The 2000s

Music:

The popular genre for music was still rock such as alternative rock, and especially genres post-grunge, post-britpop, nu metal, pop punk, emo, post-hardcore, metalcore, and sometimes indie rock. But some of the most popular songs in the 2000s were pop songs such as Bye Bye Bye which was performed by the band NSYNC which includes: Lance Bass, JS Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, and the lead singer Justin Timberlake. And written by Swedish songwriter and producer Andreas Carllson. Some other popular pop songs were: Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, Oops!...I Did It Again by Britney Spears who was also one of the most popular artists at the time, and Single ladies (put a ring on it) by Beyonce. But some more serious and political songs were We Won’t Stop (2003) by Michael Franti & Spearhead and No More (2008) by Eddie Vedder. The writer of we won't stop was an outspoken supporter of peace and social justice.

These artists and songs were pretty relevant and trending and were what lots of people in the 2000s and maybe a few even now listened to them. And the styles they had (like the clothes some wore in music videos or their hair) reflect the decade.

Music reflects the American value system because with the rise of computers, it started being more common to record, distribute, play, and store on them. And because of that, it started widespread economic changes in the music industry. That fundamentally started changing the relationships between artists, record companies, promoters, retail music stores, the technology industry, and consumers. Along with this, album sales declined. Consumers stopped buying full albums and started instead buying single songs. Along with that the emergence of peer-to-peer networks (such as Kazaa and Napster) allowed the free exchange of music files.

Here are some popular singers from the 2000s such as: Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, and Amy Winehouse.

Advertising:

The 2000s presented numerous opportunities for digital marketing. This was due to the growing number of people who owned electronics. In 1999, only $6.2 billion was being spent on digital marketing, while in 2009, $25.6 billion was being spent. Advertisements like the “Get a Mac” campaign, the “Hello” commercial, and Sony’s “Balls” ad were used to advertise the growing use of technology, as well as its advancement. Also, many ads valued sex appeal and used it to attract a larger audience. However, Dove's’ “Campaign for Real Beauty” went against this approach and ended up creating one of the best and most powerful campaigns at its time. Furthermore, over time technology was becoming more and more valued. Though the degrading of woman (to sex objects and/or stereotypes) wasn't as valued and awful as during the past decades, it was still fairly common. Ultimately, the vast majority of advertising was done through technology and/or advertised electronic devices, which reflects the 2000s because technology was widely used in this decade.

Apple launched the “Get a Mac” campaign in 2006. The campaign included 66 commercials and featured Justin Long as “Mac” and John Hodgman as “PC.” Due to his friendlier personality and better traits, Mac was portrayed to seem more favorable than PC, who was shown as more depressed and had less desirable attributes . This connects to the most influential characteristic of the campaign, which was favorably comparing itself to its competition. It was also able to find success because of the way it made the ads entertaining and appealing to its audience.This is one of the many ads that shows how much technology was valued.

Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” was launched in 2004. The campaign’s success was due to it going against the traditional views of beauty presented by the media. It portrayed all women as beautiful, valuing their already present features, and unlike other campaigns the “Campaign for Real Beauty” didn’t take advantage of women's insecurities about their attractiveness.

This ad was for the game Champions: Return to Arms. Similar to most ads at the time, this one degrades women to sex objects. By using this approach, they company was most likely trying to more vividly appeal their products to their audience. This shows that sex appeal was valued.

Sony's “Balls” ad was released in 2006 and features 250,000 brightly colored globes as well as José González’s “Heartbeats.” It was meant to portray the Sony Bravia as something that could bring stunning colors into your life, as it was distinguishable by its processing power, which brought better quality images.

This ad made its debut during the 2007 Oscars and promoted the coming of the first iPhone. It portrays a big step in the advancement of technology as it was five years ahead of its time when it was first released. This was due to its state of the art features such as the multi-touch interface which allowed the iPhone to be controlled through touch. Similar to Apple's "Get a Mac" campaign, it demonstrates how much technology was valued.

Television

Television in the 2000s was known as the “golden television age”. This period began in the late 1990s. This advanced because of the new technology invented. Thus there were many more popular TV shows in America.

One really popular show that came out in the 2000s was Sopranos, this show is about a man (Tony Sopranos) who was in a crime family and then became an undisputed boss. Another TV show that was really popular was “Curb your enthusiasm” which was an American comedy which was all improve from the actors in this TV series.

This show was a big hit because of the business and tense drama in this show.The professional and personal lives of those who work in advertising on Madison Avenue - self-coined "mad men" - in the 1960s are presented. The stories focus on those at one of the avenue's smaller firms, Sterling Cooper, and its various incarnations over the decade.

As you can see most of these shows are more of drama and business so this one is a perfect example.The Wire is an American crime drama television series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States.

The Office is an American television comedy series that aired on NBC from March 24, 2005 to May 16, 2013. It is an adaptation of the BBC series of the same name. The Office was adapted for American audiences by Greg Daniels, a veteran writer for Saturday Night Live, King of the Hill, and The Simpsons. Overall all these shows introduced new genres to the people of America, thus the people really liked the shows because of these new genres.

