Why was 2007 such an insane year for culture

[Bakartridge]

The title kinda says it all, it feels like whenever I look at popular stuff released in the late half of the 2000s, it's almost always from 2007, sometimes 2008 (usually early 08 but 08 nonetheless), it seems like such an insane(ly good) year for pop culture stuff, like for example:

Games released in 2007 include:

• Crysis
• Team Fortress 2
• Bioshock
• Guitar Hero 3 (and Rock Band)
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Call of Duty 4
• Mass Effect
• Halo 3
• Portal
• Uncharted

Films released in 2007 include:

• Superbad
• Ratatouille
• Transformers (the only GOOD Michael Bay one)
• Spider-Man 3
• Juno
• Paranormal Activity
• 300

Lastly, some albums that came out in 07 include:

• Beyond by Dinosaur Jr
• Graduation by Kanye West (yes, I know)
• Hold Your Colour By Pendulum
• In Rainbows by Radiohead
• Myths of the Near Future by Klaxons
• Year Zero by NIN
• Riot by Paramore
• Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
• Favourite Worst Nightmare by Arctic Monkeys
• Infinity on High by Fall Out Boy
• A Fever You Can't Sweat Out by P!ATD
• Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem

In terms of internet stuff, it's also where places like YouTube, YTMND, and Newgrounds had some amazing stuff uploaded, and there were plenty of classic memes that were introduced in this time, it feels like whenever I hear people talk about older videos/memes that got popular, most of the time it's from 2007 (or 2006), like I Wanna Be The Guy and Cat Mario released that year, they're personal examples but still, feels like 2007 was the year that everyone was like "alright lets just release total bangers"

[larvapuppy]

I think it'd be easy to make this argument for any year; just cherry pick all the stuff you like from that year and suddenly it's the best year ever for culture, according to the maker's tastes. For example your list is mostly full of media I'm not interested in or consider pretty basic, and a few that I do agree are good. I could probably make my own list from 2007 that has all stuff I think is amazing, but I could also make a list filled with stuff I think is meh or crap. And I could do the same with 2001, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2020, 1986, 800, 1880, 2013, 30000, etc.

It has to do with age too; someone my mom's age probably thinks media from some year in the 80s is the best, while my age group would lean toward early 2000s stuff; zoomers are going to prefer late aughts / early 2010s, and so on... You're inevitably going to have a huge bias toward some year in your early adolescence when media that created formative memories for you was released.

[Bakartridge]

I think it'd be easy to make this argument for any year; just cherry pick all the stuff you like from that year and suddenly it's the best year ever for culture, according to the maker's tastes. For example your list is mostly full of media I'm not interested in or consider pretty basic, and a few that I do agree are good. I could probably make my own list from 2007 that has all stuff I think is amazing, but I could also make a list filled with stuff I think is meh or crap. And I could do the same with 2001, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2020, 1986, 800, 1880, 2013, 30000, etc.

It has to do with age too; someone my mom's age probably thinks media from some year in the 80s is the best, while my age group would lean toward early 2000s stuff; zoomers are going to prefer late aughts / early 2010s, and so on... You're inevitably going to have a huge bias toward some year in your early adolescence when media that created formative memories for you was released.

fair honestly :p
though admittedly some is a combo of stuff i liked as a kid and/or went back to in my teenage years (like most the albums listed i heard from the range of about 15 to 17 years old), some of these i got into afterwards, but a lot is stuff i still heard about growing up, like i didn't mention it in the list but No More Heroes came out in 07, didn't get the chance to play it until i turned 18 and i fucking love that game, but i heard people constantly rave about how it was one of the best games ever, same with stuff like CoD4
2008 is similar in the sense of "a lot of things i really like released that year", like just of the top of my head Rock Band 2 and Burnout Paradise released and those are some of my favorite games of all time, i'm probably just biased when it comes to 2000s stuff anyways, i know a lot of people back then were complaining about the games released and were like "gaming was better in the 90s", so it's just a perspective thing ig

[Ducky]

I agree!!

I've constantly told people that YouTube's golden years were from 2006-2008.

I had made a MySpace account in 2006 but I feel as if the peak of my enjoyment from it was in 2007.

From the list of games you mentioned, I especially agree with: TF2, Guitar Hero 3, and Halo 3.

A lot of good music on the radio that year too (when I still listened to the radio.)

As common as it is to not appreciate what you had back then, I feel as if little 2007 me (who was about 12 at that time) was aware of all the cool things that were out. The only sucky thing is that school/life stuff wasn't very great that year 

Overall, it's nice to know others share this sentiment c:

[Symberzite]

There's a meme in Russian-speaking internet called "Верните мне мой 2008", give me back my 2008. Maybe it's nostalgia, but a lot of people think 2007-2008 was the high point before things started to get worse. Specifically before the sub-prime mortgage crisis ended up destroying the world economy.

There's kind of a theory that the world economy never fully recovered past 2008 and you can definitely feel that. Bad economy means smaller countries started being stabilized, leading to wars and revolutions. People losing their homes and stable jobs means normal people start gravitating towards political extremism and have a hard time settling down and living a boring life. I'm pretty sure you can poke holes in that theory, but I think there's a morsel of truth in that.

2008 also felt like the last time people felt genuinely optimistic about technological progress. To put things into perspective, I remember going from PS2 to PS3. I remember starting out playing adventure games and seeing Doom 3 for the first time. When Dead Space or Mirror's Edge were released it felt genuinely unreal. While in retrospect the iPhone turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing, the idea of a computer that can fit into your pocket and didn't have an annoying keyboard attached felt straight-up sci-fi. It was all of the convenience of 2025 without the bullcrap that we have to deal with now.

