History UsefulNotes / The2000s

* Starting around the midpoint of the decade, people began to stop buying compact discs and started purchasing their music online. While the forerunner to this idea was undoubtedly the illegal filesharing networks of the early decade (such as Napster), by the end, there were a plethora of legal music delivery options, including [=iTunes=], Website/YouTube, and for part of the decade, Website/MySpace. Online music and social media platforms meant that plenty of artists and bands who wouldn't be heard on mainstream radio (for various reasons) could find success. The aforementioned Arctic Monkeys was the first band to achieve mainstream success by giving away their songs for free.

* This is when [[{{Fora}} internet forums]] really hit their stride when it came to user base, as the rise of internet accessibility in this era, along with social media sites like Website/{{Twitter}} and Website/{{Facebook}} simply not existing until the latter half of the decade, resulted in more users signing up and in turn resulted in it being possible to find internet forums for almost anything. Back in those days, it was not uncommon for even obscure fan forums to see post chains going on for multiple pages within seconds of each other.
** This is also when freeform PlayByPostGames hit their peak. Almost any Forum you could go to often had at least ''one'' thread dedicated to roleplay. Website/FanfictionDotNet was a particular haven for hungry roleplayers, as ''anyone'' who signed up to the site could make their own dedicated mini-forum for any fandom. Even Website/ThisVeryWiki has its own dedicated section for roleplay in its forums. While both are still around, they have considerably slowed down since with [=FanFiction.Net=] in particular seeing a drastic decrease in its forum use in recent years.
* Website/YouTube came about in 2005 and began to make waves through the net in this era thanks to allowing ''anyone'' to upload their videos to the site. This resulted in completely new genres of entertainment being created in this era. On the dark side, it also sparked some fierce legal battles thanks to users uploading copyrighted work to the site, as explained later on.

* {{Friending network}}s took off during the decade. It would not be uncommon for people under 25 people to do most of their interaction online by the late '00s. Platform/LiveJournal and other {{blog}}ging sites pioneered the idea of social networking, Friendster and later Website/{{Myspace}} refined it, and Website/{{Facebook}} turned into a massive cash cow. Internet Relay Chat, an older, non-corporate, and decentralized text-based chatting system, was usurped by Website/{{Twitter}}.

* Video sharing site Website/YouTube was launched in 2005. Previously, streaming video content on the internet was sporadic and limited to sites like [=AtomFilms=] and iFilm, and each one required a different plugin (like Windows Media, Quicktime, [=RealPlayer=], and so on). However, Website/YouTube utilized the widely-used Flash plugin (and later added the option of using Google's open [[note]]Licensed using the same license as [[Platform/{{UNIX}} the BSD operating system]] and the Ogg formats[[/note]] [=WebM=] format with the also-open [=HTML5=] standard), was ''very'' user-friendly, and didn't require subscription fees, making it an overnight sensation and spawning a slew of similar video sharing sites.

** However, it should be noted that Marvel is doing much better in this regard than its counterpart DC is. Marvel has had great success with ''Spider-Man'' and the ''Avengers'' films. DC, on the other hand, has only really struck gold with the ''Batman'' films. ''Superman Returns'' slightly underperformed and got mixed reviews, culminating in the reboot ''Man of Steel.'' DC just seems to be having trouble getting into the Comic Movie groove. Perhaps the ultimate example of DC's failures at movie adaptations is ''Film/{{Constantine}}''. Most didn't even know it was a comic book movie until they saw the DC logo on the screen in the opening titles. Those who knew about ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' going into the theaters were '''beyond''' disappointed long before the end credits rolled. However, there were a series of films based on DC Comics publications that were successful even if the public didn't know about the source material: ''Film/AHistoryOfViolence'', ''Film/VForVendetta'' and ''Film/RoadToPerdition'', the last of which won an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' films also proved a massive draw, and made the world familiar with the mountains of UsefulNotes/NewZealand. This led to a [[FollowTheLeader brief revival]] of the epic HeroicFantasy genre on the big screen. In 2004, history was made when ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'' won eleven UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, including Best Picture, thus becoming both the first film sequel to win the top prize without its predecessor having already won it [[note]]Unless you count ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', which was a quasi-sequel to Film/{{Manhunter}}[[/note]] ''and'' the first "fairy-tale" epic movie to beat out more "serious" or "historical" works.

** A new format, FLAC, for music started to emerge for audiophiles who wanted to store their music digitally, but thought they were destroying its quality using sub-par compression methods like {{UsefulNotes/MP3}}. FLAC is a lossless compression method, so it plays back exactly as the original. It started gaining popularity late in the decade when the amount of storage necessary to archive dozens of [=CDs=] was becoming cheaper.

