The world looked very different in 2010. Instagram landed on our phones and we were sincerely excited about sepia filters and novelty borders. One Direction were put together and we’d only just reached the third film in the Twilight Saga. Lady Gaga debuted the meat dress and BBC launched a little programme called Downton Abbey.
And look at us now. We speak more often of the dangers of social media than the fun we used to have with it. The 1D boys are releasing solo music all over the place and our beloved Gaga will now be best remembered for her award-winning turn as Ally Campana in A Star Is Born.
It’s been a decade of chaos and change in the entertainment world, and it's been both thrilling and overwhelming to watch. Streaming thoroughly changed our lives and, for better or worse, television will never look the same again. Memes shaped our experience on the internet and the Kardashian-Jenner realm of influence grew to unimaginable strength. And between music figureheads Stormzy and Beyoncé, politics and the black experience intertwined in the most powerful way on the global stage. Elsewhere, the fight for better representation of women on screen gained momentum but still has so much further to go, and we’ll undoubtedly be feeling the aftershock from the Harvey Weinstein #MeToo scandal into the 2020s.
It’s been quite a ride. Ahead, we work through the key moments that have shaped everything you’ve watched and listened to over the last ten years.
Photo by First Light Prods/Kingsgatefilms/Kobal/Shutterstock.
2010: Kathryn Bigelow is the first (and only) female director to win an Oscar
Katheryn Bigelow won the Academy Award for Best Director for her work on The Hurt Locker and, ten years later, we’re still waiting for the next woman director to take home a gold statue. Only five women have been nominated for the accolade in Oscars history with Greta Gerwig having received the last female nomination for Lady Bird in 2018.
The representation of women behind the camera has seen depressingly slow progress and is reflected beyond the Oscars, out into the wider industry. Women accounted for just 13% of the directors on the 700 top grossing films in 2014 and 7% of the top 250 in 2016. In 2016, Refinery29 launched the Shatterbox Anthology, a women-led project giving 12 female directors the opportunity claim the power that Hollywood has historically denied them.
Diversity in the broader sense has long been a huge issue at the Oscars and in the film industry as a whole, but it’s conversation around it's lack of representation for people of colour that spiked in 2015 when BroadwayBlack.com’s managing editor April Reign tweeted “#OscarsSoWhite, they asked to touch my hair.” The hashtag went viral and was a catalyst for talks of celebrity boycotts and the Academy later inviting more people of colour to take membership. 41% of those invited in 2016 were people of colour, and the list included 39% women and 30 people of colour in 2017. The hope is that with more diverse people within the Academy, we’ll see the diversity better reflected the films that they recognise too.
Katheryn Bigelow won the Academy Award for Best Director for her work on The Hurt Locker and, ten years later, we’re still waiting for the next woman director to take home a gold statue. Only five women have been nominated for the accolade in Oscars history with Greta Gerwig having received the last female nomination for Lady Bird in 2018.
The representation of women behind the camera has seen depressingly slow progress and is reflected beyond the Oscars, out into the wider industry. Women accounted for just 13% of the directors on the 700 top grossing films in 2014 and 7% of the top 250 in 2016. In 2016, Refinery29 launched the Shatterbox Anthology, a women-led project giving 12 female directors the opportunity claim the power that Hollywood has historically denied them.
Diversity in the broader sense has long been a huge issue at the Oscars and in the film industry as a whole, but it’s conversation around it's lack of representation for people of colour that spiked in 2015 when BroadwayBlack.com’s managing editor April Reign tweeted “#OscarsSoWhite, they asked to touch my hair.” The hashtag went viral and was a catalyst for talks of celebrity boycotts and the Academy later inviting more people of colour to take membership. 41% of those invited in 2016 were people of colour, and the list included 39% women and 30 people of colour in 2017. The hope is that with more diverse people within the Academy, we’ll see the diversity better reflected the films that they recognise too.
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Image Courtesy of Shutterstock.
2011: Kim Kardashian marries and divorces Kris Humphries in a month
In an episode of Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Kim Kardashian and NBA player husband Kris Humphries are arguing. He wants her to move to Minnesota and she doesn’t want to go because she won’t be able to pursue her career. “Baby, by the time you have kids and they’re in school, no one will care about you.” Kris returns. Funny, isn’t it?
