2000s

This article is about the decade starting at the beginning of 2000 and ending at the end of 2009. For the century or millennium starting in 2000 (or technically 2001), see the links below.

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view.
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Centuries:	20th Century - 21st century - 22nd century
Decades:	1970s 1980s 1990s - 2000s - 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years:	2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

The decade as a whole

The 2000s decade refers to the years from 2000 to 2009, inclusive. Informally, it can also include a few years at the end of the preceding decade or the beginning of the following decade. Many people feel that the 2000s is no different culturally from the 1990s, or actually began during the late 1990s, most likely around the year 1998 in a pop-cultural sense.Others believe it pop culturally began right on target in 2000 or around 2002. Some also state that the decade (and, the 21st Century) also began in a symbolic way after the 9/11 attacks, although this would be considered by many to be a pessimistic opinion.

So far, the 2000s has been marked generally with an escalation of the social issues of the 1990s, which included the rise of terrorism, the rapid, exponential expansion of economic globalization on an unprecedented scale, the rapid expansion of communications and telecommunications with mobile phones and the Internet, international pop culture, and an extraordinary rapid rate of increase of stress for the public in most nations.

The impact of human activities upon the natural world became evident as never before during the decade, as widespread alarm among scientists regarding the effects of climate change due to carbon dioxide, adjustments of the earth's tilt due to the fact of major earthquakes such as the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia and other emissions brought the issue into the public consciousness. Efforts to curb emissions, however, faced strong opposing trends in most areas of the world due to ongoing economic expansion.

In North America, Europe, and the Middle East, most major political developments in the the 2000s revolved around the War on Terrorism and the conflict in Iraq. Elsewhere, the major theme has been the rapid development of Asia's economic and political potential, with China, experiencing immense ecomonic growth, moving toward the status of a regional power and billion-consumer market. India, along with many other developing countries are also growing rapidly, began integrating itself into the world economy.

Major events relating to the War on Terrorism include the September 11, 2001 Attacks, the Moscow Theatre Siege, the Madrid train bombings, the Beslan school hostage crisis, the 2005 London bombings, and the October 2005 New Delhi bombings. In the news almost daily, the terrorism and Iraq conflicts dominate headlines with controversy regarding their consequences and justifications.

A trend connecting economic and political events in North America, Asia and the Middle East is the rapidly increasing demand for fossil fuels, which, along with fewer new petroleum finds, greater extraction costs (see peak oil), and political turmoil, saw the price of gas and oil soar ~500% between 2000 and 2005.

Names of the decade

In contrast to the decades from 1920 to 1999, which are called "The Twenties", "The Nineties", and the like; the '00s have had no generally-accepted name. The term "The Two Thousands" is fairly common, but many still find its use awkward and incorrect for a number of reasons, notably the fact that formally, the "Two Thousands" (that is, years whose full name begins with the words "two thousand") will last for a thousand years and not just the ten years of the "00" decade.

In the United Kingdom the term the noughties is widespread and generally accepted as the term for the decade. Other English-language countries however haven't picked the term to the same extent, possibly due to supposed confusion with the adjective "naughty".

Written in numeral form, the decade can be written either as the "2000s" or as the "'00s". But looking for a name that has the same "feel" as 'The Nineties' or 'The Fifties' has been far more problematic in the United States. Several proposals have come forth, but ultimately, none have caught on and achieved anything approaching universal acceptance.

It is occasionally termed, in historical contexts, the "turn of the millennium" or "turn of the century" (or "turn of the new century," since most people appear to associate the term "turn of the century" with the year 1900). This terminology would probably seem silly, however, if used in an informal context.

The United Nations General Assembly declared the decade of 2000-2009 as the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World."

Criticisms of the decade

The 2000s are so far not a highly regarded decade by most people in the world as many find the 1990s to have been a much more prosperous time and look fondly upon earlier decades such as the 1960s and 1980s.

While not a criticism per se as many people still like the culture of the 1990s, some others look down on the decade for upholding so many washed out and tired 1990s fads, fashions, and music genres. Many people who are fond of the 1990s dislike the 2000s because they perceive them as similar to the 1980s for various reasons, mostly relating to politics but also to the 1980s nostalgia wave that struck in the decade (see 1980s Retro Movement).

As an example, in the United States, common criticisms of the decade include a bad economy, escalation of the use and advancement of technology (although many if not most people see this as a positive), loss of civil liberties and increasing censorship, pop music, television, and movies lacking creativity, the Paris Hilton fad, the boom in reality television shows and programs, and of course the War on Terror and criticisms of President George W. Bush.

