2000s: Encyclopedia II - 2000s - Trends and Fashion

2000s - Trends and Fashion

2000s - United States

• Fashion slowly becomes less grungy and more excessive as the wearing of flannel by people under 30 declines and acid-washed jeans and shaggy hair become again commonplace for boys and men. For girls and women hoop earrings, originally popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, return to style circa 2004.
• Wearing baseball caps backwards peacefully falls out of style, in favor of wearing them sideways or forwards. Sunglasses begin to become less widespread as a fashion statement, until 2005 when large sunglasses were made popular by such celebrities as Nicole Richie.
• Tattoos continue to become more common
• Fad diets such as Atkins are popular; "less is more" a common statement in 1990s and 2000s
• Slang words used often in 2000s America include "Sweet", "Retarded", "Gay", "Crunk", "Wanksta", "Awesome", and "Tight".
• Cell phones become a necessity to teenagers and often a fashion statement as opposed to a preppie toy. As the phones can also be potentially used as a "tracking device", many teenagers and young adults try to avoid having worrisome or over-protective parents know they have one.
• MP3 players (such as the iPod) become very common as they become more powerful and easier to use.
• Generation Y supplants Gen X as current youth generation.
• Interracial dating and relationships become more common in the US, however the double standard of black male-white female pairings and white male-asian female pairings largely continues to persist. Interracial couples on television and movies in all manner of gender and racial scenarios become fairly common.
• Strong cultural similarities with the 1990s as the pop culture of that decade continues to be trendy and cherished by the 2000s youth as exampled by the success of Mariah Carey and Green Day in the mid-2000s and by the fact that the Nineties receive only minimal backlash among current youth.
• A very strong nostalgia for the 1980s emerges, and as a result many things from the 80s are "brought back" and certain aspects of the decade become cool again such as New Wave music. Nontheless, the 2000s' kinship with the 1990s prevents a complete acceptance of the 80s, but the decade is much more positively accepted by younger members of Generation Y, usually teenagers.
• Poker becomes a craze, as many Americans are enticed by online poker rooms and games with their friends and neighbors. The World Series of Poker aired on ESPN becomes a huge success.