The Kardashians have evolved, driven and even warped the way that we consume celebrity. People magazine reported that it was the pressure of filming for the reality TV show and being watched at all times nudged Kim and Kris to divorce. Of course, we all now that it’s this very public fascination that catapulted the Kardashian family to global obsession and multi-billion net worth.
We also know that the key to monetising brand Kardashian has been strategic partnership, opportunistic movements and the work of momager Kris Jenner. Kim joined Instagram in 2012 and it wasn’t long before she became synonymous with the word ‘selfie’. In 2014 she launched her iPhone video game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and attempted to ‘break the internet’ with a naked Paper magazine cover. Her marriage to Kanye West elevated her status further and into a different realm of credibility. Her family members’ interwoven profiles have risen in parallel as part of their impenetrable empire. And let’s not forget Kim’s sudden involvement in politics when she campaigned for the release of Cyntoia Brown and taking meetings at the White House. It’s been over a decade of break ups and beauty launches, international controversies and frustrating #spon and yet, the Kardashian-Jenners remain on top of their game, and the internet.
In an episode of Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Kim Kardashian and NBA player husband Kris Humphries are arguing. He wants her to move to Minnesota and she doesn’t want to go because she won’t be able to pursue her career. “Baby, by the time you have kids and they’re in school, no one will care about you.” Kris returns. Funny, isn’t it?
The Kardashians have evolved, driven and even warped the way that we consume celebrity. People magazine reported that it was the pressure of filming for the reality TV show and being watched at all times nudged Kim and Kris to divorce. Of course, we all now that it’s this very public fascination that catapulted the Kardashian family to global obsession and multi-billion net worth.
We also know that the key to monetising brand Kardashian has been strategic partnership, opportunistic movements and the work of momager Kris Jenner. Kim joined Instagram in 2012 and it wasn’t long before she became synonymous with the word ‘selfie’. In 2014 she launched her iPhone video game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and attempted to ‘break the internet’ with a naked Paper magazine cover. Her marriage to Kanye West elevated her status further and into a different realm of credibility. Her family members’ interwoven profiles have risen in parallel as part of their impenetrable empire. And let’s not forget Kim’s sudden involvement in politics when she campaigned for the release of Cyntoia Brown and taking meetings at the White House. It’s been over a decade of break ups and beauty launches, international controversies and frustrating #spon and yet, the Kardashian-Jenners remain on top of their game, and the internet.
2012: Netflix launches in the UK
It’s hard to imagine a world without Netflix. It was the acquisition of House Of Cards - their first venture into original programming - which was considered a huge risk at the time, that triggered the biggest change in television that we’d ever seen. The series was the first streaming show to win an Emmy in 2013 and that same year gave us Orange Is The New Black. Out of the blue hits like Stranger Things followed and competing streaming services have been trying to keep up since.
Not only did Netflix’s arrival disrupt our traditional viewing structure with flexibility – we now want everything in one binge-friendly package, without adverts and available our own time – it became a culture in itself. When ‘Netflix and Chill’ became a verb, rather than a noun in 2014 it re-cemented itself not only the pioneering face of the streaming revolution but as a pop culture focal point that we still orbit around all these years later.
It’s hard to imagine a world without Netflix. It was the acquisition of House Of Cards - their first venture into original programming - which was considered a huge risk at the time, that triggered the biggest change in television that we’d ever seen. The series was the first streaming show to win an Emmy in 2013 and that same year gave us Orange Is The New Black. Out of the blue hits like Stranger Things followed and competing streaming services have been trying to keep up since.
Not only did Netflix’s arrival disrupt our traditional viewing structure with flexibility – we now want everything in one binge-friendly package, without adverts and available our own time – it became a culture in itself. When ‘Netflix and Chill’ became a verb, rather than a noun in 2014 it re-cemented itself not only the pioneering face of the streaming revolution but as a pop culture focal point that we still orbit around all these years later.
2013: The Harlem Shake takes over the internet
What’s in a meme? Take a simple premise: someone dancing. Throw in a pleasing surprise: the strangers join in the dance and, when the music drops, everyone goes wild. And make it repeatable enough to overshadow its humble origins: thank you, YouTube.
