Pop culture in 2025 was messy, unpredictable, and kind of all over the place, but that’s what makes this year so fun. Trends are moving faster than they ever have before, due to social media deciding what the next biggest thing is. From fashion, to music, to memes, to viral moments, here’s your 2025 pop culture rewind.
One of the biggest shifts we saw this year was a strong pivot towards a relaxed, toned down style. Baggy denim was popular this year, with a specific emphasis on the controversial barrel jeans and oversized jorts. This trend was often seen paired with big cashmere sweaters, and relaxed sneakers. However, comfort was not on everyone’s mind this year. 2025 also saw a shift into a more “business-casual” attire, making blazers, button ups, skirts, and quarter zips quite popular.
A wide range of music became beloved in the year as well. While it would be impossible to pinpoint each and every hit song, some stand out artists were Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, and Billie Eilish. Top songs this year also included “Die With A Smile”, “A Bar song”, and “Ordinary.”
When it comes to viral memes, many of them came from short clips shared and reposted on social media. It’s practically impossible to name every single meme of the year, but some that remained quite popular were “Eye of the Rah”, “Italian brainrot”, “Chicken Jockey”, “6 7”, “Jet 2 Holiday”, and “Son I’m Crine.” These memes were shared all over Tiktok, Instagram reels, and even youtube shorts, making them quite viral and quotable by anyone on the internet during the time. Another thing that became widely popular on tiktok especially was the rise of reaction images. These are just images that usually convey an exaggerated emotion that were posted in the comments of tiktoks. These images in turn became memes of their own.
Other pop culture highlights of the year were Katy Perry going to space, the world’s Labubu obsession, Love Island season 7 drama, the Coldplay kiss cam, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement, and the release of the hit musical movie “Wicked: For Good.” Many trends and memes arose from these incidents themselves, including people recreating the Coldplay incident, and people dressing up as Glinda and Elphaba in theatres.
The trends of 2025 moved fast, and were hard to keep up with, but each one marked a shared experience. It’s these memes, songs, moments, and fashion trends that bring us together. These viral moments don’t last forever, so it’s important we remember 2025 for the chaotic, messy, and amazing year it was.