The Millennial 100

Mastering the Mind of Shondaland

Once you get past the pulmonary embolisms and sexual tension in the elevator, the first seasons of Grey’s Anatomy were about what it meant to find your “person.” As possibly the only network show that could pass the Bechdel test in 2005, Meredith Grey and Christina Yang were two powerful, forceful women who invited us into the intensity and complexity of female friendship. As Shondaland has grown out of Seattle Grace and into the White House and one very questionable law firm, Shonda Rhimes keeps us crying into our laptops, alone, at 2 a.m., but her shows have also remained some of the most racially diverse, queer-positive, female-empowering representative hours on television. From the death row to trans activism, Rhimes has spent more than a decade charging head first into the key social issues of the time and capturing it in one patient in an ER bed. McDreamy was never really the point, right? #tgit —HM

Putting the Queer in LGBTQ

The term “queer” is both championed and hotly contested among LGBTQ millennials. What was once a slur for those with homosexual tendencies became a political position in the 1990s and continues to this day. Queer Nation, formed in 1990 as an ACT UP offshoot, reclaimed the term in a flyer for a protest, warning of the impending assimilation of gays and lesbians into hetero-reverent institutions such as marriage, the military and the nuclear family. “For some it means strange and eccentric and kind of mysterious,” read their Xerox manifesto. “For others, ‘queer’ conjures up those awful memories of adolescent suffering. ‘Gay’ is great. It has its place. But when a lot of lesbians and gay men wake up in the morning we feel angry and disgusted, not gay. So we’ve chosen to call ourselves queer.” While LGBT people of previous generations continue to balk at the term, younger generations have embraced “queer” as a more inclusive label that allows for more fluid expressions of gender and sexuality than can be defined under terms like lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. With the term “queer” also evolved a more expansive gender politic that eschewed the binary-based essentialism of the past. As the 21st-century progressed, additional categories such as “genderqueer” and “non-binary” and “pansexual” accommodated a broader spectrum of transgender and gender non-conforming people. (Less common, but picking up steam, in the United States is “LGBTQI,” which represents intersex people as part of the community.) —S.E.

‘Mean Girls’ Are So Fetch

Possibly the single most quotable movie of 2004, Mean Girls asked some of our most pressing questions (“If you’re from Africa, why are you white?”) and imparted invaluable wisdom to non-Plastics trying to survive the high school watering hole (“Don’t have sex. Because you will get pregnant. And die.”). It was our less-sophisticated, but infinitely endearing Heathers, and perfectly timed for a generation’s discovery of Tina Fey’s brilliance. In its nostalgia-driven Broadway musical revitalization, we still may never know if butter is a carb, and god willing, fetch still won’t happen, but Gretchen Weiner’s hair will always be full of secrets. —Hannah Murphy

How ‘Space Jam’ Influenced More Than the NBA

It may have been a 90-minute advertisement for Loony Toons and Air Jordans, and it may have more plot holes than plot, but Space Jam still lassoed its way into our product-susceptible little hearts. Was it the absurdist alien villains (did anyone remember that they’re called Nerdlucks)? Was it the unironic use of R. Kelly’s I Believe I Can Fly? Or was it the sheer thrill that we might be one golf hole away from tumbling into the cartoon dimension? However it happened, Space Jam delighted a generation that just wanted to see Newman get cartoon-flattened by an alien who stole the basketball skills of a b-list NBA player. And if you’re dreading the LeBron reboot, you can take solace in the (probably) Geocities website that hasn’t changed since the movie came out in 1996. —HM

Beyoncé Rules the World

For 20 years, she’s been a stately pop and R&B presence: Destiny’s Child countered the glaringly white bubblegum of the time with unmatchable vocals and choreography, and their success made her solo career fail-proof. It’s one reason Beyoncé may be the most universally beloved artist of the Gen Y. A figure of talent, beauty and grace, Queen Bey has developed into the most exciting artist of the millennium as well as a political figure, setting the tone for how other major stars speak about feminism and the Black Lives Matter movement with the release of her landmark Lemonade album in 2016. —BS

Tiffany ‘New York’ Pollard

Launched by Surreal Life, VH1 created a block of C-list, D-list and lower-celebrity-centric reality shows (“Celebreality”) that eventually led to Bachelor-inspired franchises like Flavor of Love (starring Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav) and Rock of Love (starring Poison’s Bret Michaels). Most importantly, it gave us Tiffany “New York” Pollard, a Flavor of Love contestant with some of the most memorable moments (spitting on a fellow contestant named Punkin) and lines (“Beyoncé, I’m so sorry”). Her own spinoffs would become hits as well, but the pre-social-media memes she created were not forgotten once Tumblr and Twitter were popularized. —BS