* {{Friending network}}s took off during the decade. It would not be uncommon for people under 25 people to do most of their interaction online by the late '00s. Website/LiveJournal and other {{blog}}ging sites pioneered the idea of social networking, Friendster and later Website/{{Myspace}} refined it, and Website/{{Facebook}} turned into a massive cash cow. Internet Relay Chat, an older, non-corporate, and decentralized text-based chatting system, was usurped by Website/{{Twitter}}.

* One of the internets most notorious, [[InternetJerk and infamous]], websites were born in this decade. Website/FourChan started out as an offshoot of ''Website/SomethingAwful'''s anime forums but quickly rose to popularity thanks to being able to post completely anonymously to the site. It didn't take long for the site to become more generalized with multiple sub-boards around different topics as the userbase grew. It also didn't take long before it became seen as [[WretchedHive the cesspool]] of the internet, gaining infamy for being a haven for Main/{{Troll}}s, [[TheInternetIsForPorn deviants]], and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers political wackjobs of both extremes]]. "The hive" as the users would become known as would also become infamous for creating several hoaxes picked up by mainstream media, as well as [[InternetCounterattack hunting down particular individuals that manage to gain their wrath]]. Oddly despite, or perhaps, because of all this, it's one of the few non-mainstream social media sites in the modern age that manages to maintain a very large and active userbase to this very day.

* This decade was a bit of an AudienceAlienatingEra for Creator/{{Disney}}'s [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon feature animation studio]], who released unsuccessful film after unsuccessful film during this time, with only a small bright spot in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'' (2002). In its place, a rivalry emerged; Creator/{{Pixar}}, whose films where distributed by Disney before they outright bought the studio in 2006, proved to be a powerhouse, matched only by Creator/DreamWorksAnimation. Ask someone about the most memorable animated films of this decade, and they'll tell you movies like ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'' (2004), the ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' CashCowFranchise (2001-2010), ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1'' (2008) and ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' (2009), the latter even being nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, only the [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast second animated film]] to ever do so. However, Disney got better by the end of the decade, going back to its [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation Disney Renaissance]] roots with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' (2009). This would ultimately be the last decade where Disney Animation chiefly focused on 2-D animated films as most of its output since has been CGI based.

* The concept of video games being child's play started to slowly change for a number of reasons. The big one was that many children who grew up playing video games were aging into teenagers and young adults, causing game developers to tailor their products accordingly. The RatedMForMoney trope started proliferating as a result; most of the biggest-selling games of the decade, like ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'', ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', were rated M. This, combined with the success of sports games like ''VideoGame/MaddenNFL'', caused a lot of young adults (particularly [[MostGamersAreMale young men]]) who hadn't been gamers before to get into gaming. Later in the decade, the rise of the Creator/{{Nintendo}} UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} and {{casual video game}}s expanded the market in completely new directions, bringing in legions of parents, women, old people, and others who weren't the traditional demographic for interactive entertainment.

** Thompson's [[LandDownUnder Australian]] equivalent, South Australia Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, managed to successfully hold up the adoption of an [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications R18+ rating]] for video games despite the fact that a majority of Australians supported one, causing many games that failed to meet the requirements of the [=MA15=]+ rating being [[BannedInChina banned]]. Needless to say, he is probably one of the most hated figures in the country.
* Creator/{{Sony}}'s UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 was a massive success, being sold in some fashion all the way into the ''next'' decade and having a massive game library. It also functioned as a DVD player, coming out at a time when not many people had standalone DVD players yet, contributing to the format's adoption.
* Creator/{{Sega}} started out the decade by getting out of the hardware business -- they tried with the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast, but the hype behind the [=PS2=] and Sega's huge debtload from their other failed hardware, among other factors, caused the death of the Dreamcast; after that, Sega called it quits and became solely a third-party developer.
* For the first time since UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, there was a successful Western-developed console in the form of Microsoft's UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}, whose popularity was particularly boosted by the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' franchise. An even more successful follow-up, the UsefulNotes/Xbox360, was released in 2005.

