2014: A decade later

Because I refuse to believe it's 2025.

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Happy New Year, everyone! How are we feeling? Nostalgic? Yeah, I thought so. See, just because it’s the new year doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten how to read everyone’s minds, and that’s exactly why we’re diving BACK into the glorious years of 2014/15. Now, I’ve already done a 2010 revisit, but this is different; this is more specific. We’ve got quite a lot to talk about, so let’s get on the time machine, guys, chop chop!

Pop culture: breaking the internet

God, okay, where do I even begin. SO much happened. Let’s start with the pop culture in no particular order. Okay, first off, we had ‘bendgate’, which is, I think, Apple’s biggest controversy to date. Or at least, the most memorable. The iPhone 6 and 6+ had just been announced, and people had already HATED the camera bump. The first person to buy the iPhone immediately dropped it. These almost seemed like an omen for the future because these phones started to BEND. I don’t have a witty quip about this because I had the 6+, and I have never treated anything gentler than I did my phone, despite Bendgate, iPhones still didn’t lose popularity, all for two VERY simple reasons: the aesthetic emojis and Tumblr. The space grey for the grunge girlies and the rose gold for the glam girlies. What a time to be alive.

Speaking of phones and cameras, before being exposed as problematic, Ellen took over the internet with just a… selfie. It was THE selfie of the year and featured some of the biggest names like Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts. It was also taken on the biggest night for film, the Oscars, so, you know, iconic. It also set the tone for THE selfie at the MET Gala, like three years later.

And, of course, I can’t speak about selfies without talking about the ‘basic girl.’ We don’t have a basic girl now, mainly because we’ve moved away from the negative connotations of the ‘____ girls’ (for the most part, at least). But back then? IT WAS HELL. But I do think she was the start for all the other girls we have today: ‘it girl’, ‘rockstar gf’ and ‘tomato girl’. So, you know, she set the tone and template. What was she characterised by, though? Glad you asked. Infinity scarves in the fall, Starbies in the summer, Taylor Swift in her playlist, you get the gist. The internet describes her as someone who consumes culture in an uninspiring way. Fangirls were called basic, and women who wore VS Pink were called basic, so basically, anyone and everyone was called basic. Wild times.

It was also the year of beef. I’m talking Wagyu. Katy and Taylor were beefing, Solange smacked Jay-Z in an elevator, and the entire world was pretty much against Justin Bieber, and his smiling mugshot went viral. Katy and Taylor beefed over backup dancers, and it gave us songs like Swish Swish and Bad Blood, but the two eventually did make-up and did a music video together. Jay-Z and Solange, however, a lot more serious. Solange was allegedly provoked, and she ended up attacking him.

This was also a massive year for the Kar-Jenners, specifically Kimberly. She broke the internet twice that year. I think that’s also when we coined the term ‘breaking the internet’. She had the dreamiest wedding with Kanye West, and later in the year, she posed for the cover of Paper Mag… With her derrière out. It was definitely shocking. But the money shot was the popped champagne being poured into a glass perched on her, you know. It feels like a fever dream now because nobody does risqué editorials anymore, and it’s like, wow, what happened to us? Don’t let publishing and media die, guys.

And as an honorary mention, let’s talk about the absolute cultural reset that The Fault In Our Stars was. “Okay? Okay.” HAD ME IN A CHOKEHOLD. This went platinum on Tumblr. Cigarette sales probably went up because people wanted to have something that could kill them but not give it the power to. I cried about this movie to my boyfriend at the time, and I definitely think he was questioning everything at that moment, but that’s what this movie does to you, you know? You just had to be there. I can’t truly encapsulate the vibes with words.

I’d like to shout out to all of the two food trends of 2014. Not much happened food-wise, but avocado toasts became a thing, and people (read: millennials) have been insufferable since. The toasts have evolved, though, and they look absolutely stunning, so I’ll give them that. But the real star is the cronut. A croissant donut. I never got to eat it, but I saw the appeal. After my two-year stint in Paris, if there’s one thing I know how to appreciate, it’s a good pastry and good bread.