By the time Harlem Shake became the viral video meme of 2013, with the original clip racking up more than 700 million views in one month and prompting imitations by everyone from the Manchester City football team to the Norwegian army to The Simpsons, we had something similar in PSY’s “Gangnam Style”. But the culture of memes and their emergence as our primary method of internet communication is continually evolving. That said, it’s around this point in the decade when the invitation for people to get involved and create their own versions of viral videos (you know, rather than passively absorb them on Tumblr and Twitter) really sunk in.
Testament to the mood of the time, it’s also this year that Vine launched and the speed at which a viral video was able to make literally anyone with a phone famous was made evident. It bypassed YouTube as the main platform for this enduring brand of online humour and despite its sad demise in 2017, paved the way for TikTok’s speedy growth as the next meme machine.
What’s in a meme? Take a simple premise: someone dancing. Throw in a pleasing surprise: the strangers join in the dance and, when the music drops, everyone goes wild. And make it repeatable enough to overshadow its humble origins: thank you, YouTube.
By the time Harlem Shake became the viral video meme of 2013, with the original clip racking up more than 700 million views in one month and prompting imitations by everyone from the Manchester City football team to the Norwegian army to The Simpsons, we had something similar in PSY’s “Gangnam Style”. But the culture of memes and their emergence as our primary method of internet communication is continually evolving. That said, it’s around this point in the decade when the invitation for people to get involved and create their own versions of viral videos (you know, rather than passively absorb them on Tumblr and Twitter) really sunk in.
Testament to the mood of the time, it’s also this year that Vine launched and the speed at which a viral video was able to make literally anyone with a phone famous was made evident. It bypassed YouTube as the main platform for this enduring brand of online humour and despite its sad demise in 2017, paved the way for TikTok’s speedy growth as the next meme machine.
Photo by Denise Truscello/Contributor/Getty Images.
2014: Taylor Swift pulls her music from Spotify
If there was a pivotal moment in the music streaming game this decade, it was Taylor Swift’s decision to block Spotify from using her music - just a week after releasing her album 1989. The issue was over money, of course, and the amount artists earned from services at a time when physical albums were no longer hot product and fans could listen to their music for free.
Sales had been dropping for a while as the pivot to digital listening via Spotify, YouTube, Beats Music continued, with Apple Music launching a year later in 2015. Jay Z’s Tidal launched that same year (to much frustration at its competitive price), but the key to this particular service was exclusivity. When Beyoncé dropped her surprise visual album, Lemonade in 2016, it reportedly brought 1.2 million new users and 306 million global streams to the struggling service. And I'm sure no one needs reminding of the culture impact the album, her lyrics and personal revelations had on all of us.
If there was a pivotal moment in the music streaming game this decade, it was Taylor Swift’s decision to block Spotify from using her music - just a week after releasing her album 1989. The issue was over money, of course, and the amount artists earned from services at a time when physical albums were no longer hot product and fans could listen to their music for free.
Sales had been dropping for a while as the pivot to digital listening via Spotify, YouTube, Beats Music continued, with Apple Music launching a year later in 2015. Jay Z’s Tidal launched that same year (to much frustration at its competitive price), but the key to this particular service was exclusivity. When Beyoncé dropped her surprise visual album, Lemonade in 2016, it reportedly brought 1.2 million new users and 306 million global streams to the struggling service. And I'm sure no one needs reminding of the culture impact the album, her lyrics and personal revelations had on all of us.
2015: Caitlyn Jenner is introduced on the cover of Vanity Fair
With one photo on the cover of Vanity Fair, Caitlyn Jenner became the most famous trans woman in the world. Quickly, she was touted as the mouthpiece for the transgender community who had long gone under- or misrepresented in the media. Jenner’s transition received mixed reviews. Some critics called for her to use her wealth and high profile to help the most marginalised people in the transgender community while others noticed the speed at which less privileged members of the transgender community who had spent years trying to elevate their rights and voices were quickly overshadowed.
Caitlyn Jenner’s publicity did cast new and necessary light on trans representation on the whole, though. With pioneering individuals ahead of her, the profound impact that people like Laverne Cox and her Orange Is The New Black character’s narrative had been making for example, Jenner is a significant marker in the evolution of trans visibility in entertainment.
From shows like Transparent and Pose to Hunter Schafer’s Jules in Euphoria, the movement is inching forwards. But the conversation around ensuring the right people are playing trans characters on screen, and opening up opportunities for trans voices on the both sides of the camera, has to keep being push forward to ensure a greater cultural impact.