* Much like what is demonstrated in the Music section above, UsefulNotes/DigitalDistribution has also taken off in the video game industry as well. Considering the success of UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} for PC and UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade for the original Xbox, UsefulNotes/{{the seventh generation of console|VideoGames}}s started having their own online services while the PC experienced a growth in the digital market that total sales eventually surpassed that of retail sales on the platform.
* On May 24, 2002, Creator/{{Nintendo}} president Creator/HiroshiYamauchi retired after a 53-year tenure, less than a year after the release of the UsefulNotes/NintendoGamecube. Yamauchi later became the chairman of Nintendo's board of directors, before permanently retiring from the company on June 29, 2005, citing his age. Creator/SatoruIwata, the head of Nintendo's Corporate Planning Division, succeeded Yamauchi as president, and implemented a "blue ocean" strategy for the company where commercial success would be sought by providing innovative new products rather than directly battling competitors (this was a direct contrast from Yamauchi's attitude about Nintendo's products, particularly in regards to the cartridge-based Nintendo 64 and the minidisc-based Gamecube, both of which saw heavy criticism for their use of inferior storage media for the sake of profit). He would put this strategy into acting with the release of the Nintendo DS, which incorporated both touchscreen and dual-screen technology, in 2004 and the release of the Nintendo Wii two years later.

** Another new form of entertainment, mashing up clips from various sources, playing that at random speeds or in reverse, adding silly music or sounds over them and [[{{Sampling}} splicing audio to make characters say profanities]] rose to popularity during this era, known as the YouTubePoop. It all started from someone messing around with Windows Movie Maker and the bizarre, incomprehensible mess that resulted quickly caught on like fire with a large portion of the site's audience. Favorites clips to use from this era almost exclusively came from the infamous Nintendo-licensed UsefulNotes/PhilipsCDi games, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames'' and ''VideoGame/HotelMario'', as well as a healthy dose of '80s and '90s cartoons like ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' and ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''. The sub-genre would experience quite a decline closer to the end of the decade, as overuse of usual whipping boy clips had long since wrung whatever humor they had out of them. While the sub-genre is still around today, the newer [=YTPs=] tend to have a lot more effort put into them, with many of the classic once-popular clips being completely gone.

* The AllCGICartoon came to dominate feature-length animated film-making in this period, spearheaded by both Creator/{{Pixar}} moving from strength to strength which each new release and Creator/DreamworksAnimation launching a blockbuster franchise with ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' in 2001. The irreverent, ParentalBonus-heavy approach of the latter company was imitated thoroughly by others. Meanwhile, the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon would enter a prolonged AudienceAlienatingEra with several expensive cel-animated flops and then CGI efforts that received mixed responses. (For more, see UsefulNotes/TheMillenniumAgeOfAnimation.)

* The second half of the decade was not the best time for TV animation, especially compared to the [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation previous decade]]. While there were a few bright spots like ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' and ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', overall the popularity of cartoons on TV took a sharp decline, taking the quality along with it, especially during 2006-2009, with Creator/CartoonNetwork[[note]]after the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare Boston bomb scare]][[/note]] trying to move away from cartoons briefly [[NetworkDecay with CN Real]]. The cartoon industry would not recover until the start of TheNewTens, when shows such as ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', and ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' renewed interest in the medium.

* Video sharing site Website/YouTube was launched in 2005. Previously, streaming video content on the internet was sporadic and limited to sites like [=AtomFilms=] and iFilm, and each one required a different plugin (like Windows Media, Quicktime, [=RealPlayer=], and so on). However, Website/YouTube utilized the widely-used Flash plugin (and later added the option of using Google's open [[note]]Licensed using the same license as [[UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} the BSD operating system]] and the Ogg formats[[/note]] [=WebM=] format with the also-open [=HTML5=] standard), was ''very'' user-friendly, and didn't require subscription fees, making it an overnight sensation and spawning a slew of similar video sharing sites.

* The two major commercial consumer operating systems, UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows and Apple UsefulNotes/MacOS, ditched their older, less reliable architecture for something more akin to what businesses had been using. The former replaced the old, dated DOS base with that of Windows NT starting with XP, while UsefulNotes/MacOS threw out everything from the old OS[[note]]Which lacked key features of a modern OS like protected memory and preemptive multitasking[[/note]] and based the new UsefulNotes/MacOS (or Mac OS X as it was known then) on the [[UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} BSD-based]] [=NeXTStep=] operating system developed by [=NeXT=], the company Steve Jobs ran before his return to Apple. Meanwhile, Linux-based operating systems such as the Red Hat-derived Fedora and the Debian-derived Ubuntu became dedicated to easy consumer use on par with what the big commercial two provide without having to be extensively configured as with older Linux distributions.

* Just as waistlines were going down, the [[BareMidriffIsFeminine hemlines of many shirts started going up]], creating an unavoidable gap. This could be a problem for any woman or girl living in a colder climate, and had the same problem for overweight women as the low-waistline jeans: they could make the "muffin top" effect even more obvious.

