Remember when Musical.ly was still a thing? When Kanye was beefing with Taylor Swift and drove her from the public sphere? The Snapchat dog filter? When President Barack Obama was still in office? One of the biggest trends of 2026 is the revival of the aesthetic of the 2016 era. 2016 is often viewed from a nostalgic lens and is frequently seen by social nihilists as the last hopeful year. 2016 was a consequential year-- socially, politically, and from a pop culture standpoint--and is increasingly relevant today because it is facing a cultural revival.

Microtrends grew with the rising popularity of apps like Musical.ly, Instagram, and Snapchat. Some of these microtrends included chokers, space buns, matte liquid lipstick, the “Tumblr girl” aesthetic, the Snapchat dog filter, curated Instagram feeds, and “What are those?!” memes. According to IMDb, a few of the most popular movies this year included Zootopia, Moana, Deadpool, and Captain America: Civil War. The preeminent series Stranger Things was also released this year, beginning the nostalgic fantasy universe. According to Billboard, popular music of the year included "Love Yourself" and "Sorry" by Justin Bieber, "One Dance" by Drake, "Work" by Rihanna, "Stressed Out" by Twenty One Pilots, "Panda" by Desiigner, "Hello" by Adele, "Don’t Let Me Down" by The Chainsmokers, "Can’t Stop the Feeling!" by Justin Timberlake, "Closer" by the Chainsmokers, and "Cheap Thrills" by Sia. Despite Taylor Swift's national success with her 2015 album 1989, which launched her pop music career, she is noticeably absent from this Billboard Top 10 list. According to Forbes, after a public conflict with Kanye and his wife Kim Kardashian, Swift decided to take a break from music and did not release again until her album Reputation in 2017.

Sources:

• Billboard

• Forbes

• Startup Spells

• The Pew Research Center