In The Buzz Cut, we bring you a round-up of all the weird, controversial, and wonderful stories we’ve been reading all week.
With the 2020s stretched before us, many publications have taken the opportunity to look back at the decade that got us here. Here’s the best of the best look backs at the 2010s — may we carry the best parts of a troubled decade into the future.
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Over at the New York Times, an overview of 33 defining moments, people, and trends of the 2010s — for better and for worse. Case in point: binge-watching, a life-changing phenomenon of the last decade, isn’t going anywhere. But the duck-face selfie? Already dated.
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For the tech aficionados, The Verge has (an admittedly long) walk down memory lane with its list of the 100 defining gadgets from the last decade, what they exemplify of the 2010s’ ethos, and what they say about the future. (On the flip side, we enjoyed this list of the worst trends, most of them tech-related, to leave behind as the decade turns. Topping this list? Facebook, obviously.)
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For movie buffs, The Atlantic dissects the decade’s best film scenes. Also indicative of Facebook’s influence in this decade, it includes a scene from The Social Network, the (sort-of-true) story of the creation of the social media behemoth. The scene in question? The opening break-up — which feels appropriate for a decade that has seen the world fall out of love with liking. Related over at Ms. magazine: A year-in-review of abortion depictions on the small screen — how far they’ve come and where they’ve yet to go.
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For music lovers, Pitchfork’s review of the best albums and best songs of the 2010s will let you stock up your nostalgic playlists before the sentimentality hits too hard. Coming in at the top-most defining song of the decade? Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” — which we’re queueing up right now to remind us that protests, movements, and hope don’t end when decades do.
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For the high brow crowd, Longreads has a list of the best, well, long reads of 2019. Pair it with Paste’s selection of the top 40 books of the decade — more than half of which are authored by women — for ultimate literary satisfaction. And The Guardian’s 2019 retrospective in photos is worth a visiting as a reminder of the events and images that rocked the world over the past year — and should shape the decade to come.
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And finally, for the low brow crowd (a little bit all of us), Ms. also offers a ranking of the top feminist pop culture moments of the last year (think: Lizzo being “100% That Bitch”). And don’t miss a decade’s worth of bathroom memories over at The Outline, with its collection of the 2010s’ most thought-provoking loos.
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And finally, in case you missed it, check out The Swaddle’s 2019 retrospective. With long reads and short reads, high brow and low brow articles, our best-of-the-last-year has something for everyone.