Joey-Pacey-Dawson Love Triangle

For some, Katie Holmes is best known as Tom Cruise’s ex-wife who narrowly escaped the clutches of Scientology. But for millennials, she’s Joey Potter, the single best reason to watch Dawson’s Creek. The hourlong WB soap — from showrunner Kevin Williamson, fresh off the Scream movie franchise — centered around four comically white New England teens taking on upper-middle-class problems in a vaguely water-adjacent setting. There was the future meme (James Van Der Beek as Spielberg-loving Dawson), the future Oscar nominee (Michelle Williams as Jen), the Mighty Duck (Joshua Jackson as Pacey) and…Holmes. You’ll struggle to remember a single plot point, but the indelible image of Joey climbing through Dawson’s bedroom window at night will still make you weak at the knees. —John Hendrickson

Dubya’s Mission Accomplished

Before painting portraits of himself in the shower and enjoying a bizarre second act as “not that bad, in retrospect,” President George W. Bush spent eight years embarrassing the United States. We ate up his administration’s jingoism and allowed him to lead us into two doomed wars. You might remember 43 as the president who ignored that helpful “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” memo, or the one in charge during that whole “massive financial meltdown” thing. And yet…millions of Americans remain nostalgic for his folksy-uncle schtick — especially with Michelle Obama having a great time by his side at world events — still wishing they could crack a beer with the grinning Texan. Oh, did we mention his government brutally tortured people? —John Hendrickson

Raging in the Pit at Vans Warped Tour

What first kicked off as a marketing event for Vans sneakers would become a rite of passage for pop-punk bands on the rise — and their young fans. Established in 1995, the multicity festival helped break era-defining bands like Blink-182, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy just before they would sweep the mainstream. (It also became the first music festival with adult day care, a.k.a., a safe place for parents to hang back while their kids raged in the pit.) But as the years went on, the Warped Tour came under fire for the blatant sexism and predation of some of its performers — not to mention the fact that male acts outnumbered female acts by a ginormous margin. (Warped Tours’ few, however impressive female alumni include Joan Jett, Hayley Williams of Paramore, Bebe Rexha and even Katy Perry.) Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman would announce its final run in 2018; but has also hinted at a 25th-anniversary celebration in the works for 2019. —S.E.

AOL Instant Messenger Alter Egos

Unbeknownst to Gen Z, the Internet wasn’t always what it is now. Once upon a time you needed to plug an ethernet cable direct from a modem into your computer — which was most likely the size of an adult German shepherd — and spend the next five to 10 minutes hearing it groan in distorted dial tones while connecting to the Web. Enter America Online, the revolutionary pay-based online service with built-in browsing, e-mail and, best of all, its instant-messaging system, where you could pester as many classmates and Internet strangers as your parents permitted. You could tell a lot by somebody’s AOL Instant Messenger screen name — be it “SeXyLeXxY69,” alter ego of the preacher’s daughter, or that of the skater girl behind “punkprincess182.” But you could deduce even more by their away message, which functioned as the proto-subtweet for millennial teens. While “offline,” one would typically leave an away message to passively convey a crush, or an enmity, usually through a verse from their favorite emo or R&B song. (“You’re so last summer,” an away message might read in 2003.) Yet as broadband advanced, dial-up went the way of the dinosaurs, and eventually AIM would be eclipsed by Apple’s iMessage, Google Hangouts and Facebook Messenger. —S.E.

Daddy Yankee Loves the ‘Gasolina’

Before Daddy Yankee played it cool in 2014’s “Despacito,” he brought the fire 10 years earlier with “Gasolina” — the hit that first put reggaeton on the map. By the power of a dynamite buildup and an infectious, scandalous hook, the Puerto Rican MC brought the sound of San Juan’s streets to the world’s quinceañeras, bar mitzvahs, weddings and graduation parties. “Ella le encanta la gasolina!” Daddy Yankee would gloat (“She loves the gasoline!”), to which his female backup singers would cry, “Dame mas gasolina!” (“Give me more gasoline!”). While many an Anglophone person has shouted along to the song at a school dance, blissfully unaware of its saucy innuendo, most Hispanic kids would never dare tell. —Suzy Exposito

Kanye West’s Rap Genius

Before he wanted to make America great again, Kanye West was — and arguably still is — one of the most prolific rappers of our generation, first bursting onto the scene as a producer (Alicia Keys’ The Diary of Alicia Keys, Jay-Z’s Blueprint, etc.) before emerging as a solo artist with College Dropout — featuring jams like “All Falls Down” or “Through the Wire” — which was followed by hit-after-hit albums (eight solos, two collaborations), until the ego became bigger than the man. Now a walking meme, there’s no denying an evolution that spanned from raw to experimental to epic in terms of artistry and sound. —SL