* Just as waistlines were going down, the hemlines of many shirts started going up, creating an unavoidable gap. This could be a problem for any woman or girl living in a colder climate, and had the same problem for overweight women as the low-waistline jeans: they could make the "muffin top" effect even more obvious.

** Issues from the 90's like popular music and violence on television, however, were mostly left alone by around this time.

* Music/{{Radiohead}} followed up their 1997 masterwork ''OK Computer'' with 2000's weird, largely electronic, often guitarless ''Kid A''. Although initially a divisive album that caused a BrokenBase, it became embraced by the band's fanbase almost entirely by decade's end. The band's next two albums, ''Amnesiac'' and ''Hail to the Thief'' continued their acclaim streak. Then 2008, the band broke from EMI and released ''In Rainbows'' on their website. The day it was announced. For whatever price you pleased, including free. Whereas a sizable chunk of the downloads were indeed listed as $0.00, many fans chose to pay and others paid for a [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition premium option]] that included exclusive music. Even after all this, when the record was actually physically released by indie label XL Records a few months later, it still debuted at #1 in both the US and UK.
* CountryMusic entered a weird time during this decade. While country has been developing a pop feel since Garth Brooks in the early 90's, this decade's country music, especially during the second half of the decade, had a pop flair that was much more organic (previous country-pop acts such as Music/ShaniaTwain and Music/FaithHill started much more traditionally, but developed pop leanings later). The latest batch of country artists were under the age of thirty and grew up in the wake of the massive success of Madonna and Michael Jackson (as did ''everybody'') and obviously have had this bleed over into their music. Music/TaylorSwift (before she shifted to a full pop style by the next decade) is the most famous, but others such as Music/CarrieUnderwood, Music/{{Sugarland}}, Music/ThompsonSquare, Music/LadyAntebellum and Music/{{Gloriana}} are right behind her. Of course, this has also caused a '''massive''' BrokenBase in country music as well.

* It was also during this decade that the English Premier League really began to flex its financial muscles, bringing in the best foreign players. This brought sustained international success for the first time since [[UsefulNotes/TheEighties the early 80's]] with two English teams (Liverpool and Manchester United) winning the Champions League and five straight years of there being at least one English team in the final - and in the 2008/09 season, both teams were English, and . This was led by Chelsea who, owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovic and under the stewardship of Jose 'the Special One' Mourinho, spent their way to the title and became one of the dominant forces in English and global football. In Spain, Rafael Benitez's Valencia managed to briefly break the Madrid-Barcelona stranglehold on the league title before Benitez departed to manage Liverpool. This partly sparked off the second 'Galactico' era at Real Madrid under Club President Florentino Perez, leading to the £80 million acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008, who was considered to be the one player on the planet who could match Barcelona's academy trained wunderkind, Lionel Messi.

* Anime continued to grow its stateside throughout this decade, helped in no small part by the evolution of English dubbing. As for popular series, ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Pokémon]]'' declined (though still held steady ratings and survived the entire decade) and was soon joined by the likes of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', ''Franchise/YuGiOh'', and ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. Anime's popularity began to decline toward the end of the decade, however, for a number of reasons, ranging from an ever-greater focus in Japan on the {{Otaku}} market to generalized over-saturation as well as the rise of LightNovel adaptations thanks to Yamakan. Meanwhile, traditional revenue continued to decline in the face of ever-more-popular internet options. The original cancellation of Creator/{{Toonami}} in 2008, one of the major GatewaySeries to the medium, and the NetworkDecay of Creator/CartoonNetwork as a whole, dealt a blow to Anime’s popularity and mainstream appeal in the US, with only a few titles such as ''Pokémon''[[note]](which itself saw a PopularityPolynomial by the late 2000's)[[/note]] and the films of Creator/StudioGhibli being able to win over non-otaku crowds for the remainder of the decade.

* The live action [[TheMusical musical film]] also regained some popularity, thanks to the success of films like ''Film/MoulinRouge'' and ''Film/{{Chicago}}'' early in the decade, after following rather poor box office returns in the 90s. Other successful musical films followed them throughout this decade such as ''Film/DreamGirls'', the 2007 remake of ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'', ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' and ''Film/MammaMia''.

** Other tidbits from this busy little decade: Music/{{Metallica}} checked into [[CreatorBreakdown rehab]] and made an excruciating documentary. The once-mighty Music/{{Pantera}} broke up, and guitarist Dimebag Darrell was subsequently murdered on-stage in late 2004. Music/{{Opeth}} came out of the shadows and began to inspire something like religious awe among their smallish fanbase. Thanks to Music/{{Evanescence}}, the vast symphonic compositions of SopranoAndGravel bands fronted by women (such as Music/WithinTemptation) briefly took off before crashing again when Music/{{Nightwish|Band}} fired Tarja.