With one photo on the cover of Vanity Fair, Caitlyn Jenner became the most famous trans woman in the world. Quickly, she was touted as the mouthpiece for the transgender community who had long gone under- or misrepresented in the media. Jenner’s transition received mixed reviews. Some critics called for her to use her wealth and high profile to help the most marginalised people in the transgender community while others noticed the speed at which less privileged members of the transgender community who had spent years trying to elevate their rights and voices were quickly overshadowed.
Caitlyn Jenner’s publicity did cast new and necessary light on trans representation on the whole, though. With pioneering individuals ahead of her, the profound impact that people like Laverne Cox and her Orange Is The New Black character’s narrative had been making for example, Jenner is a significant marker in the evolution of trans visibility in entertainment.
From shows like Transparent and Pose to Hunter Schafer’s Jules in Euphoria, the movement is inching forwards. But the conversation around ensuring the right people are playing trans characters on screen, and opening up opportunities for trans voices on the both sides of the camera, has to keep being push forward to ensure a greater cultural impact.
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2016: David Bowie dies
This was a painful year; one that will always be remembered as the year we lost icons and legends in unbelievably quick succession. One of the most impactful loses was David Bowie. Two days after his 69th birthday, one of the most influential people in music lost his battle with cancer on 10th January 2016. The impact rippled across social media, radio stations and the cities across the world for months afterwards.
Medleys at the Grammy Awards, tributes at Glastonbury, posthumous nominations and a constellation of stars named in his honour followed. His passing was the first of many that wake us up to a sad reality - that we were saying goodbye to an entire generation of the greatest, most influential figures in music.
This year we also sadly lost: Prince, Alan Rickman, Carry Fisher, Harper Lee, George Martin, Muhammad Ali, Gene Wilder, Leonard Cohen and Debbie Reynolds.
This was a painful year; one that will always be remembered as the year we lost icons and legends in unbelievably quick succession. One of the most impactful loses was David Bowie. Two days after his 69th birthday, one of the most influential people in music lost his battle with cancer on 10th January 2016. The impact rippled across social media, radio stations and the cities across the world for months afterwards.
Medleys at the Grammy Awards, tributes at Glastonbury, posthumous nominations and a constellation of stars named in his honour followed. His passing was the first of many that wake us up to a sad reality - that we were saying goodbye to an entire generation of the greatest, most influential figures in music.
This year we also sadly lost: Prince, Alan Rickman, Carry Fisher, Harper Lee, George Martin, Muhammad Ali, Gene Wilder, Leonard Cohen and Debbie Reynolds.
Photo by SCOTT HEINS/GETTY.
2017: Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo scandal
This story is so cemented in the public consciousness and yet enduringly crucial to revisit. In October 2017 the New York Times published an investigation into Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and the allegations of sexual harassment and assault against him. It reignited the #MeToo movement across social media and saw women the world over share their own painful experiences of sexual assault in tandem with the women working in Hollywood who initially spoke out.
The knock on effect was colossal and soon saw the suspension of the head of Amazon Studios, actor Kevin Spacey, U.S. Republican Candidate Roy Moore and comedian Louis CK, James Franco, Aziz Ansari, R. Kelly, and more were accused a little while later. The Time's Up initiative launched the following January, spearheaded by 300 women working in entertainment and it's physical presence at the Golden Globes where attendees participated in a red carpet "blackout" wearing black clothes, made international headlines.
It was the movement that dominated all conversation at 2018's award season and has either commanded or overshadowed entertainment in the couple of years since. With TV shows pushing difficult, oppressive experiences of women to the forefront like The Handmaid's Tale and Big Little Lies arriving coincidentally, in a climate still raw from months of painful revelations, only made the importance of the movement more vivid the world over.
This story is so cemented in the public consciousness and yet enduringly crucial to revisit. In October 2017 the New York Times published an investigation into Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and the allegations of sexual harassment and assault against him. It reignited the #MeToo movement across social media and saw women the world over share their own painful experiences of sexual assault in tandem with the women working in Hollywood who initially spoke out.
The knock on effect was colossal and soon saw the suspension of the head of Amazon Studios, actor Kevin Spacey, U.S. Republican Candidate Roy Moore and comedian Louis CK, James Franco, Aziz Ansari, R. Kelly, and more were accused a little while later. The Time's Up initiative launched the following January, spearheaded by 300 women working in entertainment and it's physical presence at the Golden Globes where attendees participated in a red carpet "blackout" wearing black clothes, made international headlines.