The Cut-to-Fit Universe of Wes Anderson

His cinematic worlds are shiny and perfect and witty and stylish. The symmetrical compositions and deep-cut soundtracks are unmistakable, and that’s one of the many reasons his movies appeal to many younger fans. Wes Anderson films are a right of passage, infecting many with a need to feel hip, similar to buying a retro record player or going to your first dive bar to slum it with the salt-of-the-earth locals. From Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums to The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and Moonrise Kingdom, the auteur’s movies inspire legions with their quirky story lines, saturated colors and oddball cast of regular actors. Who else could make Bill Murray and Anjelica Huston favorites of a younger generation? The Anderson aesthetic is so embedded in our culture and yet we never get tired of seeing Margot Tenenbaum costumes and red tracksuits every Halloween. —Angie Martoccio

Stevie Nicks, Rock Goddess for a New Generation

Even if you didn’t grow up listening to Fleetwood Mac, you probably first heard the witchy vocals of Stevie Nicks when Jack Black put “Edge of Seventeen” on the jukebox for Joan Cusack in School of Rock. Alongside Patti Smith, Nicks has remained a relevant icon for young women everywhere. Whether it’s because of her dazzling shawls, intense diary keeping or her cameos in American Horror Story, we love our Gold Dust Woman. —Angie Martoccio

‘Friends’ Makes It All Seem Possible

“It’s not all laughing, happy, candy in the sky, drinking coffee at Central Perk all the time,” Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) tells his pals in the fifth season of Friends. But that’s exactly what it is: Six people sitting around a coffee shop — or Monica’s luxurious West Village apartment — experiencing the ups and downs of romance and careers in 1990s Manhattan. From Lisa Kudrow’s flaky singing about “Smelly Cat” to “The Rachel” haircut that Jennifer Aniston began to wear near the end of the first season, the show became a cultural phenomenon. Her hair would continue to grow and change throughout the series (Seasons Three and Six are memorable), but nothing is as iconic as the layered shag that inspired millions of women to run to their local salons and request the same style. —Angie Martoccio

Sofia Coppola’s Hyper-Feminine, Dreamlike Lens

When director Sofia Coppola brought author Jeffery Eugenides Lisbon sisters to life in her 1999 debut, Virgin Suicides, she was no longer Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter, she was his peer. In the eery-but-dreamy adaptation that follows the suicides of five sisters, she so perfectly captured the hell that is being a teenage girl and had Kirsten Dunst as her muse. What followed was a casting made in film heaven, with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation, and a beautiful punk-rock history lesson in Marie Antoinette — which also starred Dunst as the teen queen — that once again proved Coppola’s mastery at capturing girlhood that annoyed detractors and enamored her to her core demographic. —DT

Paris Hilton and ‘The Simple Life’

The year is 2003, the skirts are mini, the hair is stringy and lip gloss and cellphones are always within arm’s reach. It was the year Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie ruled the world. The year that the Fox reality show The Simple Life debuted and sent the socialite duo into rural America to see how “the other half” lives (“What is Walmart? Do they sell walls?” Hilton famously inquired), and America reveled at a chance to see the two trade in their silver spoons for plasticware, and grew to love them as they fell for Midwestern boys and Sonic flipped burgers. —DT

The Real Orange County

Welcome to the O.C., bitch! In 2003, the Cohen family took Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), a troubled teen from the Chino, into their home and the wealthy community of Newport Beach. The series followed Ryan, the Cohens’ adorably geeky son, Seth (Adam Brody), and the binge-drinking girl next door, Marissa (Mischa Barton), as they made their way through the dramas of being teenagers.

The O.C. was one of the first shows to incorporate heavy use of music supervision, featuring bands like Spoon, Death Cab for Cutie, Rilo Kiley and the Killers. In addition to introducing indie rock to its viewers, the show was also a breeding ground for major young talent: Chris Pratt, Olivia Wilde and Shailene Woodley all had reoccurring roles. Three of the Pretty Little Liars (Lucy Hale, Amber Benson and Janel Parish) even made short appearances.

The O.C.’s first season received both positive reviews and ratings, and knockoffs followed. MTV’s Laguna Beach was the reality-television version. Similar to The O.C., it followed the lives of teenagers in a wealthy California coastal city. The show launched reality
careers for its two breakout stars, Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari. Laguna Beach was such a hit, MTV gave Conrad her own show in L.A. that followed her transition to college.

High school was over but the excitement never stopped on The Hills. Whether Lauren was choosing Jason over Paris, or Spencer and Heidi were spreading rumors of her sex tape, the girl was always in tears. In the second half of the fifth season, Lauren made like Mary J. (no more drama) and opted not to return to The Hills. Naturally, MTV brought in their next best thing: Kristin Cavallari.

