people talk to each other. Did you agree with our list? What trends from the 2000s are you still trying to buck? For more pop-culture top 10s from all the decades, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.