Many people can factor in all of these issues to express disappointment in a decade, and more importantly a century, which much of the world had high hopes for particularly in the 1990s.

Events and trends

Technology

A huge jump in broadband internet usage, from 6% of U.S. internet users in June, 2000 to what one study predicts will be 62% by 2010. Digital music sales rise, accounting for 6% of all music sales in 2005.
Boom in music downloading and the use of data compression to quickly transfer music over the Internet, with a corresponding rise of portable digital audio players typified by Apple Computer's iPod.
Digital cameras become very popular due to rapid decreases in size and cost while photo resolution steadily increases. Sales of film reel cameras diminish greatly as a result.
Google search engine increases trafficability of the internet and "to Google" becomes a verb.
Due to an increase in ability to store data, USB flash drives rapidly replace zip disks and 3.5-inch diskettes.
Graphic cards become powerful enough to render nearly photo-realistic scenes in real time.
Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 become the ubiquitous industry standard in personal computer software. Open source and free software continues to be a notable but minority interest, with versions of Linux gaining in popularity, as well as the Mozilla Firefox web browser.
Liquid crystal displays begin displacing cathode ray tubes.
Major advances in Hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Escape, and the Honda Insight.
Greater interest in future energy development due to global warming and the potential exhaustion of crude oil.
Blogs, portals, and wikis become common electronic dissemination methods for professionals, amateurs, and businesses to conduct knowledge management.
Wikipedia began and grew rapidly, becoming the largest encyclopedia and most well known wiki in the world.
DVDs replace VCR technology as the common standard at video stores.
Due to the major success of broadband Internet connections, Voice over IP begins to gain popularity as a replacement for traditional telephone lines. Major telecommunications carriers begin converting their networks from TDM to VoIP.
Wireless networks become commonplace in homes, education institutes and urban public spaces.
LASIK eye surgery becomes popular as costs and potential risk decreases and results further improve.
OLED (Organic light-emitting diode) technology revolutionizes display technology, making it possible to "print" screens on everyday objects.
Home automation and home robotics become popular in North America; iRobot's "Roomba" is the most successful domestic robot and has sold 1.2 million units.
GPS (Global Positioning System) becomes very popular especially in the tracking of items or people, and the use in cars. Games that utilize the system, such as geocaching, emerge and become popular.
RFID (Radio Frequency ID) becomes widely used in retail giants such as Wal-Mart, as a way to track items and automate stocking and keeping track of items.
DVRs (Digital Video Recorders), typified by TiVo, allow consumers to modify content they watch on TV, and to record TV programs and watch them later, leading to problems as consumers can fast-forward through commercials, making them useless.
Self-serve kiosks become very widely available, used for all kinds of shopping, airplane boarding passes, hotel check-ins, fast food, and car rental.
Internet usage surpasses TV viewing in 2004.
Emerging use of robotics, especially telerobotics in medicine, particularly for surgery.
Many more computers and other technologies incorporated into vehicles such as Xenon HID headlights, GPS, DVD players, self-diagnosing systems, advanced pre-collision safety systems, memory systems for car settings, back-up sensors and cameras, in-car media systems, MP3 player compatibility, USB drive compatibility, keyless start and entry, satellite radio, voice-activation, cellphone connectivity, adaptive headlights, HUD (Head-Up-Display), infrared cameras, and Onstar (on GM models).
Peer-to-peer technology use: internet telephony (Skype), file-sharing.
Xbox 360 and other next-generation systems revolutionize the videogame industry in 2005-2006 with photo-realistic graphics, a virtual online gaming world, and interoperability with other digital devices.
The entire videogame industry's profits surpassed the movie industry's in 2004.
After the bubble burst in 2001, another tech boom came around in the year 2005.
Videophones are cheap and abundant, yet even by mid-decade, they had not received much attention.
Most cellphone carriers offer video viewing services, internet services, and some offer full music downloads, such as Sprint in 2005. This leads to an almost saturation of cell phone ownership among the public and a decline in the use and locations of payphones.

Science

Astrophysicists studying the universe confirm its age at 13.7 billion years, discover that it will most likely expand forever without limit, and conclude that only 4% of the universe's contents are ordinary matter (the other 96% being still-mysterious dark matter and dark energy).
The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission successfully reached the surface of Mars, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to Earth.
The Human Genome Project was completed. (2000)
SpaceshipOne made the first privately-funded human spaceflight. (June 21, 2004)
National Geographic and IBM fund a research project which traces every living human down to a "Scientific Adam". Human Genealogy Project. (See The Genographic Project)
Controversy over Intelligent Design theory, of which opponents claim is simply disguised Creationism and proponents claim is valid scientific theory
A "Tenth planet" discovered larger than Pluto, along with two other large celestial bodies, which will likely change the planet count of the Solar System later in the decade.