Kristin took over Lauren’s top billing on The Hills until MTV ended the run in 2010. Looking to capitalize on the lightning-in-a-bottle it once had, the network announced in the summer a revival of The Hills. Both Conrad and Cavallari have confirmed they will not take part in the new series. But guess who is? None other than The O.C.’s Mischa Barton, bringing it all back to the beginning — when the Earth, the sun and the stars all aligned. — Alison Weinflash

OutKast’s ‘Hey Ya!’

The video for “Hey Ya!” was a perfect reflection of the song’s massive space in early millennium music. For the clip, André 3000 plays each member of a band in a re-creation of the Beatles’ appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Instead, it’s an American band breaking through on British television and sending the crowd of girls into hysterics. But really, just shake. “Shake it! Shake it, like a Polaroid picture!”

Hot Topic Rebels

So you decided to become a tweenage rebel. As any alternative kid knew in the late Nineties through the 2000s, the most rebellious thing you could do was buy yourself an identity completely based on the inside of a store at the mall. After all, how would anybody know you were a die-hard fan of Marilyn Manson — or at least his two singles you downloaded illegally off LimeWire — if you didn’t own one of his T-shirts two sizes too big, much less the G-rated Vivienne Westwood bondage pants to go with it? Identifiable by their gratuitous piercings, Manic Panic hair dye and obscure band tees, Hot Topic employees played cultural oracles to nascent bad kids in the suburbs. Frequent buyers carried black and red stamp cards, of which 10 coffin-shaped stamps would grant them a sweet discount. The store was later immortalized in a 2008 episode of South Park, in which the infamous Goth Kids set fire to the local Hot Topic. (“Burn down Hot Topic,” goes the Danzig-esque song playing in the background, “Don’t let ’em steal your soul away! Take control!”) Meanwhile, the nostalgic metal tees and fetish-lite wear have more recently gone the way of the mainstream, becoming sartorial essentials for Top 40 artists such as Lil Uzi Vert and Justin Bieber. —S.E.

Partiers Want ‘Pure’ Fun

While Gen X ravers had no qualms getting blissed on Ecstasy and exploiting its confessional powers while on the dance floor, the next generation was wary of the contaminants that could appear in MDMA and wanted an “improved” party drug for EDM events. Enter Molly, which has a reputation for being more “pure” and is enjoyed for its ability to break down inhibitions and increase sociability. With the FDA potentially granting clinical trials to study the effects of MDMA as a therapeutic drug for post-traumatic stress disorder, perhaps we’ll see it return to its roots as a treatment in psychotherapy.

Kabbalist Madonna

In 1985, Madonna’s navel ruled the world. That year — which opened with “Like a Virgin” perched at Number One and would later see “Crazy for You” knock “We Are the World” off the top of the charts — she boiled down her philosophy, her definitive worldview, to one phrase. It kicked off “Into the Groove,” perhaps her most sublime single ever (also the theme to Desperately Seeking Susan, still the only good movie she’s been in). Over the most Eighties-sounding synthesizers imaginable, she proclaimed, “And you can dance — for inspiration.” Twenty years later, the world’s most famous Kabbalist found other ways to seek enlightenment, and as Confessions on a Dance Floor illustrates, Madonna never lost her faith in the power of the beat. And it made perfect sense that the millennial’s got a self-help, self-care, self-improvement version of the Material Girl to adore. —JP

Evanescence Brings the Doom to Life

Love it or hate it, Evanescence’s 2003 hit “Bring Me to Life” is one of the most popular songs in metal to have ever existed, period. Sure, the female members of bands such as Norway’s Theater of Tragedy and Italy’s Lacuna Coil had already been cranking out gothic metal for years before Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee entered the picture. Perhaps in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the United States needed to answer for its own Dark Ages with doom-laden music. Yet the band’s first and biggest hit was sadly the result of a misogynistic hostage situation, in which Wind-Up Records label head Ed Vetri refused to release Evanescence’s album, Fallen, unless their lead single featured a male rap-rock vocalist, who happened to be Paul McCoy of the Christian rock band 12 Stones. “The rap was a compromise in many ways,” Lee said. “I remember having many talks with the suits [about my femininity] being a negative thing.” Evanescence would not only earn multiple Grammy wins the following year for their multiplatinum hit, but they also would make it safe for feminine artists to flaunt their dark sides for years to come. —S.E.

The Infinite ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’

Was it a battle cry of the introvert? Or just fodder for precocious high school freshman snowflakes? The story of Charlie, a quiet kid who attempts a social life after getting discharged from a mental health facility, the 1999 coming-of-age novel by Stephen Chbosky spoke to a generation of clinically depressed, if not simply shy teens, who preferred the company of their diaries to that of their peers. Few Perks readers could forget the mixtape central to the story, which introduced scores of bands like the Moody Blues, Procol Harum and the Smiths. The 2012 film starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller breathed new life into the story, with Paul Rudd even playing Charlie’s beloved young English teacher, Mr. Anderson. A fleeting, yet complex narrative on sexuality, masculinity and trauma, Perks‘ profundity culminates in Charlie’s closing lines as he drives off into the night with his best friends: “And in that moment, I swear, we were infinite.” —S.E.

