History UnintentionalPeriodPiece / SpecialCases

** The ''Community is Falling'' trilogy of mods likewise fall into this. Standout instances are their plots centered around now-forgotten moments from the ''Doom'' community (like the first part having a joke where the player gives admin access to every user on Newdoom, resulting in the lights suddenly shifting through several different bright colors, or the third centering around finding out who leaked a test build of ''Knee-Deep in [=ZDoom=]''), namedrops for several prominent members of the community of 2004-2006 (most of whom have probably either moved on to newer games or been forgotten even by the most hardcore fans - even the creator of the trilogy, who inserted himself into the first part, is now probably better known as the creator of Creator/NightdiveStudios' KEX engine than he is as a former Doom mapper), the first also featuring Doom Connector (a multiplayer service that, in its then-current form, went offline just a year later[[labelnote:*]]Doubly for this trope, there's also a brief claim that nobody will miss it because everyone uses [=ZDaemon=] anyway, a multiplayer-focused source port with its own server browser which was at the height of its popularity around 2004, but slid into irrelevance another two or three years later with the release of more feature-rich and better-looking multiplayer ports like Skulltag[[/labelnote]]), and the second including [=PlanetDoom=] (hasn't been updated since 2012) and many jokes at the expense of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' and Platform/{{Steam}}, back when the latter was a glorified launcher/DRM scheme specifically for the former (presented in the mod as [[BigBrotherIsWatching only a step above spyware]]) and not the number one emptier of PC gamers' wallets; jokes about VaporWare are interestingly never hinted at, as not even ''Episode One'' was out yet and everyone had forgotten about ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' in 2005.

** A 1990 StoryArc features the Fox family getting a compact [[UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh Macintosh]] computer which appears to be based off the Macintosh Classic.

** The show was released between 1999 and 2007, but the show rarely mentions dates. Nonetheless, the time of the setting is made easily apparently by late '90s/early '00s conventions like [=RadioShack=], Blockbuster Video, Music/{{Slipknot}}, pagers (in earlier episodes), flip cellphones (in later episodes), CRT televisions, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars, and of course a prominent shot of the Twin Towers in the opening. Episodes filmed after 9/11 removed the shot from the opening and had characters make references to the event (sort of inevitable, as the show is set near New York).

* This also occurs with works that don't make real world references. In ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Super Mario]]'' spin-offs, there would always be elements from the then-latest main game which were not retained after the next main game came out. UsefulNotes/{{S|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES-era spinoffs took a lot of influence from ''VideOGame/SuperMarioWorld'', with ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' having Donut Plains, Vanilla Lake and Chocolate Island tracks being a prime example. Meanwhile, UsefulNotes/{{N|intendo64}}64-era ones took influence from ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' (note all the blue Thwomps in spinoffs of the time, and ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'' included a recreation of the front of Peach's castle off the beaten path of Royal Raceway). [[UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube GameCube-era]] games took a lot of inspiration from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', notably with the constant undercurrent that they were set in the tropics rather than in the Mushroom Kingdom (especially noticeable in ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'' with Peach Beach, which is heavily based off Isle Delfino, even featuring Piantas as audience members and Cataquack enemies as obstacles), while also taking some cues from ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' (like Luigi's frequent use of the Poltergust 3000 and King Boo starting to appear as a playable character). [[UsefulNotes/NintendoWii Wii-era]] ones would in turn drop that tropical setting as they looked to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' (Rosalina and the Lumas showing up everywhere) and ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' (bringing the setting back to the Mushroom Kingdom) for inspiration. The UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch era often looks into ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' for inspiration, with Pauline starting to become a regular in Mario spin-offs and stages inspired in both games starting to show up everywhere.

* Any racing or driving game that features real cars is doomed to finding itself dated by virtue of [[TechnologyMarchesOn technology marching on]]. The cutoff date for the cars appearing in the game becomes more obvious the further the game falls into the past, such that the then-modern cars in some of the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation PS1]] ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed'' or ''VideoGame/GranTurismo'' games are now almost old enough to be considered antiques. In some cases, they already are; the first ''Need for Speed'' had the very '80s Ferrari Testarossa, the third had the equally '80s Lamborghini Countach, and neither felt particularly out of place next to the assorted '90s sports cars in both games. It makes for a great time capsule of what were considered {{Cool Car}}s in the time the game was released; if some of those cars have since fallen into obscurity, or (in the case of the concept cars that often featured) never even saw the light of day, all the better. Even games that use fictional vehicles (such as the ''VideoGame/{{Burnout}}'', ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'', and ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' series) can fall into this trap if the cars in question are [[SerialNumbersFiledOff closely-enough based on contemporary cars and styles]].

** Perhaps no game in the series is more thoroughly dated to its time than the SpinOff ''VideoGame/TheUrbz: Sims in the City''. Released in 2004 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 and UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, the entire game is dripping in a TotallyRadical aesthetic inspired by early-mid 2000s "urban" culture (from HipHop to [[TheQuincyPunk punks]] to club culture to {{anime|sque}}), the fact that Music/TheBlackEyedPeas made cameos in the game and recorded several [[TranslatedCoverVersion Simlish covers]] of their songs for the soundtrack being just the start. Its gameplay and setting reflect a time when the gentrification of the major cities of the US and Europe was just starting to take off, and when many [[ViceCity previously rough neighborhoods]] were suddenly turning into the hippest spots in town but still had "edgy" reputations that gave them a certain cool factor. Sims also have a distinct Toys/{{Bratz}} doll appearance, from the gigantic eyes to how the hip-hugging pants for the women often came paired with thong underwear.