War, peace and politics

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continued in the 2000s. The Al-Aqsa Intifada resulted in violence claiming the lives of more than 3,900 people from September 29, 2000 [1]. Peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians remained stagnant during this period, although in 2005 the Israeli government enacted its unilateral disengagement plan which removed Israeli settlements from Gaza.
Major controversy over U. S. presidential election (November 7-December 13, 2000).
September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center and Virginia's Pentagon killing almost 3000 people. A resultant change in stance towards international terrorism (See New Era and War on Terror) has ripple effects on the USA's foreign policy and military strategy.
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban regime in response to the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks (October 7, 2001 – July 18, 2003).
Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 against Hugo Chávez
The Convention on the Future of Europe proposing first European constitution (i.e., of the EU). The Constitution is rejected by French and Dutch electorate in 2005 leading to political crisis in EU.
East Timor gains official independence from Indonesia. (May 20, 2002)
International Criminal Court established, used for judging war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide (July 1, 2002)
American and British forces respond to a disputed Iraqi threat with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Darfur conflict in Sudan
"Orange Revolution" in Ukraine leads to election of Viktor Yushchenko as President after initial election victory of incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is annulled due to vote-rigging
Revolution in Kyrgyzstan overthrows government of President Askar Akayev
Beslan school hostage crisis, in which multinational terrorists take a school in Beslan, Russia hostage. 344 people including children die in the ensuing crisis. (September 1, 2004)
United States expands international influence, in particular in the Middle East. The US also holds a number of war games pertaining to the Strait of Taiwan in preparation for a possible war with the People's Republic of China over a Taiwanese secession. China and Russia display a strategic relationship during a simulated "humanitarian" crisis in the same region during Peace Mission 2005.
Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro and his conservative Liberal Democratic Party are re-elected in a landslide election in September 2005, mainly due to a booming Japanese economy and Junichiro's plans to privatise the Japanese postal service.
In 2005, Early elections in Germany produce the first Grand Coalition for the country in almost forty years. After weeks of talks, the center-left Social Democrats and center-right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union agree to let conservative Angela Merkel become chancellor. She is first chancellor to be from eastern Germany, as well as the country's first female chancellor.
In America, as the Baby Boomers get set for retirement, Generation X begins to step up into political power, signified by the election of Illinois senator Barack Obama. Generation X grew in pop culture with the 1980s and 1990s.
The world's view of the United States changes in the 2000s, particularly due to the interventionist policies of the Bush administration. Other issues such as Hurricane Katrina, NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, and the Iraq War cause a polarisation in many American's views of George Bush's presidency. In late 2005 and early 2006, some Democrat politicians begin to consider calling for an impeachment inquiry into Bush's actions.
Extreme political polarization in the United States leads to a rigid geopolitical divide between Red States and Blue States. Families are often bitterly split over political issues, and the youth are more invested in politics than at almost any other time in American history. Animosity reaches such levels that that in some quarters there is somewhat-serious discussion of secession and even the possibility of a civil war. (http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/civilwar.html)

Economics

Globalization: Transnational companies become more pervasive, and anti-globalization protests occur frequently during meetings of IMF and WTO, especially in the early 2000s.
The euro becomes legal tender in twelve European Union countries in 2002. It's the largest monetary union in history. The euro eases trade in the Eurozone.
The NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange closed for six days after the September 11th, 2001 attacks the longest close since the Great Depression in 1929.
Major downturn in the value of dot-com shares, with occasional exceptions (Google's IPO on August 13, 2004)
The US dominance over the world economy continues, but economically rising nations like China show signs of becoming contending world powers.
Significant oil price rises. Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline opens on 25 May 2005, potentially removing the dependence of the United States and other Western nations on Middle Eastern oil.
Enron and other major accounting and corporate governance scandals prompt reviews of corporate government legislation worldwide (eg Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
The 1990s stock market boom ends in Mid-March to Early September of 2000-2001, due to 9/11 and the tech-bubble burst.
Post-9/11 Recession from 2001-early 2003.
Energy crisis in California and energy prices contributes to the economic downturn.
Economy recovers in late 2003-2005 to steady growth as the unemployment rate drops to 5%, .4% above the rate seen in the booming heydays of the late '90s.
Interest in technology companies remains steady, with IT spending fore-casted at 6% for 2006.
Real estate market is seen as being the smaller version of the tech boom of the nineties, resulting in the highest ever housing market peak ever recorded in the US in July '05 .