Music: the breakout year

Onto my favourite part of the year: THE MUSIC. This really was the year of breaking the internet with behinds because Nicki Minaj dropped Anaconda, and it took the internet by storm. The beat was sick, though. The music video still makes me uncomfortable to this day, but I would not shy away from the dance floor if it played at clubs today.

And then we have Happy by Pharrell, which took over the internet in a completely different way. It was so overplayed that it was almost annoying to some people. This was also when he was wearing those super questionable hats. Why would you do that, Pharrell?

But you know what else was annoying to people? Iggy Azalea’s Fancy. Not nearly as annoying as Happy but it was getting up there. This was also Charli XCX’s breakout year of sorts because not only did she work on Fancy, but she also dropped Boom Clap for The Fault In Our Stars OST. She worked with Icona Pop on I Love It before this, so some people were aware of her, but this year REALLY catapulted her into the limelight, and aren’t we glad it did? We wouldn’t have Brat summer, and I firmly believe in this pipeline.

Finally, we had Taylor Swift, who made waves with 1989. This album, in my opinion, was THE album, and I think it’s still the best out of all her discography. Wildest Dreams, Style, and Blank Space really took over my brain. And the cake from Blank Space? It was everywhere. I think this is also where she pivots her genre and fully enters pop.

Overall, it was such a good year for music. Coachella was STILL about music; Adam Levine was known for his music and not his controversies; fandom culture was alive and well, and so were boy bands. Shakira and Rihanna dropped. Austin Mahone was called the new Bieber, and I was a huge fan. We need to bring back having fun and making music for the love of it instead of trying to make 10-second snippets go viral. WE’RE NOT COCOMELON KIDS GUYS COME ON.

Fashion: drippy on a Tuesday?!

The biggest, and frankly the only, moment you need to know is Rihanna's bejewelled gown. THAT was a true Marilyn Monroe moment, without even ruining an original. 😇 This was also one of the years when the celebrities put effort into the MET Gala and followed the theme. It doesn't have very many memorable looks, BUT everyone was on theme, and that's what matters to me. The only memorable thing about this MET Gala was Solange in the elevator. Yeah, this is when it happened. Fun times, no?

But broadly speaking, Tumblr's aesthetic was the one that informed choices amongst the masses. Faux fur coats, ripped stockings, fishnets, Doc Martens, and tie-dye off the top of my head. It was a massive time for DIY and DIY YouTubers, so you'd see people walk around with Peter Pan collars with pointy studs on them. Or riding a penny board in their painted Vans. See, one thing you need to know about fashion in 2014 is that even though, in essence, people were doing the same thing like painted Vans, individuality was still alive. No two people's Vans looked the same; I think we've lost it over the years. There's no experimentation to find out who you truly are because we all just want to fit in niches that change weekly.

But what did social media look like?

Before TikTok, we had Vine, which was so cruelly taken away from us. It was the beginning of the end. If Vine had stayed, we would be less consumerist. People would focus more on content and being themselves rather than what’s trending. Do you get me? Some of the greatest memes exist because of the 6-second limitation. TikTok’s increasing time limits on videos, but we literally have YouTube for that? I think, after the TikTok ban, we should bring back Vine. It would heal society.

Snapchat and Facebook were the most popular apps. Yeah. It was a weird timeline, but we still had trends, except that these trends were for genuine causes. The ALS ice bucket challenge was the biggest (and possibly the only trend that year). Celebrities and non-celebrities alike were doing it. The closest we’ve come to celebrities being relatable. Trends now are about following things, but back then, you’d tag your friends to get them on board. I still remember when I was tagged for the ice bucket challenge. Shuddered. Quite literally.

Social media sites like Twitter and Instagram were a lot more casual. Twitter was still called Twitter and wasn’t as big of a hot mess. Celebrities were on there beefing all day, honestly. Everyone was posting pictures of their cronuts with a deep-fried sepia filter. Nobody really cared. I wonder what changed. Because the only app where people cared about what their feeds looked like was… Tumblr. And, yeah, Tumblr was huge at the time. It shaped internet culture in a sense. Towards the end of the year, Instagram users began to really take care of their feeds. VSCO filters slapped on every picture, blk water and Marlboros everywhere. Life was good. Social media was chill. Let’s bring it back, guys, PLEASE.

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— Brought to you by Shaurya, Trends Reporter at The Z Link