** The ''Community is Falling'' trilogy of mods likewise fall into this. Standout instances are their plots centered around now-forgotten moments from the ''Doom'' community (like the first part having a joke where the player gives admin access to every user on Newdoom, resulting in the lights suddenly shifting through several different bright colors, or the third centering around finding out who leaked a test build of ''Knee-Deep in [=ZDoom=]''), namedrops for several prominent members of the community of 2004-2006 (most of whom have probably either moved on to newer games or been forgotten even by the most hardcore fans - even the creator of the trilogy, who inserted himself into the first part, is now probably better known as the creator of Creator/NightdiveStudios' KEX engine than he is as a former Doom mapper), the first also featuring Doom Connector (a multiplayer service that, in its then-current form, went offline just a year later[[labelnote:*]]Doubly for this trope, there's also a brief claim that nobody will miss it because everyone uses [=ZDaemon=] anyway, a multiplayer-focused source port with its own server browser which was at the height of its popularity around 2004, but slid into irrelevance another two or three years later with the release of more feature-rich and better-looking multiplayer ports like Skulltag[[/labelnote]]), and the second including [=PlanetDoom=] (hasn't been updated since 2012) and many jokes at the expense of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, back when the latter was a glorified launcher/DRM scheme specifically for the former (presented in the mod as [[BigBrotherIsWatching only a step above spyware]]) and not the number one emptier of PC gamers' wallets; jokes about VaporWare are interestingly never hinted at, as not even ''Episode One'' was out yet and everyone had forgotten about ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' in 2005.
** The ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'' GameMod ''[[http://www.moddb.com/mods/cc-shockwave ShockWave]]'' makes a joke regarding Microsoft's Windows XP's fictional "Nightmare Edition", which is supposedly so unstable, it makes [[ExplosiveOverclocking computers explode]], as part of a minigame intro. The ending references (what else for early 2000s?) ''VideoGame/ZeroWing''. The eventual 2018 re-release replaces Windows XP with the made-up "Windows One" (which will itself fall to this later down the line when its namesake, the UsefulNotes/XboxOne, becomes old news), but keeps the ''Zero Wing'' reference.

** ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2'' is a full remake of the first two ''Tony Hawk'' games from the UsefulNotes/PlayStation 1 era released in 2020 for modern consoles. While the levels, objectives, and gameplay have been preserved and recreated as closely as can be, the aesthetics on some elements have been updated with the times. The Mall level, for instance, is now abandoned, reflecting how many indoor shopping centers have fallen out of fashion and closed down since the '90s[[note]]It was particularly prescient during 2020, the year the remakes released, since the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic forced many shopping malls and other businesses deemed non-essential to close, which the [[RippedFromTheHeadlines game even mentions as the reason for the mall being abandoned]][[/note]]. The returning skaters from the older games have also been aged up to reflect that they were now in their 40s at least (Hawk himself was 52). But the biggest one comes in the remade School level, where the video screen that once played music videos now plays [[https://kotaku.com/schools-out-in-tony-hawks-pro-skater-1-2-due-to-covid-1-1844943051 messages]] revealing that the school is closed due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, pegging the game as taking place in 2020 or 2021. This isn't the only COVID-19-related EasterEgg, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFE2xAU1z_g either]] -- the remade Venice Beach level now has a plane flying overhead pulling banners telling people to wear protective masks and wash their hands, the New York level has a PublicServiceAnnouncement about such showing on one of the electronic billboards, the Minneapolis level has a hidden room filled with a massive stash of toilet paper (which many people hoarded in the early weeks of the pandemic), and one of the options in the character customization menu is a medical face mask.

* Any [[WebVideo/StuartAshen Ashens]] video where Stuart reviews knock-offs and tie-in "tat" for a recent fad[=/=]trend or a hot new property is a friendly reminder of when that trend or property was popular. For example, the very first [=POPstation=] review from 2006 featured a knockoff of the then-popular [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP]], and in 2013 he did [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBm-pg0F8Bk a review of merchandise for the then-recent 2012 Summer Olympics]].

** "The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000" revolves around Cartman wanting to get a UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast, which would be overshadowed by the [=PlayStation=] 2 not long after its original air date, and discontinued close to a year after the episode aired.

* In general, any media that includes real life celebrities popular at the time tends to get very dated when said celebrities inevitably lose relevance, die or [[OvershadowedByControversy get caught up in a career-ending scandal]]. One example of this is in WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic, (which otherwise averts the trope by taking place in another world, in a timeless culture populated by ponies and with little to no focus on technology), but as it was released in TheNewTens, a few personas tend to stand out. This includes the ponified cameos of Matt Lauer, Al Roker, and Savannah Guthrie from ''Series/TheTodayShow'' which dates the episode ''The Gift Of Maud Pie'' sometime between the years 2012-2017 (as Matt Lauer was removed from the show following allegations that came out during the [=#MeToo=] movement). This also covers the comicbook cameo of Mandopony, dating the issue at the end of the TheNewTens when the Brony community had a wakeup call regarding the likes of him and [=ToonKriticY2K=].

* In general, any media that includes real life celebrities popular at the time tends to get very dated when said celebrities inevitably lose relevance, die or [[OvershadowedByControversy get caught up in a career-ending scandal]].
** The case in point particularly would be WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic itself, an otherwise general aversion of the trope by virtue of being a product of TheNewTens by and large with trace amounts of early TheNewTwenties; while the show takes places in another world reminiscent of Earth in a timeless culture with little to no focus on technology, a few personas tend to stand out and about throughout much of the show and not just onscreen:
*** The ponified cameos of Matt Lauer, Al Roker, and Savannah Guthrie altogether from Series/TheTodayShow would hypothetically set the episode, The Gift Of Maud Pie, sometime between the InUniverse's equivalent of years 2012-2017; considering the [=#MeToo=] movement at the tail end of the timeframe, especially considering the timing, it's nevertheless sobering all the same.
*** Even the comicbook cameo of Mandopony dates them prior to the later parts of the TheNewTens when the Brony community had a wakeup call regarding the likes of him and [=ToonKriticY2K=] off paper of course; this alone would be all to be said about it or them for that matter in question, moving forward.

* In general, any media that includes real life celebrities popular at the time tends to get very dated when said celebrities innevitably lose relevance, die or [[OvershadowedByControversy get caught up in a career-ending scandal]].