The Language of Emojis

In 1999, Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita created the first set of emojis — smiley pictographs that were used to convey messages without language — and they are now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Since then, emojis have become popular across the world, and the number of available images continues to grow each year. Apple recently announced the introduction of more than 70 emojis, including bald and curly-haired emojis, a bare foot and a problematic bagel. Some popular emojis have become famous in their own right: the Face With Tears of Joy was chosen as the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2015, while the meh face was the focus of The Emoji Movie, a critical flop that caused Jordan Peele to quit acting when he was offered the role of Poop (a role that was eventually filled by Patrick Stewart). —Linnea Emison

The Power of ‘Freaks and Geeks’

In the fall of 1999, Freaks and Geeks aired its first and only season on NBC. The teen-angst dramedy was created by Paul Feig and executive-produced by Judd Apatow, and it spawned the careers of actors James Franco, Seth Rogen, Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps and Rashida Jones. Despite being a critical darling, it tanked in the ratings and the network pulled the plug. After it was canceled, Apatow remained loyal to his cohort of misfit actors, casting them in basically every film he’s been involved with, including Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Bridesmaids. “Everything I’ve done, in a way, is revenge for the people who canceled Freaks and Geeks,” Apatow has stated, and we thank him for that. —Jack Irvin

Hannah Montana Begets Miley Cyrus

Long before the albums Bangerz, Dead Petz and Younger Now, Miley Cyrus starred in the late-2000s television phenomenon Hannah Montana. In addition to record-high ratings for the Disney Channel, the show launched Cyrus’ career with three Number One albums under Hannah’s name, an arena tour and a major motion picture, Hannah Montana: The Movie — all within five years. Hannah Montana may have taken the world by storm, but Cyrus shed that image when the show officially ended in 2011 — as well as that wig — and started singing about molly and sexual discovery. —Jack Irvin

Netflix and Chill

Before streaming services existed, Netflix practically invented binge-watching with their mail-order DVDs. In the 2000s, three red envelopes in the mail meant a lazy weekend watching Battlestar Galactica on the couch. The only drawback: You’d occasionally have to wait for the next disc to arrive to continue the marathon. Dating rituals also changed: No more wandering the aisles of Blockbuster for hours together, arguing over which rom-com or horror flick would get you in the mood. Instead, it was all about sequestering yourself with whatever arrived in the mail from your carefully (or not) curated list of titles. In a few years, everything would change again as Netflix’s streaming service started in the United States and would grow worldwide — along with a creepily precise algorithm that predicted things you wanted to watch based on what you’d already devoured. The company continued to evolve by creating its own original content as well as working with A-list talent like the Obamas, Martin Scorsese and Bruce Springsteen. All available for the optimal chill. —AW

Justin Timberlake Is More Than ‘Justified’

After moving on from Justified and his ever-so-public relationship (and breakup) with Britney Spears that most of this era revolved around (remember the Britney look-alike in the “Cry Me a River” video?), Justin Timberlake decided it was time to bring “SexyBack.” The track, written and produced by Timberlake, Timbaland and Danja, reached Number One in the United States in September 2006 — only about a year before Spears would release her infamous Blackout album, coincidentally also produced by Danja. “SexyBack” propelled Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds album to debut at Number One in the United States and eventually produced two more Top 10 hits, solidifying his position in the top tier of pop music. —Jack Irvin

Occupy Wall Street Vs. the One Percent

Fox News boomer types love to blame all of society’s ills on the millennials, but this generational-divide rhetoric has always obscured a power imbalance between the one percent and the 99 percent — phrases made popular by the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. Following two wars paid by credit-card debt, and bailouts for the banks that crashed the economy, America’s high deficits were used as an excuse to push painful austerity cuts onto an already-struggling populace. Millennials took to the streets, quite literally, living in encampments around the country, to protest against the class war being waged downward against ordinary working folk. Complaints about millennials ruining Western civilization may provide a useful scapegoat for the real assholes who are wrecking the world, but the Occupiers’ compass needle has always aimed in the right direction. —Rick Carp