** Other tidbits from this busy little decade: Music/{{Metallica}} checked into [[CreatorBreakdown rehab]] and made an excruciating documentary. The once-mighty Music/{{Pantera}} broke up, and guitarist Dimebag Darrell was subsequently murdered on-stage in late 2004. Music/{{Opeth}} came out of the shadows and began to inspire something like religious awe among their smallish fanbase. Thanks to Music/{{Evanescence}}, the vast symphonic compositions of SopranoAndGravel bands fronted by women (such as Music/WithinTemptation) briefly took off before crashing again when Music/{{Nightwish|Band}} fired [[FaceOfTheBand Tarja]].

** Also in the UK, the digital television switch began in earnest early in the decade -- Creator/{{Sky}} Digital, launched at the tail-end of the previous decade, trounced their over-the-air rival, [=ONDigital=] / Creator/{{ITV}} Digital by way of major sports rights and [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil hiring hackers to crack their rival's encryption system]]; these combined with other issues saw ITV Digital go under in 2002, leaving viewers and many British sports teams in the lurch (the ITV Digital deal nearly led to the collapse of the Football League and saw several teams bite the dust); later that year, Creator/TheBBC helped to get a free replacement DTT service, Freeview, up and running. The BBC themselves embraced digital TV by launching several digital-only channels, including BBC Choice (which by 2003 became BBC Three) and BBC Knowledge (which became BBC Four around the same time); ITV did the same (ITV 2, 3 and 4 all came into existence; other various channels launched by their constituent companies under their own names gradually fizzled out), as did Creator/ChannelFour and eventually) Creator/ChannelFive (DTT helping to alleviate the signal issues they'd had at launch).

At the same time, openly gay or bisexual entertainers, such as Creator/NeilPatrickHarris, Music/LadyGaga, [[Series/{{Glee}} Jane Lynch]], Creator/AnnaPaquin, Creator/JohnBarrowman, and Creator/EllenDegeneres (who hosted a highly successful daytime talk show, in what is traditionally viewed as a rather conservative TV timeslot), achieved substantial popularity when, in prior decades, they would have been shunned by the mainstream. The fact that, by the end of the decade, Lynch and Harris were able to appear on children's programs like ''Series/ICarly'' and ''Series/SesameStreet'' without anybody accusing them of "[[ConspiracyTheorist recruiting for the gay agenda]]" is a major advancement over the prevailing wisdom just five years earlier, when ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' and ''Series/{{Teletubbies}}'' were accused of the same.\\

* This decade was a bit of an AudienceAlienatingEra for Creator/{{Disney}}'s [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon feature animation studio]], who released unsuccessful film after unsuccessful film during this time, with only a small bright spot in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'' (2002). In its place, a rivalry emerged; Creator/{{Pixar}}, whose films where distributed by Disney before they outright bought the studio in 2006, proved to be a powerhouse, matched only by Creator/DreamWorksAnimation. Ask someone about the most memorable animated films of this decade, and they'll tell you movies like ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' (2004), the ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' CashCowFranchise (2001-2010), ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' (2008) and ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' (2009), the latter even being nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, only the [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast second animated film]] to ever do so. However, Disney got better by the end of the decade, going back to its [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation Disney Renaissance]] roots with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' (2009). This would ultimately be the last decade where Disney Animation chiefly focused on 2-D animated films as most of its output since has been CGI based.

* The AllCGICartoon came to dominate feature-length animated film-making in this period, spearheaded by both Creator/{{Pixar}} moving from strength to strength which each new release and Creator/DreamworksAnimation launching a blockbuster franchise with ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' in 2001. The irreverent, ParentalBonus-heavy approach of the latter company was imitated thoroughly by others. Meanwhile, the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon would enter a prolonged AudienceAlienatingEra with several expensive cel-animated flops and then CGI efforts that received mixed responses. (For more, see UsefulNotes/TheMillenniumAgeOfAnimation.)

** Another new form of entertainment, mashing up clips from various sources, playing that at random speeds or in reverse, adding silly music or sounds over them and [[{{Sampling}} splicing audio to make characters say profanities]] rose to popularity during this era, known as the WebAnimation/YouTubePoop. It all started from someone messing around with Windows Movie Maker and the bizarre, incomprehensible mess that resulted quickly caught on like fire with a large portion of the site's audience. Favorites clips to use from this era almost exclusively came from the infamous Nintendo-licensed UsefulNotes/PhilipsCDi games, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames'' and ''VideoGame/HotelMario'', as well as a healthy dose of '80s and '90s cartoons like ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' and ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''. The sub-genre would experience quite a decline closer to the end of the decade, as overuse of usual whipping boy clips had long since wrung whatever humor they had out of them. While the sub-genre is still around today, the newer [=YTPs=] tend to have a lot more effort put into them, with many of the classic once-popular clips being completely gone.

