When decades actually started and ended

[asids]

I can't believe I forgot about the financial crisis and Obama winning the election.  The financial crisis is probably where the world started going to shit so it feels like a part of the 2010s. Yeah, 2008 definitely feels like a major turning point in a lot of different areas and where the 2000s identity was lost and we started to move toward the things we associate with the 2010s.

I think there's also "mini-eras" within certain decades that are associated with certain events and fads and such. I think we're going through one right now, the "total shit era", where everything is massively shit. It probably starts around 2014 with the Scottish independence referendum, which may only relevant to those like myself who live in Scotland, but that was the kind of the start of Twitter political wars and tribalism and that gutting feeling that things are going to be shit, which happened for me after I found out No won. And I was right - things did become shit! Then came a Tory majority, Brexit, Trump, and we're very likely to have Tories till 2022. Other highlights in this mini-era include: the breakdown of political discourse, Gamergate and the alt-right, and the end of all hopes and dreams.

I'm too young to have lived through this era, but I feel like there's another mini-era from about 1988-1992: the "new regime swing" era. Because new jack swing was very popular at this time and there was great political change. The fall of the Berlin wall, the end of the Soviet Union, the end of Reagan and Thatcher, the Gulf War, the end of apartheid. There was technological change also, with CDs beginning to overtake cassettes, and the creation of the world wide web. So yeah, it at least seems to me that was a significant few years.

[Billy]

I'm fairly confident 2016 will be looked back on as the pivotal year of this decade, pretty hard to top it's insanity.

Like 1984 for the 80s (Miners! Band Aid! Relax!), 1997 for the 90s (Blair! Diana! Be Here Now!) and maybe 2003 for the noughties (Iraq! David Kelly! Saddam!).

As far as the 80s go, the whole New Romantic and electro-pop thing suddenly seemed to start to take off at the turn of 80/81, with the first year of the decade being largely your-70-style disco and new wave.

'Fade To Grey' is a good start for that I think, rising up the charts in the closing weeks of 1980 and peaking in February '81.

2009 reminds me very much of 1999 in that respect .. after the transitional post Britpop and unusually one hit wonder filled years of 1997 and 1998, early 1999 saw Britney Spears and Eminem becoming massive from nowhere, and to me at the time that felt very much like a slamming shut on the 90s mood, despite 1999 still technically being in the 90s. Katy Perry is a bit earlier first hitting in mid 2008, but yeah in early 2009 you have Gaga and Bieber coming out of nowhere, 2 huge names that very much belong in the following decade (both very much past their glory days now though, as indeed Brit and MM were by 2007).

I'd say Eminem and Bieber both truly became stratospheric (certainly in the UK) in their second year rather than their first. Eminem only had 'My Name Is' (huge but seen as something of a one-off) and 'Guilty Conscience' in 1999, basically a Dre track with him sharing the vocals. 2000 was things really went nuts for him and by the time Stan came out he was one of the biggest stars on the planet.

Bieber didn't get 'launched' in the UK until the very beginning of 2010, when his first few hits all charted in quick succession - 'Baby' being the breakout one in March that year. Even then I'd say he was mostly only known for that one song right up until his (heavily hyped) "comeback" in 2015, yer Sorrys and yer Love Yourselves dominating radio for the next six months or so.

Definitely correct about Britney/Gaga/Perry though, their first hit just cemented them as stars instantly.

"Selfies" becoming popular (2012?)

The actual idea of taking one gained ground when the first phones with front-facing cameras came out (so around 2010/11), but actually calling them "selfies" began in 2013 around my social circles, gaining significant interest in the general media around the time Obama/Cameron etc took that one at Mandela's funeral (around the same time it got called the "word of the year" or something). The Chainsmokers song was released in early 2014 and then there was no going back.

They were called "Myspace photos" back in the day. I remember going around Paris in 2009, using my old digicam to take them and feeling like a twat. Five years later every bugger was doing it and most had sticks too.

I love watching old TV shows and seeing those kind of 'transitory' years where culture is changing, and you see the beginnings of the new decade.

Old episodes of Corrie are great for this. Mike Baldwin has a mobile phone in 1992 and makes a big deal of it, and there's half an episode circa 1999 where Ken Barlow gets the internet and goes on this big speech about how brilliant it is. Soaps can be pretty good as a way of whisking you back in time.