It was the movement that dominated all conversation at 2018's award season and has either commanded or overshadowed entertainment in the couple of years since. With TV shows pushing difficult, oppressive experiences of women to the forefront like The Handmaid's Tale and Big Little Lies arriving coincidentally, in a climate still raw from months of painful revelations, only made the importance of the movement more vivid the world over.
Photo by Samir Hussein / Contributor.
2018: Stormzy calls out Theresa May for Grenfell at the Brit Awards
Shortly after receiving the Album of the Year Award for his debut LP, Gang Signs and Prayer, Stormzy took to the Brits stage to perform. In a freestyle between "Blinded By Your Grace PT 2" and "Big For Your Boots", he rapped: "Theresa May, where's the money for Grenfell?"
His name was all over the news after publicly challenging the Prime Minister for her lack lustre response and action after the Grenfell Tower fire the year before, in which at least 71 people were killed. It was a big and pivotal moment for Stormzy's profile, for grime music's visibility and for the alignment between this, a genre of music that had been historically disregarded at mainstream awards shows like the Brits, and the social-political agenda. Here we had a young black MC vocalising the concerns of a huge chunk of the population in a way that couldn't be ignored. His impact and the cruciality of his presence hasn't gone unnoticed since - particularly in political spheres. This year, voter registration spiked by 236 percent on the day Stormzy urged his social media followers to vote in the general election.
Shortly after receiving the Album of the Year Award for his debut LP, Gang Signs and Prayer, Stormzy took to the Brits stage to perform. In a freestyle between "Blinded By Your Grace PT 2" and "Big For Your Boots", he rapped: "Theresa May, where's the money for Grenfell?"
His name was all over the news after publicly challenging the Prime Minister for her lack lustre response and action after the Grenfell Tower fire the year before, in which at least 71 people were killed. It was a big and pivotal moment for Stormzy's profile, for grime music's visibility and for the alignment between this, a genre of music that had been historically disregarded at mainstream awards shows like the Brits, and the social-political agenda. Here we had a young black MC vocalising the concerns of a huge chunk of the population in a way that couldn't be ignored. His impact and the cruciality of his presence hasn't gone unnoticed since - particularly in political spheres. This year, voter registration spiked by 236 percent on the day Stormzy urged his social media followers to vote in the general election.
2019: The final episode of Game of Thrones
Never has there been mass disappointment in a TV show quite like the one experienced this year with Game Of Thrones. There's no doubt that the HBO series was the biggest of the decade, launching in 2011 it set record after record for most viewed episode (and most pirated series) over its eight year reign.
What goes up, must come down, though. When the series finale landed in May of this year, fans were disappointed. Many felt that "The Iron Throne" didn't answer the questions that had been burning through season 8, nor pack the punch that the 72 previous episodes had allowed them to wish for. In fact, the entire season had fallen flat with more than one million fans who went so far as to sign a petition for it to be re-written with 'competent writers'.
Nevertheless, it's this show that had the sort of mass cultural impact that is hard to force or replicate. The world spent years (most significantly from season 3 or 4 onwards if we're being really picky) united in a dialogue created by one incredible fantasy saga. Event TV hasn't seen anything quite like it, and the chances of seeing it again are unfortunately pretty slim.
Never has there been mass disappointment in a TV show quite like the one experienced this year with Game Of Thrones. There's no doubt that the HBO series was the biggest of the decade, launching in 2011 it set record after record for most viewed episode (and most pirated series) over its eight year reign.
What goes up, must come down, though. When the series finale landed in May of this year, fans were disappointed. Many felt that "The Iron Throne" didn't answer the questions that had been burning through season 8, nor pack the punch that the 72 previous episodes had allowed them to wish for. In fact, the entire season had fallen flat with more than one million fans who went so far as to sign a petition for it to be re-written with 'competent writers'.
Nevertheless, it's this show that had the sort of mass cultural impact that is hard to force or replicate. The world spent years (most significantly from season 3 or 4 onwards if we're being really picky) united in a dialogue created by one incredible fantasy saga. Event TV hasn't seen anything quite like it, and the chances of seeing it again are unfortunately pretty slim.
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