The Many Moods of Emo

It’s the genre that spawned a million fights in the comments sections of websites. There are different definitions of what counts as emo — as well as unwanted opinions about how much it sucks. Millennials who grew up going to shows at the local VFW embrace a huge variety of bands that get lumped together under this contentious genre, enjoying sounds ranging from Brand New to Kidcrash to Daïtro. Most casual listeners probably don’t care about whether Sunny Day Real Estate sounds totally different than My Chemical Romance, since they aren’t going to listen to either band in the first place. And something like Jeromes Dream? Forget it! But it’s their loss, as so many fans well know, because the multiple waves of emo have provided some of the most creative and varied acts of the 21st century, with genre-bending crossovers that incorporate everything from double-tapping math guitars to apocalyptic, GY!BE-style crescendoing post-rock. —RC

The Legend of Heath Ledger

Dying at age 28 in January 2008, Heath Ledger became one of millennials’ first significant Hollywood deaths — with his career cut short by an accidental overdose. Despite his brief time onscreen, he made an indelible impact. First debuting in the U.S. as the Aussie exchange student in 10 Things I Hate About You, he went on to box-office success with A Knight’s Tale and The Patriot. But it’s his roles as a closeted cowhand in Brokeback Mountain, the film where he met and started dating Michelle Williams, and as the Joker in The Dark Knight, the second installment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, that continue to be celebrated decades later. The latter, which saw him play one of the greatest psychopaths onscreen, earned him a posthumous Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, making him a legend for countless fans. —SL

Disney’s Domination or How ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Stole the Show

While the live-action retelling of Disney’s most popular fairy tales are all the rage now, there was a time when its 2D animation was considered canon. Sadly, that type of animation fell out of style thanks to Pixar’s 3D animated films, but not before the release of several that are classics to millions: Mulan, Hercules, The Lion King, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, which became the first-ever animated film to be nominated for the Academy Awards’ Best Picture. While previous generations had their Snow White and Cinderella tales, Beauty and Beast, the timeless fable of a young woman falling for a cursed prince, made a generation fall in love with a singing teapot and a dancing candelabra. It was also the latest Disney favorite to get the live-action treatment, but it failed to capture the magic of the animated version. Sure, Emma Watson makes sense in the woke era, but we’ll stick to our wide-eyed, 2D princesses of yesteryear. —SL

September 11th

While the government immediately took advantage of the 9/11 attacks to prepare to invade the Middle East and eviscerate civil liberties here, most Americans rather uncharacteristically embraced one another and mourned together. Many young people decided to join the military or volunteer or become active in their communities. But the solidarity proved temporary, as militaristic jingoism took over and the country soon went to war under false pretenses in Iraq and Afghanistan. Millennials enlisted in the military for a variety of reasons, and many others protested the Bush administration’s actions in the streets and on campuses. A new generation who had grown up in a more tranquil time would come to terms with constantly hearing vexatious warnings about terrorism. And as blowback continues to create global enemies who keep the country mired in conflict, the children of Generation Alpha are growing up knowing a world that has always been violent and hostile. — Rick Carp

‘All That’ Nick Cannon Stardom

In 1994, Dan Schneider landed his first Nickelodeon hit show with All That, a sketch-comedy show for children and teenagers that ran for 10 seasons. The show was structured like a half-hour Saturday Night Live, featuring sketches and musical guests, including TLC (who also performed the show’s theme song), the Spice Girls, Missy Elliott and Aaliyah. The show played a major role in producing the careers of Kenan Thompson (now the longest-running SNL cast member in history), Amanda Bynes, Gabriel Iglesias, Jamie Lynn Spears and Nick Cannon, many of whom went on to star in their own Dan Schneider-created shows, including Kenan & Kel, The Amanda Show and Zoey 101. Prominently, All That sent Cannon into stardom; he received a spinoff titled The Nick Cannon Show, which led to Cannon’s long-lasting television career on shows such as Wild ’N Out, America’s Got Talent and, most recently, Lip Sync Battle. — Jack Irvin

Cher’s ‘Believe’ and the Power of ‘Divas Live’

Do you believe in love after love? After love? After love? Whether you did or didn’t, there was no escaping Cher’s 1998 comeback single, which mainstreamed Auto-Tuning and forever changed pop music. It was also a relentless Number One song of the year, marking her place back atop of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Every decade got its own version of Cher, but the superstar’s return also coincided with VH1’s popular Divas Live series, which saw some of past generations’ best singers take the stage for a rousing celebration of all things diva. (The 1998 debut special is a treat worth watching all on its own.) Cher co-headlined Divas/Live 99 with Whitney Houston, also enjoying a comeback of her own, Tina Turner and diva-lite Brandy. Twenty years later, a new generation of fans would get their own Cher reemergence, as the ABBA-covering star of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.   —SL