* Just as waistlines were going down, the hemlines of many shirts started going up, creating [[BareYourMidriff an unavoidable gap]]. This could be a problem for any woman or girl living in a colder climate, and had the same problem for overweight women as the low-waistline jeans: they could make the "muffin top" effect even more obvious.

* This decade saw the return of the FunTShirt. Shirts like "[[Film/NapoleonDynamite Vote for Pedro]]" and "Three Wolf Moon" became the "[[Music/FrankieGoesToHollywood Frankie Says Relax]]" of their time.

* The CollectAThonPlatformer, which was the dominant genre in the 90s, experienced a major decline in the 2000s due to a number of reasons. The first was the rapidly-evolving gaming climate that resulted in a greater push for more realistic graphics, which made many people view the cartoony collect-a-thons as outdated and obsolete. The second was that the concept of collecting things in order to progress was starting to become stale and oversaturated, with ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' at the start of the decade being considered [[GenreKiller the straw that broke the camel's back]] in that regard, by having so ''many'' things to collect (and ''requiring'' you to collect almost all of it to see the ending) that it burned players out on the genre. It didn't help that many collect-a-thon titans like ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'' and ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'' experienced notorious {{Dork Age}}s during this period that ruined their reputations for many years, and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'''s luke-warm reception resulted in the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series adopting more linear styles of gameplay in their mainline platformers like ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' a few years later. By the mid-2000s, many platformers that did arise in this era like ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'' and ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' did not use collecting as a means of progression, and the ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' series, which started off as a collect-a-thon with ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxterThePrecursorLegacy'', eventually abandoned it in favor of a more mature ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto''-style of gameplay a-la ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade''. By the end of the decade, the genre was considered dead in the eyes of many gamers, and it wouldn't be until the mid-2010s when nostalgic developers attempt to rekindle the interest in Collect-a-thons again.

* This decade was a bit of a DorkAge for Creator/{{Disney}}'s [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon feature animation studio]], who released unsuccessful film after unsuccessful film during this time, with only a small bright spot in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'' (2002). In its place, a rivalry emerged; Creator/{{Pixar}}, whose films where distributed by Disney before they outright bought the studio in 2006, proved to be a powerhouse, matched only by Creator/DreamWorksAnimation. Ask someone about the most memorable animated films of this decade, and they'll tell you movies like ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' (2004), the ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' CashCowFranchise (2001-2010), ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' (2008) and ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' (2009), the latter even being nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, only the [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast second animated film]] to ever do so. However, Disney got better by the end of the decade, going back to its [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation Disney Renaissance]] roots with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' (2009). This would ultimately be the last decade where Disney Animation chiefly focused on 2-D animated films as most of its output since has been CGI based.

* The AllCGICartoon came to dominate feature-length animated film-making in this period, spearheaded by both Creator/{{Pixar}} moving from strength to strength which each new release and Creator/DreamworksAnimation launching a blockbuster franchise with ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' in 2001. The irreverent, ParentalBonus-heavy approach of the latter company was imitated thoroughly by others. Meanwhile, the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon would enter a prolonged DorkAge with several expensive cel-animated flops and then CGI efforts that received mixed responses. (For more, see UsefulNotes/TheMillenniumAgeOfAnimation.)

* Proving that there is indeed somebody upstairs answering prayers, Music/LedZeppelin briefly reunited in late 2007. In fact, many bands popular in the '70s and '80s held reunions during this period.

** Another new form of entertainment, mashing up clips from various sources, playing that at random speeds or in reverse, adding silly music or sounds over them and [[{{Sampling}} splicing audio to make characters say profanities]] rose to popularity during this era, known as the WebAnimation/YouTubePoop. It all started from someone messing around with Windows Movie Maker and the bizarre, incomprehensible mess that resulted quickly caught on like fire with a large portion of the site's audience. Favorites clips to use from this era almost exclusively came from the infamous Nintendo-licensed UsefulNotes/PhilipsCDi games, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames'' and ''VideoGame/HotelMario'', as well as a healthy dose of '80s and '90s cartoons like ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' and ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''. The sub-genre would experience quite a decline closer to the end of the decade, as [[SturgeonsLaw overuse of usual whipping boy clips had long since wrung whatever humor they had out of them]]. While the sub-genre is still around today, the newer [=YTPs=] tend to have a lot more effort put into them, with many of the classic once-popular clips being completely gone.

