The Iconic Pop Culture Moments That Will Forever Define The 2010s

The 2010s were a chaotic decade in every way, thanks in part to the rise of social media. This is especially true for pop culture. Conversations changed and shifted and happened globally in real time, impacting not just how we consume and react to pop culture, but how it’s actually made and distributed.

To quote @horse_ebooks (an iconic cultural moment in itself, RIP), “everything happens so much”. We can’t possibly list every important pop culture moment of the 2010s here, but here’s a crack at some of the most impactful…

The Oscar Goes To… The Wrong Movie

Remember when La La Land swept the Oscars? Right down to Best Picture? Except SIKE it was actually Moonlight that won?

Of COURSE you remember, because if you were watching that day in 2017, that moment is forever ingrained into your brain. The crew’s joy that turned to horror, the absolute chaos on stage, Ryan Gosling cracking up laughing, Moonlight finally getting its moment…it was a RIDE from start to finish. 

Killer Clowns Who Fuck

The 2010s were the decade for clowns. It really ramped up around 2016.

For some reason there were all these creepy clown sightings around the world, including in Australia. Two 12-year-old girls were even attacked by a clown in Adelaide. 

Then It came out in 2017, and everyone was still talking about clowns…except mixed in with fear was a significant amount of thirstiness? It’s a sign of just how horny we were this decade that Pennywise became masturbation material.

He was followed by other monsters that people were horny for, like Venom, and that fish guy from The Shape of Water. It was a good time for monster fuckers, basically.

The Great Streaming Wars

Netflix finally came to Australia in 2015 after local service Stan had launched. Soon every free-to-air service in Australia had its own streaming app — and so did Foxtel, for that matter. By the end of 2019, Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Disney+ had joined the ranks of services available in the country.

Basically, TV at the end of the decade looks VERY different to the beginning of the decade.

A Royal Resurgence

In the 2010s the British royals became Cool again.

Kate and Wills’ wedding in 2011 had everyone talking, and the adorable babies they subsequently churned out made the world fall for the young family. But it wasn’t until Suits actress Meghan Markle became engaged to Harry that Hollywood and the royal family collided in the perfect pop culture storm.

Meanwhile, the success of Netflix’s The Crown fuelled more interest in the older generations than they’d had in years. 

Kylie Jenner’s Lips

In 2010 Kylie Jenner was probably the most overlooked of the Kardashian/Jenner clan.

But thanks largely to Instagram, cosmetic enhancements and heavy dose of lipliner, she ended the decade the richest and arguably the most popular of the lot. Kylie Lip Kits launched in 2015 and had people everywhere overlining their lips, and Kylie Cosmetics hasn’t looked back. 

The Return Of The Boy Band

One Direction exploded onto the scene in 2010 and reminded everyone that actually, boy bands are great.

They dominated the charts and relentlessly toured for the next five years, until member Zayn departed the band. The remaining four continued working together for the remainder of 2015, when they went on “indefinite hiatus”. While they’ve since each released solo work, to varying degrees of success, a new boy band has risen and taken over the world: BTS. 

BTS debuted in South Korea in 2013, but it wasn’t until around 2017 that they really became really well known globally. By 2019, they were breaking multiple world records, including the most viewed music video on YouTube within 24 hours, and were the first band since the Beatles to have three albums land the number one spot on the Billboard chart within 12 months.

The Rise And Fall Of Game of Thrones

By every discernable measure, Game of Thrones was the biggest TV show of the decade… and potentially the biggest show of all time.

No other show has been watched and talked about simultaneously, globally, to the same degree. And it’s perhaps the last time a show will be watched in such a way too, what with the aforementioned streaming wars and all. As for Game of Thrones itself, its legacy has been somewhat muddied by its disastrous final season. But there’s no denying it made an impact.

It’s Marvel’s (Cinematic) Universe And We’re Just Living In It

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched in 2008 with Iron Man, it didn’t really come together — on multiple levels — until the first Avengers movie in 2012.

It subsequently dominated our screens for the rest of the decade, with no signs it will slow down despite the original story arc coming to an end in 2019 with Avengers: Endgame. It also made other companies take note and try to launch their own cinematic universes — some more successful than others, although none quite matching the scale and popularity of the MCU.

The Greatest Lip Sync Of All Time

Tom Holland’s performance of ‘Umbrella’ is THE greatest thing to happen in the 2010s, and if you don’t know it by now GO WATCH IT.

He threw himself into the performance with unashamed abandon, comfortable in his own skin — and in a corset. It’s an unwritten law of the internet that if the video comes on your timeline, you’re compelled to watch it at least three times in a row and then share it. It’s like The Ring curse, but GOOD.

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Jenna Guillaume is a Sydney-based writer who loves all things TV and pop culture. She tweets @JennaGuillaume, and her new book, ‘What I Like About Me’ is available now.