The 2010s were a prominent decade. The economy was flourishing once again, Apple dropped their first ever Ipad, and social media was growing. More specifically its posts and community as a whole.
From art, to memes, to animations made by very creative people that were not using AI. There was tons of media at other’s disposal to be inspired to make their own or just to simply enjoy it. However, if you were born later after all these things were created, you may be unfamiliar with what they are, where they came from, and why they were so significant during this time. So here is a breakdown of some of the most popular (at least while I was growing up) pieces of media during the years of 2010.
#1 : Nyan Cat
Nyan Cat was, to put it simply, a pixelated, animated cat with a poptart torso and a rainbow coming out the the back of it, flying through space. The origin of the well-liked meme was actually very heartwarming. On April 1st 2011, webcomic artist Chris Torres was doing a live stream for the American Red Cross (A very well known movement for humanitarianism) and was doing small art commissions to raise up the money. Two donations were made. One person asked for a gray cat, the other asked for a poptart. Chris decided to kill two birds with one stone and morphed them together.
He grew fond of the insignificant drawing, turning it into a more updated version, animated it, put more effort into it and set it as his Twitter avatar. Chris also reposted it across his social media. A few days later an account of the name Sarajoon, uploaded Torres art to Youtube with a vocaloid (a singing synthesizer computer software) song in the background. Thus, that is how Nyan Cat was born.
The rise of Nyan Cat’s popularity has no specific answer. The closest explanation that you could get was people seemed to really enjoy the cute cat, its merch, and the simplicity of it all. Just a pixelated pop tart cat going through space.
#2 : Annoying Orange
Annoying Orange was a youtube channel from the late 2000’s and early 2010’s (beginning on October 9th, 2009) about personified fruits and a few vegetables. The main character being of course, an orange who annoyed everyone around him with harsh jokes and puns. The backstory of the Annoying Orange channel goes like this: A man of the name Dane Boedigheimer wanted to create an animated series that included an annoying apple as the protagonist. However, he decided to instead make it an orange and put his eyes and mouth onto the fruit through A.A.E. (Adobe After Effect).
With a background like that, you would think that it would be as popular as every other thing on the internet, but you’d be wrong. The web series was actually very successful with its relatable humor, meme worthy quotes, and unique characters that the viewers seemed to enjoy. Although some people didn’t enjoy their videos, it made kids from the 2010ś childhoods.
#3 Creepy Pastas
Creepypastas can be described as online users sharing scary urban legends or photos that have been spread across the internet to give people a good scare or inspire people to make their own. They do not have an exact creator of origin, being that they do not have an original creator. They are said to have come from 4chan (a controversial imageboard website) in 2007, peaking around 2012 and 2014. Back then they were known as ¨copypasta’s¨ because they were copied and pasted around the internet.
These videos and photos seemed to be very popular due to their mass spread and their online communities loving the horror factor.
Although these were just a few highlights of the 2010’s media, there are some honorable mentions. For example, Emily Casale (9th) stated
“My favorite piece of 2010’s media is pony.mov because I watched it when I was younger and because it’s funny.”
Pony.mov was an animation ¨parody¨ of the popular show My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, created by Max Gilardi.
Another honorable mention was brought up by Justice King (10th). Justice stated that
¨I liked life of luxury because it looked fake as hell and it’s funny to watch the bad acting.¨
Life of luxury is a Youtube series made by Parker Jajiaskari and Chester Beckington where they go to people’s homes and deal with strange activity and supernatural entities.
As we can see, the media from the 2010’s seemed to be very inclusive. Different fandoms and different aesthetics for everyone to enjoy. Unfortunately today, media like this isn´t made very often. However, we can still enjoy the media from then that is still around.