** Ride/HalloweenHorrorNights long featured [[Film/BillAndTed Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure]], a parody show featuring the two slackers from the 1989 film (and various villains) using their time traveling phone booth to bring celebrities and fictional characters from whatever was recent in pop culture. While the initial show was a [[HorrorComedy horror-themed comedy]] and featured subjects more relevant to the subject matter and location (like [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]] and [[Franchise/BackToTheFuture Doc Brown]]), subsequent years were in the vein of the ''Film/ScaryMovie'' series and similar parodies. Some examples:

** Classic DVD releases all come with a little booklet which gives some details about the story in question. However, some of the "facts" within them are no longer true. The booklet for "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E4TheRomans The Romans]]" (Released 2009) talks about the current incarnation of the Doctor, a man who is now four Doctors ago. The Lost In Time set (Released 2004) claims there are 108 missing episodes, when actually there are now only 97. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Arc of Infinity]]" claims that Creator/ColinBaker is the only person to be in Doctor Who before being the Doctor, which Creator/PeterCapaldi may now disagree with.

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'': While the franchise is often mocked by being permanently set in [[TheSixties circa 1965]], the comics are actually a good example about how much teen culture has changed since [[TheForties the early 1940s]] (when the very ''concept'' of "teen culture" was just maturing). Even back in the early '90s, they acknowledged this with their ''Americana Series'' of trade paperback collections, showcasing the iconic strips of each individual decade. Usually they will feature one "LoveTriangle"-themed story, then dozens of others about then-current fads, or parodies of then-popular movies. The fashions of most strips shown in the Digest format issues years later also date certain stories greatly.

** [[TheSeventies Early]] ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' stories were often steeped in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, with the Soviet Union surviving into the 22nd century and being the main antagonists in quite a few stories, at least until East-Meg One got nuked to oblivion. The Volgan Empire in ''[[ComicBook/{{Savage}} Invasion!]]'' and especially ''ComicBook/ABCWarriors'' was an incredibly obvious Soviet stand-in, at least until they were retconned.
** During TheEighties, nearly every strip made some reference to UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher or UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan.
** TheNineties featured strips such as the ''[[Music/SpiceGirls Space Girls]]'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/TonyBlair BLAIR 1]]'' (a parody of ''MACH 1'', an early strip from 1977) in order to stay relevant. These were not well-received.

* ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'': Most of the stories released in the 21st century could be considered this, as they tend to be themed after an important event happening at the time. A notable example from TheNineties, before the aforementioned trend started, is "El quinto centenario" ("The Fifth Centenary"). It's themed, as its name suggests, after the fifth centenary of the Discovery of America, with the protagonists time-travelling to join Christopher Columbus' crew. ''Many'' jokes are lost to modern readers. To start with, most important characters in the past are drawn like important politicians from the year the comic was released. Some characters were drawn like politicians who would still be recognisable or relevant years later (such as future Prime Minister José María Aznar or Cuban leader Fidel Castro), others... not so much (even the then-Prime Minister Felipe González, still known nowadays, can be hard to recognise due to how he's drawn). The story ends with a parody of the 1992 Universal Exposición of Sevilla which, as referring to a one-time event which only lasted 6 months and was located in a single city, is as accessible to modern readers as you would expect.

** Most of the Bond films, with each version of Bond being this to (roughly) one particular decade. The Creator/SeanConnery films have their feet planted in TheSixties, Creator/RogerMoore's Bond is a product of TheSeventies, the Creator/TimothyDalton films are products of TheEighties, the Creator/PierceBrosnan films are filled with the post-UsefulNotes/ColdWar vibe of TheNineties, and Creator/DanielCraig's DarkerAndEdgier Bond is a man of the TurnOfTheMillennium and UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. Sometimes the Bond Girls' fashion choices also make the films' decades clear as day.

** ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'' is obviously a product of TheSeventies, from its extensive talks about the energy crisis to the martial arts school showcasing the kung fu craze of the time to {{product placement}} by American Motors Company (most prominently the Matador and Hornet) then at its height of power and brand recognition to [=MI6=] using the burned and capsized wreck of the RMS ''Queen Elizabeth'' as a covert Hong Kong headquarters, which was dismantled for scrap shortly after filming and blasted to clear the shipping channel, then buried by an artificial island some two decades later.

* Downplayed but still present with TheMovie of ''Film/WestSideStory1961'', which was made (very early) in TheSixties but is presumably set in 1957, which is when [[Theatre/WestSideStory the play]] debuted. Admittedly, the Jets look and talk like a product of their time, but the much grittier Sharks look like they could be from two or three decades into the future, making the film sort of an evolutionary missing link between the more violent films of the 1970s and the whimsy of musicals of the '50s and early '60s. The dialogue, however, was fairly authentic teenage slang from the '50s -- which of course makes it sound ''incredibly'' dated to modern viewers. Music/StephenSondheim has been quoted as saying that Arthur Laurents created original slang ("Cracko, jacko!") ''specifically to avoid this trope.'' Clearly, he failed.

* The ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' series serves as a guidepost for the transition from TheSeventies to TheEighties. While the [[Film/{{Rocky}} original 1976 film]] was a gritty drama about an underdog proving he could go the distance with [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed a fictionalized version]] of UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli that symbolized a particular rough-hewn ethos in '70s cinema and pop culture, the later films were just as much symbols of the increasingly upbeat and optimistic '80s, with Rocky Balboa having risen from the mean streets of Philadelphia to become a superstar celebrity standing for [[PatrioticFervor the American flag]] against [[DirtyCommunists the Red Menace]]. WebVideo/PatrickHWillems, when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgTVPydfmoc calling]] ''Film/RockyIV'' the most '80s movie ever, said that, if one wants to quickly understand the mindset of the '80s, they should watch it as the second half of a double-feature with the original film and pay attention to how much had changed and in what ways.