Culture and religion

The vast proliferation of information technology and digital media leads to many cultural paradigm shifts as people grapple with information overload. Millennials (Generation Y) are commonly thought of as adept at, or even socially dependent on, these technological developments.
Reality television becomes a well-established sector of the television programming industry. Nightly news broadcasts continue to lose viewership to 24-hour internet and cable news broadcasts. Changing television habits that involve increased use of the internet and video games and the preponderance of TiVo make marketers rethink the paradigm of the 30-second TV ad. Viral marketing, and product placement within reality television shows and movies are some increasingly used alternatives. Spam is used as an alternative, irritating many.
European society continues to become more secular; in contrast, religious groups increase their political influence in the United States and the Middle East.
The divisive US presidential election of 2000 leads to commentators describing the country as split between Red States and Blue States.
April 2, 2005: Pope John Paul II dies at age 84; succeeded by Pope Benedict XVI on April 24.
Same-sex marriage becomes a major cultural issue in developed countries. In 2001, the Netherlands becomes the first country to allow gay couples to wed. This is followed by Belgium in 2003, and by Same-sex marriage in, the UK, Canada, Spain, and South Africa in 2005. In 2004, Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to permit same-sex marriage.

Other

2002–2003: SARS virus outbreak, most notably in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Toronto.
February 1, 2003: The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts onboard, prompting investigation into NASA communication abilities and safety. Space shuttle flight resumes in late 2005, only to be suspended again.
Major earthquake rocks the ancient city of Bam, in Iran. Cost over 50,000 lives.
On December 26, 2004, a major earthquake and ensuing tsunami causes devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. As of January 2005 the death toll is estimated to be nearly 290,000, prompting the largest humanitarian response for a natural disaster in history.
Methamphetamine use skyrockets while crime rates in the U.S. reach the lowest rate in 40 years as of 2005 and use of most other drugs drops.
Extended alcohol sales becomes popular public policy in US and UK.
Underage consumption of alcohol under supervision of a parent or legal guardian is legalized in many states in the US in early 2005.
Bird flu spreads through South East Asia; countries begin preparing for a potential bird flu epidemic, fearing that it could mutate into a form that could transfer easily from person to person and kill millions of people. Bird flu spreads rapidly into Europe in October 2005.
Criticism of Vladimir Putin's governmental policies and reforms mount and a backlash of Soviet-nostalgia occurs in Russia.
On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina strikes southeastern Louisiana, U.S., killing more than 1,400 people and devastating the city New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. People and life later return to New Orleans, but many analysts expect that New Orleans will never return to its prior state.
A major earthquake in Kashmir kills close to 80,000 people on October 8, 2005, devastating Kashmir and forcing the mass evacuation of mountain towns as winter approaches.
Arctic sea ice cover reaches record lows; global warming continues to be a major concern. (see environmentalism)
National Social Norms Resource Center established in U.S.
DWI Courts introduced in U.S.
The 2005 Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season becomes the most active on record. First use of the Greek naming system after traditional names exhausted.

