Just verbal diarrhea a bunch of music/pop culture/politics stuff that YOU remember from these eras, or that you perceive as having been popular.
And also correct mine if you think it’s wrong somehow. I left a lot blank because I stopped paying attention to pop culture around 2015ish
1996-2000:
pokemon, CDs, walkmans, Goosebumps, backstreetboys, nsync, britney spears, eminem, nickelodeon, y2k, dotcom bubble, Blade, The Matrix, Monica Lewinsky, hanging chads, spongebob
2001-2005:
9/11, iraq war, afghanistan, ipods, 50 cent, DVDs, smash bros. melee, xbox, Halo
2006-2010:
housing crash, Obama, Ron Paul, Taylor Swift/Kanye (both them getting popular and the VMA debacle),
2011-2015:
“birtherism”/Trump, 2012 Mayan prophecy, Vine, Twitter, Trump getting popular around 2015
2016-2020:
2021-now:
1996-2000 and early 2000s: Final Fantasy, nu-metal, Napster, wrestling, South Park, Titanic, Fight Club
2001-2005 and continuing into 2006-2010: emo, metalcore, Something Awful (beginning of many future internet trends including memes and 4chan), Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Snakes on a Plane (beginning of corporate internet meme monetization attempts), Angry Nintendo/Video Game Nerd, Cracked.com, Call of Duty (first game was already popular but Modern Warfare was what really launched the series into the stratosphere), FarmVille, Mythbusters, World of Warcraft, Michael Bay’s Transformers, Twilight
2011-2015: Hunger Games, Frozen, Flappy Bird, decline of physical media starts, Netflix and Steam start to get popular, rise of indie games, Gangnam Style foreshadows the future rise of K-pop in the West, Mad Max: Fury Road