Film:

During the 2000s advancements in technology was used to create special effects that would otherwise be considered too expensive or not possible. One example is Avatar, which used computer-generated imagery (CGI). In addition, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, as well as the other Harry Potter movies, included a variety visual effects that were created digitally. This shows us that technology was valued in the creation of films. These films also reflect the 2000s because they portrayed issues occurring during the decade like waste management, racism and discrimination, as well illustrating the vast of use technology during the decade.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is an adaptation of the book by J.K Rowling and was released in November 14, 2001. The original book came out in June 26, 1997 it was, and still is a very good book. The film was about a boy that found out that he was a wizard and attended a school called Hogwarts. He was being hunted down by He Who Must Not Be Named, a evil wizard sided with dark magic. This wizard is against muggles, or non-magic folk. This may symbolize racism or discrimination in the real world. This story probably interested people because of the magical abilities and great thought put into each creature, spell and world J.K Rowling created. The movie took $125,000,000 to make and made $317,575,550 when it came out. This proves that the movie was a big hit. This was the first of many movies to follow in subsequent years.

The Incredibles was released in 2004. With the exception of their superpowers, the Incredibles portray a typical nuclear family with Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible) representing the average working father, Helen Parr (Elastigirl) representing an ordinary stay at home mother, and Violet, Dashiell, and Jack Jack as normal siblings who argue a lot. Though, ultimately they demonstrate that valuing your family is important.

Avatar (2009) which is fantasy/sci-fi, the highest grossing film of the decade. It exceeded $1billion worldwide grosses in just three weeks! And soon surpassed the titanic (1997). It was directed, written, co-edited and produced by James Cameron. The film is set in mid 22nd century when humans are colonizing on a lush habitable moon of a gas giant. The title of the film refers to a genetically engineered Na’vi body with the mind of a human.

Wall-E portrays a futuristic world in which copious amounts of trash cover Earth, forcing humans to abandon it. The humans in the film live on a ship, but have become so fat that they’re not able to move, which is likely due to extreme laziness. Though the films’ plot is exaggerated, it shows us that if we’re not careful about the amount of garbage we produce (waste management), it’ll have a negative impact on the environment as well as humans.

In the 2000s Memento was a huge hit, it was a chronicles two separate stories of Leonard, an ex-insurance investigator who can no longer build new memories, as he attempts to find the murderer of his wife, which is the last thing he remembers a memory inside a memory, a complicated head spinning adventure. As you can tell films also have grew a lot according to this film description there has been more action and adventure themed movies.

2000’s Politics and news:

The Year of 2000:

This is the year that a presidential election occurred where George W. Bush (the governor of Texas before he was President) was running against Al Gore (who was a Vice President). In the end, the outcome completely depended on the state of Florida's vote. The vote in Florida was very close, and although Gore demanded a recount, Bush ended up winning. Bush won the election, but did not win the popular vote. Nor did he take the threat of invasions in the U.S seriously enough. A lot of people today believe we were unprepared for the terrorist attack of 9/11 because of Bush's decisions.

The Year of 2001:

In 2001, the destruction of the twin towers rocked the nation. On September 11, 2001 four planes were hijacked by 19 terrorists. The planes were flown into The Pentagon, The World Trade Center and The Twin Towers. A few passengers on one flight, United Airline flight 93, were informed of the hijackings of the other three planes, because their flight was delayed. They knew that the plane was intended to crash into another target and they were going to perish in the crash. They decided to fight the four attackers and in doing so, crashed the plane early, so that it would not crash into anyplace important. This was an extremely brave and selfless act, which probably saved a lot of people. This attack may have occurred, because Bush decided not to take the threats of Osama bin Laden (the person later on believed to have lead the attack) seriously. According to the New York Times, Bush was aware of this threat prior to the actual attack. This lack of action lead to the attack of 9/11. Instead of ignoring the threat, Bush could have been increasing security at airports and making sure nobody dangerous got into our country. In the end, three landmarks in our country were destroyed and America was in danger.

The Years of 2002-2003:

During this time, the White House blamed Iraq for the 9/11 attack, and on March 20th of 2003, American troops invaded Iraq and began a war. In the same year, 2003, another tragedy happened. The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated, killing all seven astronauts onboard. This happened because a chunk of foam struck the left wing of the spacecraft on the day it was returning to Earth. This resulted in severe overheating and eventually disintegration. The NASA engineers had seen foam hit the wings of a spacecraft before and thought that the results would be a few minor difficulties. Therefore, they did not think much of it. Although the result was not minor, the engineers probably would not have been able to bring the spacecraft back in anyways.

The Year of 2005:

During Bush's second term, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast of the US on August 29, 2005. Thousands of people's homes were destroyed and nearly 2000 people were killed. The storm formed in the Bahamas and struck New Orleans, which suffered deeply from the storm. This storm was devastating and caused multiple floods which trapped people in the disaster site Katrina left behind. Those who were poor had the worst experience, for they had no chance of getting out of New Orleans without a car. Although the government prepared for this, they reacted poorly and left many people without much food or water.

The Year of 2008:

This was the year where the second presidential election of this decade took place. Barack Obama became the first African-American president in the US. This was a huge step for African Americans to go against racism in our country. Obama won both the electoral votes and the popular vote, so this election was not confusing, unlike the presidential election of 2000. Although it was a huge step against racism, racism didn't disappear completely. Many people were, and still are racist against African American people. In the end, Obama became president and gave hope to many people. He made them believe that, even though they are colored differently than the dominant culture, that doesn't mean they can't do anything anyone else does.

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