* The Literature/NancyDrew and Literature/TheHardyBoys books, which have been written ''non-stop'' since the late 1920s, always give an interesting cross-section of culture at the time. Interestingly, while the works' environment seem to be stuck in [[TheSixties the Lyndon B. Johnson era]] (not unlike the case of ''Archie Comics''), both franchises had to have their very '20s sensibilities (particularly regarding race and ethnicities) ''modernized'' during the 1960s. It got worse after they switched publishers in 1979, since the new publishing house was a lot more prone to using much more topical themes. Two '80s spinoffs, ''The Nancy Drew Files'' and ''The Hardy Boys Casefiles'', had stories taking place in very 1980s settings, such as on a soap opera (at the peak of ''Series/GeneralHospital'' supercouple Luke and Laura) or horror movies (back when ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' and ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' were churning out sequels left and right). Revival series ''Nancy Drew: Girl Detective'' and ''Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers'' are even more topical, with stories about reality TV and cyberbullying.
* Some of Creator/BillBryson's travelogues; In ''The Lost Continent'' Bryson is startled to see how much America had changed since TheSixties. Reading it today reveals how much the country has changed since 1987-88. It's certainly one of the last works to mention strip clubs in Times Square; similarly in ''Neither Here Nor There'' Bryson discovers how much Europe has moved on since he backpacked around as a student in the 1970s. Being written in 1990 it has a pre-single European currency Europe and [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars pre-Balkan war Yugoslavia]] and pre-[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oresund_Bridge Oresund Bridge]] Denmark, as well as relying on printed guidebooks for European train times; in ''A Walk in the Woods'' the gizmo-crazy hiker is kitted out with technology that was advanced in 1997 (GPS, self-pitching tent) but is fairly standard fare now; ''Notes from a Big Country'' mostly deals with a mid-1990s world just before the internet and cellphones became ubiquitous -- Bryson mentions the difficulty of finding change for a payphone at the airport, the amount of mail order catalogs he's sent, sending faxes to the UK, and renting movies on videotape.

* ''Series/SoulTrain'': Mainly for TheSeventies, but also for TheEighties, TheNineties and the early-to-mid-2000s. Watching an old episode of ''Soul Train'' makes for a great time capsule of the culture of whatever period it aired in, especially in regards to which R&B and hip-hop artists were popular at the time the episode originally aired.

** The same goes for its portrayal of crime and police work. As [[https://www.vox.com/2016/9/24/11348334/law-and-order-svu this article]] by Dylan Matthews for ''Vox'' notes while discussing the SpinOff ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' in particular, watching older episodes versus newer ones can allow one to track how attitudes towards criminal justice have evolved since TheNineties, especially among its target audience. Earlier seasons reflected the "tough on crime" ethos of the '90s and 2000s; the police were always portrayed as the good guys, the guilty (and the suspects were usually guilty) were scumbags of the highest order who deserved everything they got, and jokes and threats about perps being subjected to PrisonRape and [[GoMadFromTheIsolation solitary confinement]] were never far from the lips of the shows' detective protagonists. By the 2010s, however, the show had grown more sympathetic to the accused even when they were guilty, with the police sometimes portrayed as overzealous when it comes to punishing criminals and blind to racial biases in their enforcement of the law. However, ''SVU'' was also [[ValuesResonance ahead of its time]] in its treatment of the victims of rape, always portraying them as at least worth being listened to even if they were sex workers or [[MadonnaWhoreComplex otherwise "loose" or "disreputable"]] (averting the DisposableSexWorker trope that was common back then), and defining rape purely in terms of consent.

** The more obvious examples are of how Kirk's ''Enterprise'' looked, essentially, like a 1950s-60s naval vessel in its design and style, and how Picard's ''Enterprise'' was comparatively bright and pastel, just like the [[TheEighties decade]] in which it was envisioned. Moreover, the original series is full of [[NoNewFashionsInTheFuture obviously 1960s fashions]], especially on the women. Later incarnations of the series avoid this, more or less, by dressing everyone in SpaceClothes.

** The whole conflict for half of the song "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" is because the fast food place doesn't take credit cards, which for a time was true. Every fast food chain in the US accepts them these days, and many restaurants starting in TheNewTens don't even take cash anymore.

* Whilst the ''appeal'' of the Beatles is certainly timeless, given they're one of the foremost bands to define TheSixties, they do after a fashion play this trope straight -- [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools albeit in a positive sense]], rather than the negative "hasn't aged well" sense. Their songs themselves vary -- some almost deliberately evoking a timeless feel, some very much of their time, in retrospect. Specifically, the Moog synthesizer that shows up on a few ''Music/AbbeyRoad'' songs is a little jarring (primarily on "Because" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"; it's slightly more subtle on "Here Comes the Sun" and used only to make noise for the crescendo of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"). What was considered a cutting-edge musical innovation in 1969 went on to become the definitive sound of 1970s cheesiness. This is quite true of much music that makes a lot of use of synthesizers, up to at least TheEighties, due to the way the technology has evolved.

* If you want an earful ''and'' eyeful of most of the defining mainstream music trends from TheSixties through the TurnOfTheMillennium -- FolkRock, HeavyMetal, GlamRock, Funk, {{Krautrock}}, NewWaveMusic, Pop rock, HardRock, Electronica, Alt-Rock, with a few other styles thrown in for good measure -- just follow the bouncing [[Music/DavidBowie Bowie]], who helped define some of them in the first place.

** 2001: "Osama— Yo' Mama": A post-9/11 mockery of [[UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden you-know-who]].
** TheNewTens: Many of his early-2010s political songs, such as "Obama Budget Plan", can be seen as this, due to UsefulNotes/BarackObama no longer being in office.
* Fearless Records' ''Punk Goes...'' series of albums are based around PunkRock covers of songs that are popular in the year that the album was released. The songs, of course, are the most obvious time stamp of when each album was made, especially for the flagship ''Punk Goes Pop'' albums, with the first one from 2001 focused on bubblegum teen pop and later albums combing through the RAndB-flavored pop of the late '00s, the [=EDM=]-flavored dance-pop of the early '10s, the ElectronicDanceMusic and indie rock of the early-to-mid-'10s, and the various trends in HipHop that have come and gone through that time. One album, ''Punk Goes {{Crunk}}'' in 2008, was devoted entirely to crunk rap, at one of the last points in time before that genre fell out of the public consciousness. However, the styles of the bands performing the covers are just as good a marker. Earlier albums released in the early-mid '00s have more PopPunk and {{emo|Music}} bands, while later albums from the late '00s and early '10s have more {{metalcore}} and scenecore bands. Even if the albums focus on a specific genre or period, such as ''Punk Goes Classic Rock'' from 2010 or the two ''Punk Goes [[TheNineties '90s]]'' albums from 2006 and 2014, they're still in the style popular in the time those albums were released.