In all honesty, I don't think dwelling on nostalgia is too healthy, regardless of the age group that does that. Idk maybe I'm turned off by all the old grandmas in my hometown talking about how great Stalin was, but we really ought to think how to bring back what worked into the future rather than focusing on the good times of ester year.

[Yoylecake420]

In all honesty, I don't think dwelling on nostalgia is too healthy, regardless of the age group that does that. Idk maybe I'm turned off by all the old grandmas in my hometown talking about how great Stalin was, but we really ought to think how to bring back what worked into the future rather than focusing on the good times of ester year.

This. It's okay to be nostalgic about the things you liked, but don't let it consume you and prevent you from the great things in the present or building a better future. The reason why I like the Indie Web is because it doesn't just embrace past of the Internet, but also encourages people to build a better future for the Internet, it's a bit of balance there. It attempts to make a future of the Internet using what made the old Internet good, while also attempting to drop the bad parts.

[Symberzite]

This. It's okay to be nostalgic about the things you liked, but don't let it consume you and prevent you from the great things in the present or building a better future. The reason why I like the Indie Web is because it doesn't just embrace past of the Internet, but also encourages people to build a better future for the Internet, it's a bit of balance there. It attempts to make a future of the Internet using what made the old Internet good, while also attempting to drop the bad parts.

IKR, I do not miss popup ads. Also netbooks were... horrible. That being said, I was watching one of those "I lost my job to AI" videos on youtube and the man had a pretty good point. A carpenter is replaced by a large factory. You can still make hand-crafted products, but now it's more of an art rather than something you'd use to earn money.

So I'm looking at old web designs and a lot of them were ornate, but they also belonged to large, multi-million dollar firms. Compare-contrast French soldiers having red pants while in the honor guard versus them having red pants pre-WWI. So I'm having very mixed feelings on the indie web because I can't help but feel like a lot of people want to bring back that era without taking into account the material conditions that lead to the internet looking the way it did.

[larvapuppy]

I honestly hate the assumption that everyone likes things that were actually released during their own tween/teen years when that's not always the case. Otherwise, how would you explain why I, a 2006 born, heavily prefer things that came out around the time I was born (if not before then) and despise more modern pop culture? And I'm sure I'm not the only one out like this, either.

My post was meant as a generalization, so if it doesn't apply to you, that's okay!  My point is still generally true; the media we are exposed to in our formative years has an impact and it's likely that we are biased toward preferring it. Whether it was released during the time we're exposed to it is irrelevant; for example if someone was born in the 00s but their parents only played music and watched movies from the 80s while their child was growing up... I was a hipster teen too, at the time I put on a big show of hating everything that was popular and new growing up in the late 2000s - early 2010s, and I'm more influenced by stuff from the 90s-early 2000s, but I digress. 

[echogecko]

You cant forget the iconic movie of 2007, POSTAL. it was super good and awesome i swear.

Also 2007 was the year the chris chan trolling saga started so take that as you will

[lakes]

It has to do with age too; someone my mom's age probably thinks media from some year in the 80s is the best, while my age group would lean toward early 2000s stuff; zoomers are going to prefer late aughts / early 2010s, and so on... You're inevitably going to have a huge bias toward some year in your early adolescence when media that created formative memories for you was released.

I agree with this. For example, my father's recently been watching & listening to a lot of 80s pop music videos on Youtube, including Miami Vice AMVs/fancams. I'm sure a lot of stuff from the 80s are more iconic for him than they are for me. But he admits that's because he was young during that time and hanging out a lot with his friends. It's less when he was growing up in his case & more when he was 25-35 years old.
Likewise, while I don't have a specific year in mind, a lot of stuff from the 2000s & 90s are iconic because that's what I watched back then.

[Cele]

I always think of 2007 as a legendary year but that's probably just because I like the number 7. Since my top years on the internet were probably around 2009-2010 or so. Btw, I have long thought that anime peaked in 2011 and has never been as good again as back then and I'm sure there are plenty of newer anime watchers who would disagree with me.

[sunnyp4rk]

This. It's okay to be nostalgic about the things you liked, but don't let it consume you and prevent you from the great things in the present or building a better future.

reply to an old post, perhaps, but i also share the sentiment of "don't let the past consume you". i very much enjoy going back to 2000s media, but i do acknowledge that a lot of media and new things from the 2010s/current decade are also good! i love splatoon, which (while already being 10 years old) is a really good game that's come out of the past decade! you know a game in particular i love from the current decade? hi-fi rush! it's so fun and goofy. nostalgia is nice to indulge in every once in a while, but remember to come up for air.

[MrsMoe]

This confirms exactly what I've always suspected: that 2007 was the peak of human culture and we never should've progressed past it 

[virtualpet2001]

Maybe it just happens when the economy is on the fringe of a recession.
...and in fact right now we are on the fringe of a recession. I'm far from an expert in pop culture though so I have no idea what's come out and gotten popular other than the like, War of the Worlds movie LOL

[RNotteLovesOwls]

Maybe it just happens when the economy is on the fringe of a recession.
...and in fact right now we are on the fringe of a recession. I'm far from an expert in pop culture though so I have no idea what's come out and gotten popular other than the like, War of the Worlds movie LOL

if that's true, why does it feel like humans have less culture now than before? i can't tell you what the latest hot trends are other than "being annoying and boring and repeating what we already did several years ago". in the corporate world, the hot trends seem to be "invade everyone's privacy without their consent, while charging more for products that are worse". those are not good trends that scream "culture". sounds more like collective death throes before it all comes crashing down