Vaping Replaced Cigarette Smoking

In the early 2000s, the Truth PSA campaign announced a “generation united against tobacco,” blasting orange-and-black ads across TVs, magazines and billboards, declaring that millennials would be the first to reject Big Tobacco. On the one hand, it worked: between 1998 and 2016, the teen smoking rate dropped from 23 percent to just six percent. On the other, many of those teens found a new, high-tech way to get high: vaping. Smoking changed forever— no longer was it about having a ciggie hanging from your lip, it was now a techie device that won’t ever feel quite different. And while the kids are now flocking to the Juul, a pocket-size device that resembles a USB drive, the vapes of millennials practically required a fanny pack. —EGP

Kirsten Dunst, the Muse

Making her debut opposite Brad Pitt in Interview With the Vampire, Kirsten Dunst — or Kiki among friends — became a sensation with the back-to-back releases of cult classics Dick, Drop Dead Gorgeous and The Virgin Suicides, and the box-office smash Bring It On. An eternal teenage dream and effortlessly cool, Dunst managed to sidestep child-star pitfalls and blossom into a formidable actress, with varied choices like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Melancholia, Bachelorette and TV’s Fargo, providing a roadmap for younger stars to follow. But Dunst has delivered her best work as director Sofia Coppola’s muse in The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette and The Beguiled. —SL

The WB and UPN Birth a New Kind of Star

TV networks the WB and UPN — which merged to become The CW in 2006 — will always be remembered for producing some of the biggest young stars of the late 1990s and early Aughts, thanks to their many teen dramas: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Dawson’s Creek, Felicity, Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl, Popular, Roswell and Veronica Mars. The rotating collection of young hotties also became the casting pool for many of film’s teenage romantic comedies and slashers that were popular at the time. James Van Deer Beek? He had Dawson’s and Varsity Blues; meanwhile Sarah Michelle Gellar bounced between Buffy and Kevin Williamson horror films. But the most defining element of this era were the network promos. Have you ever seen so many stars in one 60-second ad? Oh, what a night! —SL

Britney Spears’ Hits and Misses

Emerging in the fall of 1998 with “… Baby One More Time,” Britney Spears quickly became the princess of pop, helping to usher in a new era for the genre that had gone dormant in the decade that followed New Kids on the Block. Bolstered by MTV’s Total Request Live, Spears would lead an army of pop stars — including Backstreet Boys, ‘NSync, Christina Aguilera and others — built on slick Max Martin productions, plenty of sexual innuendo and dance-heavy performances. From 1999 to the meltdown, Spears delivered hit after hit (“Oops! … I Did It Again,” “Stronger,” “I’m a Slave 4 U” and “Toxic”) on four consecutive Billboard Number One albums, becoming one of the most successful artists of all time — and a cautionary tale for a generation, whether they paid attention or not.  — SL

Serena and Venus Williams

At the 1998 Australian Open, Venus and Serena Williams played each other in a grand slam for the very first time. (Venus bested her younger sister in the first of 30 total face-offs.) Two years later, the Williams’ would go on to dominate the sport, each winning a collection of grand slam trophies as singles players and also as doubles, creating an unstoppable force on the women’s circuit. Over the course of their careers, they pushed back on sexism, racism and what it means to be the greatest among men or women, with poise and grace — and yes, a bit of controversy at times. Forever changing tennis — both on and off the court — Serena and Venus Williams will go down as two of the greatest tennis players of not only the modern era, but also of all time. Plus, Serena is BFFs with Beyoncé, even showing up in her video for “Sorry,” forever cementing a generational bond. —SL

The Family Drama of ‘The Osbournes’

First there were reality competitions (Survivor, Amazing Race, ANTM), then came the celeb reality shows that tended to follow the domestic antics of D-list stars ranging from Anna Nicole Smith to Kathy Griffin. Among them was the unexpected MTV hit The Osbournes, which reintroduced prince of darkness Ozzy Osbourne as a bumbling, loving patriarch of a colorful family. It included the sharp-tongued, ruthless matriarch, Sharon, and the wildly different siblings Jack and Kelly, who did everything from tossing a ham into a neighbor’s yard to getting into brawls to seeing dog therapists. Following in her father’s footsteps, the show’s success led to Kelly’s brief singing career — remember her cover of “Papa Don’t Preach”? — before she would go on to find stardom on Dancing With the Stars and as a fixture on the E! network. —SL

The Gay ‘Glee’ of Ryan Murphy Shows

Ryan Murphy is one of the two most-influential TV producers of the millennial generation (the other being Shonda Rhimes). He first created the short-lived teen comedy Popular and Nip/Tuck before conceiving the post-American Idol teen-TV juggernaut Glee, a musical dramedy about misfit students (played by newfound stars Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Chris Colfer, Naya Rivera, Darren Criss) singing covers — and many, many mashups — of popular music while navigating the ups and downs of high school and battling it out at regionals. While that show skyrocketed into hate-watch territory, Murphy became a hit machine, producing shows like 9-1-1, American Crime Story, American Horror Story, Feud, The New Normal, Pose and Scream Queens, and making stars out of Sarah Paulson, Emma Roberts and Evan Peters, while reviving the careers of Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates. —SL

