Whether it be for better or worse, 2026 is fast approaching and the time to put 2025 behind is nearly here. As we hurl into the new year, the chance has come to reflect on some of the things that made 2025 uniquely memorable in the cultural consciousness, and ask ourselves what the “ins and outs” of the year say about where we are headed.
2025 Outs
A Defining Summer Spectacle
An interesting change from the year before, 2025 did not follow the precedent that was claimed by “Brat Summer” in 2024. The popularity of Charli XCX’s “Brat” album had audiences wondering what they were going to label the summer of 2025. Indeed, the two summers prior had featured strong cultural moments like the release of Stranger Things season four in 2022 and then Barbie and the Eras Tour in 2023. A similar media-fueled event might have been echoed instead with the Minecraft craze that gripped the spring.
Eras Tour Fever
Taylor Swift’s the Eras Tour came to a close in December 2024, marking a shift in Swift’s pop culture presence with her subsequent album “The Life of A Showgirl” meeting mixed reviews. The fever of The Eras Tour was also fueled by Swift’s periodic rereleases of her early albums, which died down after Swift reclaimed her masters form her former label. This mania has been replaced by a slew of other tours like Lorde’s Ultrasound World Tour, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet Tour and the Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s Grand National Tour.
2025 Ins
Collectibles…and Labubus
Trinkets have been on the pop culture consciousness for a long time. Starting with Sonny Angels and Smiskis, the culture of collecting blind boxes and trinkets has been relatively steady in the past two years and was capitalized on quickly by Pop Mart stores that began to pop up in the United States in 2023. It came to a head with the Labubu craze this year, as seen when the furry dolls captivated young and old audiences alike.
K-Pop Demon Hunters
In a shocking upset, the Netflix release of K-Pop Demon Hunters quickly gripped audiences and became a chart-topping sensation. Though the film was not expected by industry professionals to become the hit that it is, it comes as no surprise considering the ever growing popularity of K-Pop and Asian music for global audiences. The influence of East Asian entertainment is especially visible in the rise of the girl-group KATSEYE, which fuses the K-Pop formula with Western music tastes.
Being “Performative”
A word that found a special home in 2025, the look-alike contest was quickly replaced with contests of who could dress the most “performative.” This term usually applies to men who wear tote bags, drink matcha, use wired headphones and read feminist literature. In essence, men who were participating in recent trends and microtrends were called out for inauthentically attempting to promote an over-curated image. While the elements that made up the image were actually well-liked, so was the practice of calling out the final result.
Looking ahead to 2026
A few recent developments already have steady footing going into 2026. For one, the nostalgia of the 2000s has been relatively consistent in the past two years and continues to live on. A prominent example can be seen in the aesthetics of artists like Addison Rae and PinkPantheress. The return to nostalgia seems to coincide with a desire to return to fashions that feel less tied to oversaturated mainstream fashions from the early 2020s.
That being said, the nostalgia continues to move through the decades, and 2026 might beckon the memory of the early and mid-2010s. That includes the 2013 to 2016 fantasy of Los Angeles and the early ages of influencer culture, which continues to be a hot topic. 2026 is likely to see the role of the influencer move away from exclusively short-form content towards some narrative-driven content in a way that echoes the past days of YouTube. This is especially true as influencer partnerships are sought out by streaming platforms, like Beast Games and brands.
As 2026 takes shape, we as consumers stand to benefit from evaluating the implications of the constant stream of new trends. The Labubu craze points attention to the susceptibility of consumers to sudden spikes in materialism. Similarly, “performative” culture integrates microtrends and a herd mentality, but it also signifies a push and pull between societal norms and prejudices.
While women are also active consumers of matcha and tote bags, participation in pop culture and fashion trends on the part of men is typically viewed as non-heteronormative. Labeling people as “performative” contributes to the negative connotation that follows deviation from heteronormative values. Still, another element of being “performative”, pretending to read feminist literature, conversely highlights how feminist ideas are diluted for mass consumption.
As we watch trends evolve, it is important to remember the role that pop culture and social media has in shaping the way we lead our own lives. When posed the question about what will be the ins and outs in 2026, becoming a more critical consumer might just be the most important “in” of all.
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Featured Image Photographed by Julia Gu/BruinLife