** Whilst CD sales never ''quite'' managed to fall to zero, the audio cassette ''did'' completely die during this decade. Up until maybe 2001 or so, it was still possible to find cassette versions of popular music alongside their corresponding CD releases; by the end of the decade, one would have a hard time finding even blank tapes. CD players had already become standard equipment in new cars by the start of the decade, negating one advantage cassettes had enjoyed: portability. As digital audio players became even cheaper and had increasingly higher capacities, it simply wasn't worth having the medium around as a portable music format when you could store the equivalent of dozens (if not hundreds) of tapes in a device smaller than your average tape Walkman, and without the disadvantages of background hiss or your tapes getting chewed up. Unlike vinyl, which provides much better quality and durability than cassettes, retro appeal wasn't enough to save them.

** As CD sales started to slip, sales of vinyl [=LPs=] began to sharply rise for many reasons: increased demand from music listeners who believed that [=LPs=] had superior sound than [=CDs=], record buyers who were sick of the LoudnessWar and were willing to pay a premium to no longer deal with it, the increased popularity of indie rock (a genre which had always released music on vinyl, including exclusive tracks only available on vinyl releases), and the fact that record playing technology had quietly advanced (including experiments with digital playback instead of reliance on needles that wore out after time) since its phasing out as a major music platform, and nostalgia for a physical medium in the digital age. Major labels embraced the return of the format, as [=LPs=] are quite a sight more difficult to burn to a computer than a CD.

* ProfessionalWrestling reached heights of popularity unknown since TheEighties, with the DarkerAndEdgier "Wrestling/AttitudeEra" passing away and the Wrestling/{{WWE}} (the only major wrestling promotion left in North America during the first half of this decade) once again starting to appeal primarily to family audiences and children in what became known as the "[[LighterAndSofter PG Era]]". Wrestling/JohnCena (who made it officially cool to be PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy) was ''the'' wrestling star of the decade, becoming both the most recognizable pro wrestler since Wrestling/HulkHogan and the most controversial one since Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin. Other ring luminaries of the Oughts included Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield, Wrestling/BrockLesnar (who became the youngest WWE Champion in history before going on to equal success in UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts), Wrestling/{{Batista}}, and Wrestling/{{Edge}}.

* For starters, [[Wiki/TVTropes one of the best websites]] to ever grace the internet was born in this decade. [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Ruining]] and [[SugarWiki/TVTropesWillEnhanceYourLife enhancing]] people's lives since 2004, baby!

** This is also when freeform PlayByPostGames hit their peak. Almost any Forum you could go to often had at least ''one'' thread dedicated to roleplay. Website/FanfictionDotNet was a particular haven for hungry roleplayers, as ''anyone'' who signed up to the site could make their own dedicated mini-forum for any fandom. Even Wiki/ThisVeryWiki has its own dedicated section for roleplay in its forums. While both are still around, they have considerably slowed down since with [=FanFiction.Net=] in particular seeing a drastic decrease in its forum use in recent years.

* This was the age when geek culture invaded the mainstream, and society's love of technology reached levels not seen since the gee-whiz, "''science!''"-loving '50s. Between the proliferation of comic book movies, the rise of {{anime}} and {{manga}} in the West, the critical acclaim received by "genre" series like ''Series/{{Lost}}'' and ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', the growing mainstream acceptability of video games, and most importantly, the increasing reliance of modern society on computers and the internet, all of a sudden it was acceptable, if not even encouraged, for one to be a geek. Celebrities as diverse as sex symbol Creator/RosarioDawson, action hero Creator/VinDiesel, and rom-com starlet Creator/KristenBell won fans with [[JustForFun/OneOfUs their self-admitted nerdiness]], video game and comics T-shirts were worn with pride, and of course, there's Wiki/ThisVeryWiki. Even [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama the President of the United States]] joined in on the action, with his geekiness, computer-savvy and ability to mobilize supporters on the internet playing a key role in his winning the 2008 election.
* The Internet really started developing (if corporate assimilation and conglomeration are to be defined as progress) throughout this decade. Perhaps the biggest indicator of online growth was the consolidation of various websites. Whereas early on, you could conceivably find about 30 sites on which to shop for electronics or search for other sites, a few frontrunners started emerging from the pack. Amazon started swallowing up the e-tailers, Website/{{Google}} was the predominant search engine, and Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} slowly became the be-all end-all for information.