Whatever Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Is Cooking

Part of WWE’s “Attitude Era” of stars, the Rock became the “People’s Champion” known for his catchphrase, “Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?” He soon made the jump to Hollywood, first as an Arnold Schwarzenegger descendant, starring in action blockbusters like The Mummy Returns and Doom, before making the jump to comedy with The Game Plan and Tooth Fairy. By the end of the Aughts, the world of WWE was far, far behind him, and Dwayne Johnson, renaissance actor and leading man, took hold as he became one of the most bankable stars not attached to a Marvel franchise. —SL

Tumblr as Culture Incubator

Launched in 2007, Tumblr was first viewed as a social network where users could share, like and react to each others’ microblogs. Soon, the site became a breeding ground for memes and themed sites — from ”Fuck Yeah …” to anything involving Ryan Gosling and James Van Der Beek GIFs to “Texts From Hillary” and absolutely everything in between — which caught fire thanks to the site’s photo-heavy layout. The platform became so big, Tumblr replaced blogs, and the Internet hasn’t been the same ever since. While Tumblr lost some of its cache in recent years, memories of just about every major meme can be found as novelty books — usually sold by Urban Outfitters. —SL

Tyra Banks and ‘America’s Next Top Model’

The reality competition created and hosted by Tyra Banks will likely be remembered more for the model’s antics than ever producing any legit superstars in the industry. Banks, with two photos in her hands, determined the fate of countless aspiring models, who wanted nothing more than Banks’ approval and adoration, while suffering through tear-filled makeovers, ridiculously-themed photo shoots and being berated by notoriously snarky and snarly judges — one of the world’s first supermodels, Janice Dickinson, Andre Leon Talley, PR maven Kelly Cutrone and noted fashion photographer Nigel Barker. If there was ever a winner of each cycle — and there have been 24 in total — it was and always will be Tyra Banks. —SL

Standing Up With Dave Chappelle

Glancing at his career before and after the groundbreaking Chappelle’s Show makes one thing clear: Stand-up is Dave Chappelle’s first (and perhaps only) love. After a pair of stunningly good early specials, his beloved Comedy Central show and a much-ballyhooed visit to Africa, Chappelle has not only reasserted himself in the game but also put himself right back on top. He talks race, celebrity and politics in a way that belies the incisive and ferocious nature of his observations; he is also a precocious child who can’t keep himself from using “pussy juice” as a punchline. He relishes the fuzzy line between truth and fiction, and delights in keeping the audience on the hook until they’re scratching their heads about whether a baby could sell weed and how one could masturbate to their own sex tape.

Zac Efron, Heartthrob

High School Musical is the Disney Chan­nel song-and-dance franchise about an unlike­ly love between a school jock (Zac Efron) and a brainiac transfer student (Vanessa Hudgens), who are rumored to be linked in real life. But how did Efron go from teen heartthrob to chiseled stud? His 2007 Rolling Stone cover may have signaled his leading-man status, but he still needed to shed his squeaky-clean image. Masturbating with Macy Gray in Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy — which later had the unforgettable moment of Nicole Kidman peeing on his face to help with a jellyfish sting — was a start. But confessing issues with sobriety was the next step, and then there was his role in the raunchy Neighbors. Teaming up with millennial fave Dwayne Johnson in the Baywatch flick helped cement his path, but where Efron will go next is still up in the air (like he was in 2017’s The Greatest Showman). Does this mean a superhero franchise is on the horizon? —JP

Ryan Gosling: ‘Hey Girl’

With a lick of his lips, Ryan Gosling can make any girl — or guy — swoon. It’s no wonder that the actor, who won over hearts with The Notebook before going on to star in Oscar-bait such as Half Nelson, La La Land and First Man, became a meme several times over — Tumblr would be nowhere without “Hey Girl” or “Feminist Ryan Gosling,” while one of Vine’s biggest hits was “Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal.” In his 25 years of acting, he’s gone from the Mickey Mouse Club to a legitimate, serious leading man — he internalizes so much — that only Kate McKinnon can make him break on Saturday Night Live, much to the delight of fans everywhere. —SL

The ‘Veronica Mars’ Revival

When it premiered in 2004, this CW show starring future-A-lister Kristen Bell didn’t turn many heads — the network gave it two and a half seasons before unceremoniously pulling it off the air. But there was something about the fast-talking, Blondie-singing teen detective that proved popular with millennials; she was independent, sexually active and relied more on her friends (including her adorable pit bull Backup) than on any of her love interests. With the advent of streaming services, Mars was given a second life by rabid fans, who brought her back for a movie, a series of novels and, it seems, a fourth season. — Elisabeth Garber-Paul