** Tomorrowland at Ride/{{Disneyland}} got hit with this ''twice'' during its lifespan. The original park's RaygunGothic vision of the future became outdated within just a decade, causing them to start making updates to the park over the course of TheSeventies and TheEighties. "Flight to the Moon", for instance, became "Mission to Mars" after the Apollo landings. By TheNineties, these visions of the future were ''also'' outdated.[[note]]Making matters worse, the Tomorrowland section of the park was plagued with petty crime and youth gangs (most notably the {{goth}} gang Disneyland Arcane Crew) during this period.[[/note]] In 1998, the Disneyland designers finally threw up their hands and embraced Tomorrowland's {{Zeerust}}, redoing it as a retro-future area inspired by classic sci-fi and Eurodisney's Discoveryland. This redo was poorly-received, however, due to mostly being a hasty repaint of the original, sleek color palette with rusty, earthy colors. The infamous "copper" ''Ride/SpaceMountain'' only lasted until 2003, and the rest limped on until around the late aughts, at which point work began to revert it back to its original 1955 look.

** An example that comes throughout the series is with the character of Donald Love, who appears in ''GTA III'', ''Vice City'', and ''Liberty City Stories''. The head of a media and real estate empire, Love is [[{{Trumplica}} a fairly transparent parody]] of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, right down to his first name, with his appearance in ''Liberty City Stories'' bearing an uncanny resemblance to Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. However, his portrayal leans on the pop-culture image of Trump that existed before TheNewTens, when he was seen as an eccentric, flamboyant mogul rather than a right-wing activist and later politician.
* ''VideoGame/NightTrap''. A side-effect of having the footage shot in [[TheEighties 1987]] (it shows) and releasing it in [[TheNineties 1992]], when the hangover(s) from the previous decade had not yet worn off.

** Many videos from UsefulNotes/TheNewTens will refer to ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'', ''Franchise/AngryBirds'', ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'', ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', ''Franchise/DespicableMe'', ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' and more. Now that it's the 2020s, even those videos are easier to date.

** ''VideoGame/Postal2'', released in 2003, is a case of TheNineties spilling over into [[TurnOfTheMillennium the following decade]]. The game features references and parodies of the 1993 Waco siege, the cameo by Creator/GaryColeman AsHimself (primarily jokes about [[FormerChildStar when he was a child star]]), and a very '90s view of the controversy over [[MurderSimulators violent video games]], particularly in its many, ''many'' {{Take That}}s at then-Senator Joe Lieberman (who had become irrelevant to the subject by then) while never so much as hinting at Jack Thompson's existence, even in the expansion which released at the height of his relevance after the [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas "Hot Coffee" scandal]]. The [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror al-Qaeda]] references with terrorists who all look like UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden, however, place it firmly post-2001, and are so over-the-top that it can [[PoesLaw almost be seen as a parody]] of America's early reactions to the attacks of vulnerable, paranoid xenophobia. It's even more apparent in the ''Apocalypse Weekend'' expansion, where a full training camp for terrorists is within easy walking distance of Paradise, and the statements and conduct of the National Guard when they roll in and arrest the surviving terrorists and the player character, particularly referring to the terrorists as a "filthy Axis of Evil" and holding everyone without trial, are lifted directly from statements from and accusations leveled at then-President George W. Bush and the US Army of the earliest days of the Iraq invasion. Its later rerelease on digital storefronts in 2013 and ''Paradise Lost'' DLC in 2015 add yet another decade to the pile, such as an achievement poking fun at a minor controversy regarding the game's release through Steam Greenlight, a service which was phased out in 2017; an EasterEgg entirely dedicated to advertising a remake of the first ''Postal'' that came out in 2016; an "Equality Simulator" arcade game poking fun at the idea of the "social justice warrior", back when people who identified as such were almost-universally mocked; and a cameo from controversial journalist Milo Yiannopolous before he made statements on pedophilia that [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor effectively made him persona non grata]].
** In turn, ''VideoGame/PostalIII'', due to its delayed development, is a unique case of being a period piece to the late TurnOfTheMillennium, almost specifically to 2008, and thus immediately being dated upon release when it came out [[TheNewTens in 2011]]. The political atmosphere is soundly grounded in the twilight of the Bush era -- including "border patrol" that involves stopping Americans from escaping into Mexico to get away from the recession, the moral guardians now being crazy hockey moms [[EverythingIsRacist looking for excuses to be offended]] and only noticed for being too loud and violent to ignore, who are lead by a dead ringer for UsefulNotes/SarahPalin (who stopped being relevant almost as soon as the 2008 election was over), and Osama bin Laden as a prominent member of the BigBadDuumvirate (the game released half a year after his death). The celebrity appearances are likewise all dated, including Jennifer Walcott (based mostly on her being a ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' Playmate of the Year ten years prior), Randy Jones of the Music/VillagePeople (whose last solo outing before the game was in 2007), Creator/UweBoll (primarily for his ''Film/{{Postal}}'' movie, also from 2007), and Hugo Chavez (Venezuela's President until his death in 2013).

* Each game in ''VideoGame/TheSims'' series can easily be dated to the time in which it and its expansions came out, largely through how the technology and fashion (especially female fashion) available to Sims changed. Will Wright, the creator of the series, stated that his goal with the original game was for the setting and aesthetic to reflect the lifestyles commonly seen on American {{Dom Com}}s from TheFifties through TheNineties so as to avoid this trope, but as times changed, ''The Sims'' changed with them.

** In terms of fashion, meanwhile, the clothing options available in the first game still reflected TheNineties, with a particular focus on clothes that would look and feel right at home in a DomCom from that decade. The second and third games, meanwhile, featured popular fashion items from the TurnOfTheMillennium, particularly with the prevalence of low-rise hip-hugging pants for female Sims designed to bare the midriff, which were trendy among young women in that decade but experienced a major backlash in the next. Finally, the clothing in the fourth game reflects contemporary fashions in TheNewTens, particularly the {{hipster}} and athleisure trends.

** The ''VideoGame/JustDance'' series began in 2009, during the period in which people were getting tired of PostGrunge, PopPunk, EmoMusic and GlamRap but just starting to embrace the dance club-friendly electropop that dominated popular music in the early half of TheNewTens. The games have combed through the aforementioned electropop and whimsical festival-oriented IndiePop of the early-to-mid-2010s, the socially conscious, alternative-influenced pop of the mid-to-late-2010s, the various trends in HipHop and ElectronicDanceMusic that have come and gone through that time, the various dance craze songs that came and went through the years, various songs made popular on social media or by memes, and songs from musicals and musical films that were popular at a given entry's release.