* In August 2004, [[Wiki/TVTropes TV Tropes Wiki]] debuted on the internet and revolutionized the way in which [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife millions of people viewed entertainment]]. Hey, who says we don't have a right to toot our own horn?

* Starting from 2001, Heavy Metal entered something of a second Golden Age. NuMetal died mid-decade as acts like Music/ArchEnemy and Music/KillswitchEngage completely outclassed them for talent, listenability and sheer heaviness. Killswitch went on to [[TropeCodifier codify]] the {{Metalcore}} genre, [[SpiritualSuccessor which eventually became]] the new [[TheScrappy scrappy]] genre in turn. Young bands like Music/{{Trivium}} took a page from [[ProgressiveRock prog rock's]] book and made high-level musicianship cool again, with epic overblown guitar solos becoming not just called for by fans, but furiously demanded. Music/{{Dragonforce}} took this new attitude UpToEleven and their song "Through The Fire And The Flames" became the ''second'' hardest song ever to appear in ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' (screw you, Music/{{Buckethead}}).

** Other tidbits from this busy little decade: Music/{{Metallica}} checked into [[CreatorBreakdown rehab]] and made an excruciating documentary. The once-mighty Music/{{Pantera}} broke up, and guitarist Dimebag Darrell was subsequently murdered on-stage in late 2004. Music/{{Opeth}} came out of the shadows and began to inspire something like religious awe among their smallish fanbase. Thanks to Music/{{Evanescence}}, the vast symphonic compositions of SopranoAndGravel bands fronted by women (such as Music/WithinTemptation) briefly took off before crashing again when Music/{{Nightwish}} fired [[FaceOfTheBand Tarja]].

* PopPunk and EmoMusic reached new heights of popularity, a boom that started in the late '90s with Music/TheOffspring, Music/JimmyEatWorld, Music/{{Weezer}} and Music/{{Blink 182}}, and exploded in 2002 with Music/GoodCharlotte, Music/SimplePlan, Music/DashboardConfessional and Music/AvrilLavigne. With it came the stereotype of their fans as being [[EmoTeen wangsty teenagers]] wearing hoodies, dyed bangs and tight jeans who [[AppealToWorseProblems didn't know what "real" problems were like]] ("Cheer Up, Emo Kid!" was a popular epithet). The media would often treat emo as [[YouCanPanicNow "the latest threat to your children!"]], one that would make them depressed and suicidal, and emo kids would often find themselves subjected to violence and bullying (which only turned into a bigger self-fulfilling prophecy). The backlash caused a lot of emo bands to vociferously deny that they were emo, out of fear of being hit with the stereotype.

* This was also when the [[YouCanPanicNow much-ballyhooed]] gap in scholastic achievement between boys and girls began to really make itself known. In brief, girls not only erased the lag that they had previously had in education, but they surged ahead of the boys in the process, with much higher rates of grade school achievement and college enrollment. Not helping was the fact that boys were starting to decline in those categories at almost the same rate the girls were growing. Where the boys did have a lead, it was in such dubious places as dropout rates and delinquency. It eventually got to the point where many co-ed colleges started implementing affirmative action for male students to prevent their campuses from becoming more than 75% female -- something that would've been inconceivable as late as 1990. This resulted in much hand-wringing from media pundits worried that "boys were being left behind" by the new, post-industrial knowledge economy, or (more [[ConspiracyTheorist hysterically]]) that "[[StrawFeminist radical feminists]]" were sabotaging boys' education.

* An entirely new villain was created in this decade. A lot of action-adventure and spy fiction shows and films had at least one young millionaire hacker who made his millions with dot-coms and "got out before the bubble burst" (that line is often repeated verbatim). This allowed them to hire a young, good-looking HollywoodNerd (usually), yet still get all the visual tropes of a millionaire villain (traveling by jet to foreign locations, lots of debauchery, etc.). Expect HollywoodHacking, generally acting like an AssholeVictim (or even an AntiHero, depending on where his allegiances were), and living a life of wine, women, and song.

** And of course, inspired by the younger bands, many old campaigners got their acts together and hit their second wind -– Music/{{Slayer}} got Dave Lombardo back, Music/IronMaiden got Music/BruceDickinson back, [[IAmTheBand Dave Mustaine]] reformed Music/{{Megadeth}}, and even Metallica found a bass player who wasn't disliked by fans. Zakk Wylde and his Black Label Society came out of [[Music/OzzyOsbourne Ozzy's]] shadow, even though Ozzy himself was still releasing albums and touring regularly. And best of all, the MoralGuardians left them all right the hell alone. Overall, the decade felt good, man.