** [[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1688:_Map_Age_Guide Strip 1688]] discusses how easily this occurs with maps in the form of a flow chart, directing you based on which features are present or missing. The [[TheNewTwenties 2022]] Colorado radioactive spider outbreak [[IWantMyJetpack seems to be getting kept under wraps for now, though...]]

* Discussed by Erik Germ in the ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' article [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-childhood-favorites-that-did-not-age-well/ "5 Childhood Favorites That Did Not Age Well"]]. Among other things, he notes how ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' chewable vitamins have long since outlived the TV show they were based on, such that kids raised after TheNineties may not even realize that [[AdaptationDisplacement they were based on a TV show]], and how, in the other direction, watching ''Series/SesameStreet'' with his son now is an exercise in trying to figure out where all the characters he grew up with went.

* Much like the infamous ''Space Jam'' website in [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece/TheNineties the '90s subpage]], the official website for the [[https://99wfmk.com/spotlight-theater/ long-abandoned]] Spotlight 10 movie theater in the UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} suburb of Taylor, Michigan still exists, and has not been updated since the theater went out of business in 2012. [[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jbstocke/Site/index.html The site]] retains a basic late-'90s/early '00s layout,[[note]]even though the theater only opened in 2010, taking over a building opened by Star Theatres in 1989 and closed by AMC Theatres in 2009[[/note]] with static images and loud colors against simple Web 1.0 HTML, yet the movie showtimes displayed date it very specifically to late 2011.

** He mentioned it again in his One-Hit Wonderland review of "Music/VideoKilledTheRadioStar" by Music/TheBuggles, which he felt defied this trope. It's a song that, by all means, ''should'' have been an exemplar of such, as it's not only indelibly tied to TheEighties and Creator/{{MTV}}'s formative years, it's also about the rise of music videos as the dominant commercial force in the popular music world. And yet, he felt it to still sound fresh, new, and futuristic over thirty years later, at least partly because it's primarily fueled by {{nostalgia|Filter}} for the pre-MTV world that was entering its twilight at that time. Complaints about how music videos, and the resultant focus on image that they created, had killed 'real music' would remain relevant for decades after, and so "Video Killed the Radio Star" would always be an anthem.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'', in its original incarnation, epitomized TheNineties (back when [[NetworkDecay music videos still aired on MTV]]). This happened again with the first revival in 2011, making references to the then current MTV shows that were airing (including ''Series/JerseyShore'' and ''True Life'') in addition to music videos, it captured the zeitgeist of the early [[TheNewTens New Tens]] instead. Not helping is the fact that insulting celebs and music artists with no apparent motive would later become unfashionable (unless one did or said anything controversial) and much of the very politically-incorrect humor the duo used when mocking videos would be considered "unfit" for mainstream media.

** In ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheEasterBeagleCharlieBrown'' (1974), Sally wants to buy platform shoes which were all the rage in TheSeventies.

* ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'', due to its LongRunner nature and focus on critiquing pop culture, can veer into this territory from time to time. What seemed popular enough to be spoofed on their cover at one time might have been forgotten within a few years -- and sometimes, due to a delay in publishing, what it parodied may have already been old news by the time the issue came out. Reading an old issue of ''MAD'' makes for a great time capsule of current events and what was popular or considered "hip" in the year it was published, especially if the media or celebrities spoofed have fallen into obscurity, or if the media subject to harsher parodies were VindicatedByHistory. This is to the point that compilation books from each decade since it began in TheFifties have been made.

* [[DrugsAreBad Anti-drug crusades]] are dated to particular eras due to the drugs MoralGuardians are worried about. In the '60s and early-mid '70s, it was marijuana and LSD. In the late '70s and '80s, it was crack cocaine. In the '90s and '00s, it was methamphetamine. In TheNewTens, the main worry was opioids (prescription painkillers and heroin), as well as research chemicals (particularly synthetic cannabinoids), and in TheNewTwenties, it's fentanyl.

* If a work deals with LGBT characters in any way, it can pretty quickly date itself if it uses the word "transsexual". Though that used to be a perfectly acceptable term for people experiencing gender dysphoria, "transgender" became the preferred term around TheNewTens, thanks to changing ideas about the dissonance between sex and gender.

* Any work that references five-and-dime stores (and isn't framed in a nostalgic context) will date itself to the early to mid-20th century. Thanks to inflation, said stores fell out of favor by TheSeventies.

* [=RPs=] that allow for a MassivelyMultiplayerCrossover aspect are easy to date, especially when certain arcs take place, by the sheer number of characters, or conspicuous ''lack'' of said characters, from a certain popular franchise in the RP. An example would be RolePlay/CampusLife, which started out on a ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' forum with multiple references to ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'', the then-most-current game in the series. A greater part of the cast came from there, with a number of characters belonging to Franchise/{{Pokemon}} species originating from [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl the fourth gen]], placing it sometime around 2007. As time went on, the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic mane cast from FiM]] ended up becoming the focal characters of a B-plot which easily dates it sometime during the early [[TheNewTens New Tens]]. Once the RP underwent a reboot, several ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' characters ended up becoming focal points, placing it sometime around the mid-'10s. This isn't even going into movie characters who like to pop up while their movies are still new and fresh, only to [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappear without a trace]] once the hype for their movie dies down.

** In TheNewTens, Bath & Body Works remodeled most of its stores to a plain blue-and-white design. But a few, particularly in older and more obscure shopping malls (especially given Bath & Body Works's tendency to be one of the last remaining chains at dead malls), still sport the chain's original 1990 look of wood grain with a red-and-white awning.

** Any fast-food restaurant with a solarium was almost certainly built, or at least had the solarium added, in TheEighties. This was a [[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-11-11/business/8503180207_1_greenhouse-atrium-restaurant common tactic]] at the time in order to make the restaurant seem more open and "natural", but quickly fizzled out due to high maintenance costs.

** In Australia, the "Hungry Jack's" burger chain[[note]]Actually Burger King, the different name has to do with trademark issues[[/note]] built a large amount of stores during their late 1980s/early 1990s high-growth period in an American [[TheFifties 50s-era]] GreasySpoon aesthetic akin to the Jack Rabbit Slim's restaurant in ''Film/PulpFiction'', with pop culture icons, posters and props all over the walls. This style was dropped in the late 90s[[note]]Which coincided with the period BK ''competed'' with HJ[[/note]], dating the stores that remained in the older style before they were renovated in the early-mid 2000s.

** The "[=McDonald's=] Classic" became an ironic example of this. This concept, introduced at a few locations in TheNineties, brought the chain back to basics with a {{retraux}} walk-up stand design. However, many of them were given a [[https://www.flickr.com/photos/fanofretail/25722689885 very 1990s-looking EXTREME logo]] that has made their "retro" nature feel dated in more than one way. It is perhaps for this reason that very few of the "Classic" prototypes remain in business.
** While renovation and relocation of older properties has been a constant since at least the end of TheEighties, the chain's vast size has made storewide uniformity a challenge. Many stores built in the 1970s and 1980s still have shingled brown mansard roofs and square panels down the side, often with a teal and wood grain interior. Stores built in the 1990s and early noughties tended toward larger windows and red siding on their mansards. The "Forever Young" concept introduced in 2006 consists of a brown, boxy appearance with a more "lounge" inspired appearance, including more comfortable padded seating and large open spaces.

* You can tell a review of a piece of media or something else was written in a certain decade by the writing style the reviewer used. Film reviewers in the 1960s-90s preferred a CompassionateCritic style most of the time, often calling out the negative qualities in great detail while praising positive qualities. Later, criticism of media, the arts, cars, etc. in the 2000s and early 2010s was dominated by "edgy" {{Caustic Critic}}s who preferred [[AccentuateTheNegative ignoring positive attributes in favor of brutally mocking the negative attributes]] (to the point where making "worst [blank] of all time" lists/polls practically became a cottage industry in and of itself), while the later half of the 2010s saw reviewers prefer reviewing media using sociopolitical allegories, with the Caustic Critic style mostly falling out of favor (with some exceptions, such as with many online reviewers). Even the terminology and descriptors critics use can become dated. In the 2000s, quite a few (mostly British) Caustic Critics often described things they disliked as "[blank] with Downs", a descriptor that largely fell out of use by TheNewTens because of concerns it was offensive to the disabled.
* Works that reference One-Hour Photo stores date themselves to the late 20th century at a time when thousands of these stores could be found across the United States. Digital photography caused many One-Hour Photo stores to go out of business in the TurnOfTheMillennium, and very few survived into TheNewTens.

** David Tennant-era Episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode The Shakespeare Code]]" has a discussion about ''Literature/HarryPotter'' that refers to [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows the 7th book]] in future tense, obviously dating the episode now. It’s as if they thought no one would ever watch that episode in reruns. Adding to the awkwardness, one of the characters involved is explicitly from 2008, the year ''after'' the book's real-life release.

* You can tell the decade by those recyclable jokes about publically or critically-disliked bands or singers. The same jokes would be told in the 1970s about Music/TheBeeGees, in the 1980s about the Music/CultureClub, in the 1990s about Music/HootieAndTheBlowfish (mainly for frontman Music/DariusRucker not being "black enough", an argument that [[UnfortunateImplications would fall flat today]]) and Music/MichaelBolton, in the 2000s about Music/MyChemicalRomance, Music/{{Creed}} and Music/LimpBizkit, and in the early-to-mid-2010s about Music/{{Nickelback}} and Music/JustinBieber — the words would be nearly identical, only the band made fun of was different. Notably, higher political correctness and genuine nostalgia for their music largely killed these jokes by the late 2010s, mainly because people began saving the bashing of Music/GretaVanFleet for [=YouTube=] comments sections.

* [[DrugsAreBad Anti-drug crusades]] are dated to particular eras due to the drugs MoralGuardians are worried about. In the '60s and early-mid '70s, it was marijuana and LSD. In the late '70s and '80s, it was crack cocaine. In the '90s and '00s, it was methamphetamine. In TheNewTens, the main worry is opioids (prescription painkillers and heroin), as well as research chemicals (particularly synthetic cannabinoids).

* Due to DevelopmentHell causing the game to be delayed continually since its inception 13 years prior to its release, ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' (released in 2011) has the unintended disadvantage of playing as though certain parts were only added in a certain year [[FollowTheLeader when they were the latest trend in gaming]]. The gameplay borders on GenreRoulette as it tries to mimic [[VideoGame/{{Sin}} late-90s cornball camp shooters where everything can be interacted with]], [[VideoGame/Doom3 early-2000s dark sci-fi shooters]] with frequent sections where you have to [[VideoGame/Halo2 hold the line (usually with a turret) waiting for something to happen]] or [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 drive a vehicle while getting out at regular intervals to clear the path]], and [[VideoGame/{{Killzone}} late-2000s grim realistic shooters]] where [[VideoGame/ModernWarfare nearly every NPC on your side dies]] practically in sequence. Several of the references include {{Exp|y}}ies of the [[Creator/MaryKateAndAshleyOlsen Olsen Twins]] (who haven't acted together since 2004), several [[AscendedMeme one-liners lifted from]] a "Ventrilo Harassment" video from 2007, a vehicle section including [[HummerDinger a massive car that runs out of gas after a five-minute drive]] (the brand most heavily associated with that sort of vehicle closed in 2009), and a near-exact replication of the infamous Creator/ChristianBale rant from the set of ''Film/TerminatorSalvation''. Because of this effect, the mechanics that were added more recently (Duke having [[RegeneratingHealth a regenerating "Ego" bar instead of health]], running out of breath after [[SprintMeter sprinting short distances]], only being able to [[LimitedLoadout carry two weapons with maybe four full mags for each at once]], and being [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence completely incapable of scaling anything taller than his ankles]]) stick out like a sore thumb instead of "making the game accessible to today's players", especially since several of them don't mesh with how the game is actually designed (the two-gun limit definitely wasn't made with the wide array of gimmick weapons and Duke's low ammo count in mind, necessitating [[BottomlessMagazines crates of infinite ammo]] around every other corner as a quick fix). This also pretty clearly dates it to before the halfway point of the decade, prior to games like 2014's ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'' or 2016's reboot of ''VideoGame/{{Doom|2016}}'', both of which [[GenreThrowback deliberately eschewed several of these "modern/realistic" mechanics]] (only keeping what could actually synergize with or be reinvented to fit classic-style shooter gameplay, like the typical obsession with GunAccessories being streamlined into an upgrade system that gives weapons [[SecondaryFire new and distinct modes of operation]]) and were largely praised for it.

** Patrick's [[CatchPhrase go-to excuse/alibi]] is claiming he needs to return videotapes, which even just a decade later were well on their way to being completely supplanted by [=DVDs=], to say nothing of movie rental stores in themselves becoming obsolete with streaming services like Creator/{{Netflix}}.

* In C.S. Lewis's ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', written in 1952, but set in 1942, some adventures that happened in 1940 are referred to as happening "in the war years".[[/folder]]

* The modern line of Toys/AmericanGirl (first known as American Girl of Today, now called Truly Me) is this. When the modern line started in 1995 the clothes for the dolls were, if not the height of modern fashion, at least reasonably fashionable for an eight-to-ten year old girl. As time--and fashion--moved on, many of the older clothes fell out of fashion and heavily reflect the eras they were released in. In fact, some of the older clothes designs from the 1990s started being used as "throwback" clothing for the 1990s characters, Isabel and Nicki, in 2023.

* {{Invoked|Trope}} by ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' in the [[Recap/DeathBattleS10E10ColeMacGrathVSAlexMercer fight between Cole McGrath and Alex Mercer]]. Since their respective video game series, ''VideoGame/InFamous'' and ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', were at the peaks of their popularity in the late '00s and early '10s, the script for the episode is presented as a lost and revisited script that was originally written back in 2013, complete with outdated slang like "awesomesauce", jokes about ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', and various [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] screenwriting cliches of that time period. Wiz and Boomstick frequently ask WhoWritesThisCrap as they go through the episode.

** The show was released between 1999 and 2007, but the show rarely mentions dates. Nonetheless, the time of the setting is made easily apparently by late '90s/early '00s conventions like [=RadioShack=], Blockbuster Video, Music/{{Slipknot}}, pagers, CRT televisions, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars, and of course a prominent shot of the Twin Towers in the opening. Episodes filmed after 9/11 removed the shot from the opening and had characters make references to the event (sort of inevitable, as the show is set near New York).

** The show was released between 1999 and 2007, but the show rarely, if ever mentions dates. Nonetheless, the time of the setting is made easily apparently by late '90s/early '00s conventions like [=RadioShack=], Blockbuster Video, Music/{{Slipknot}}, pagers, CRT televisions, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars, and of course a prominent shot of the Twin Towers in the opening. Episodes filmed after 9/11 removed the shot from the opening and had characters make references to the event (sort of inevitable, as the show is set near New York).

** The last episode of Season 3 is titled "Army of One", and has a subplot of Tony wanting to enroll his son in military school. The title refers to the US Army's recruiting slogan at the time, but proved to be a very short-lived slogan, replaced in 2006 with "Army Strong", due to "Army of One" seeming anti-teamwork, and has since been again replaced several times since.

* ''Series/TheSopranos'': The show was released between 1999 and 2007, but the show rarely, if ever mentions dates. Nonetheless, the time of the setting is made easily apparently by late '90s/early '00s conventions like [=RadioShack=], Blockbuster Video, Music/{{Slipknot}}, pagers, CRT televisions, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, and of course a prominent shot of the Twin Towers in the opening. One line that aged really poorly was Tony arguing that it's perfectly safe that his son should attend military school because "the United States Army hardly ever goes to war anymore", in an episode that aired less than four months before [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11]]. Episodes filmed after 9/11 removed the shot from the opening and had characters make references to the event (sort of inevitable, as the show is set near New York). A more plot-related example is how much of the mob's income is shown to come from sports betting. Sports betting was illegal at the time, but has since been legalized in New Jersey (in 2018) and New York (2019); Vermont is the only state in the North Atlantic where it's still illegal. One early episode also had them jacking a shipment of DVD players, which were a brand new invention at the time (first shipped to the United States in 1997), and had a much heftier price tag than DVD players even a few years later. Another early episode had a character have a sit down at a random diner with director/actor Creator/JonFavreau (AsHimself), something much more believable back before he directed ''Film/IronMan1''.

* ''Series/TheSopranos'': The show was released between 1999 and 2007, but the show rarely, if ever mentions dates. Nonetheless, the time of the setting is made easily apparently by late '90s/early '00s conventions like [=RadioShack=], Blockbuster Video, Music/{{Slipknot}}, pagers, CRT televisions, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, and of course a prominent shot of the Twin Towers in the opening. Episodes filmed after 9/11 removed the shot from the opening and had characters make references to the event (sort of inevitable, as the show is set near New York). A more plot-related example is how much of the mob's income is shown to come from sports betting. Sports betting was illegal at the time, but has since been legalized in New Jersey (in 2018) and New York (2019); Vermont is the only state in the North Atlantic where it's still illegal. One early episode also had them jacking a shipment of DVD players, which were a brand new invention at the time (first shipped to the United States in 1997), and had a much heftier price tag than DVD players even a few years later. Another early episode had a character have a sit down at a random diner with director/actor Creator/JonFavreau (AsHimself), something much more believable back before he directed ''Film/IronMan1''.

* According to Creator/OrsonScottCard, ''all'' fiction is this way to one degree or another, bearing identifying characteristics of its writer(s)'s time and culture. This assertion was made in reference to ''Literature/TheBookOfMormon'', which Card declared could not have been a hoax written by Joseph Smith because the way it is written differs too greatly from contemporary writers of Smith's time. Those whose sympathies are not resolutely with the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} LDS Church]] may want to take this theory with a grain of salt[[note]]Indeed, many critics of Mormonism make the same argument from the opposite perspective; that the writing of the ''Book of Mormon'' bears many more hallmarks of an early 19th century text rather than an ancient work like Joseph Smith purported it was, up to and including plagiarizing other works from the same time period[[/note]]. That said, the changes in language over time and this trope ''are'' often quite usable to determine when a work was written -- sometimes even to identify something as a forgery, as it simply isn't using the language and conventions of the period it allegedly was written in.