Trends and Fashion

United States and Canada

Fashion becomes less grungy and more excessive as the wearing of flannel by people under 30 declines and tighter fitting jeans and longer hair styles become again commonplace for boys and men. The "Baggy Jean" craze of the 1990s begins to fade during the mid '00s.
1980s fashion revival: For girls and women hoop earrings, originally popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, return to style circa 2002. Upturned collars on tennis shirts become popular among the youth as well. Tube tops become widely popular circa 2004 and again in 2006. Some boys begin to wear pink, and the mohawk makes a comeback, which was also a generic trend from the 1990s.
Urban/Gangsta/Thug and Punk/Goth/Emo are the major fashion and music trends in 2000's fashion.
Wearing baseball caps backwards, common in the 1980s and 1990s, falls out of style in favor of wearing them sideways or forwards.
Tattoos continue to become more common.
Fad diets such as Atkins and low carb diets are popular; "less is more" a common statement in 1990s and 2000s
Slang words and catch phrases used often in 2000s America include "Sweet", "Retarded", "Gay", "Crunk", "Wanksta", "Awesome", "Rad", "Whateva", "That's Hot!", "Totally", "Metro", "Tight", "Ditty", "Git-R-Done, "Sick", "BOO-YA!", "Pure", and "Werd up"/"word up" Many of them have roots from the 1980s, such as the word "totally" and "rad".
Cell phones become a necessity to teenagers and often a fashion statement as opposed to a preppie toy or a tool primarily for adults and businesspeople. Payphone use and locations decline dramatically because of this.
MP3 players such as the iPod and Napster to Go become very common as they become more powerful and easier to use.
Generation Y supplants Gen X as current youth generation.
Interracial dating and relationships become more common in the US. Interracial couples on television and movies in all manner of gender and racial scenarios become fairly common. It also becomes more (though not yet universally) accepted, helped by the emergence of famous children from interracial marriages, such as Mariah Carey, Derek Jeter, Lenny Kravitz and Johnny Damon (Amer-Asian).
Strong cultural similarities with the 1990s as the pop culture of that decade continues to be trendy and cherished by the 2000s youth as exampled by the success of Mariah Carey and Green Day in the mid-2000s and by the fact that the Nineties receive only minimal backlash among current youth.
A very strong nostalgia for the 1980s emerges, and as a result many things from the 80s are "brought back" and certain aspects of the decade become cool again such as Techno and New Wave music. Nontheless, the 2000s' kinship with the 1990s prevents a complete acceptance of the '80s, as the culture of the '90s is generally much more positively accepted by Generation Y.
Many current youth show absolutely no interest in the mainstream music of the era; listening to other genres such as indie and oldies and sometimes even jazz and classical.
Poker becomes a craze, as many Americans are enticed by online poker rooms and games with their friends and neighbors. The World Series of Poker aired on ESPN becomes a huge success.
Emo goes from being a small subculture in the 1980s, and 1990s to becoming mainstream and fusing with pop-punk and Post-Hardcore, beginning around 2000 but especially later in the decade. Emo pop becomes mainstream around 2004.
Teens and young adults become political with the rise of Air America Radio and the popularity of "America (the book)" by Jon Stewart.
Cyberpunk culture becomes more relevant, as the culture of the 2000s is in itself post apocalyptic due to the September 11 2001, attacks.
Teenagers with non-heterosexual sexual orientations begin to come out earlier in their lives in a tense society that can either be welcoming or alienating.

Europe

In Eastern Germany and other ex-Communist countries, there is a growth in nostalgia for former Communist times (Ostalgie).
Growing anti-Americanism, especially in Western Europe.
From early in the decade, mobile phones are a necessary accessory, even for the majority of children as young as 10 years old. Ownership approaches 100% of the population in most Western European countries.
Fashion and cosmetic surgery become more mainstream; an increase in interest is most notable in men, influenced by fashion-conscious "celebrities" such as David Beckham.
Chav culture in the United Kingdom becomes a predominant fashion/lifestyle choice, especially amongst those in the working class.

Music

United States and Canada

Hip-Hop is the most popular musical genre with the youth, replacing rock and roll. Artists like Kanye West, 50 Cent, Nelly, and Eminem are the dominate hip-hop artists that define the hip-hop genre in this decade thus far. Popular styles include glam rap (50 Cent, Puff Daddy, Ja Rule), Crunk (Lil' Jon, Ying Yang Twins), and among a minority underground hip hop (Jurassic 5, Atmosphere, Sage Francis). Mainstream hip-hop still enjoys its popularity on the pop charts in 2006 but it loses its popularity that it held throughout the 2000's a little bit to Adult Contemporary music.
Rock and roll, although hugely popular, is no longer a staple of pop radio. Popular styles include nu metal early in the decade (Linkin Park, Korn, Limp Bizkit), emo throughout the decade (Fall Out Boy, Sum 41, Simple Plan) and metalcore during the middle and latter part of the decade (Atreyu, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall).
Most styles of the 1990s remain strong and even trendy, except for a few such as Grunge and boy bands/teen pop that declined in popularity early in the decade.
Pop R&B continues to be popular, fueled further by combination with Rap. Neo-soul is also popular during the early part of the decade.
Pop country slips in mainstream popularity in the early-2000s, due partly to the public retirement of Garth Brooks. However, the upper part of the Billboard album charts generally has many country albums, including some that go more than double platinum, indicating that the genre has a strong niche in the music industry. The genre grows during the mid 2000's from artists such as Carrie Underwood, who became the first American Idol winner to go into country instead of Pop or R&B.
Teen pop of the late 90s variety rises and falls in popularity between 1999 and 2002 although maintains a strong media presence afterward and morphes into more adult-oriented music such as Kelly Clarkson. "Disney" and "Nickelodeon" artists such as Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, Aly & AJ, Hope Partlow and Jesse McCartney are also popular. Throughout the decade, even after the teen pop era ended the genre was widely accepted by many preteens, teens, and adults today.
Adult Contemporary music, by artists such as Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne and James Blunt popular.
Dance music only rarely appears on the charts during this decade
Post-punk revival beginning around 2004, led by bands such as Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, and Bloc Party, combining modern rock with 1980s New Wave music. Increased nostalgic interest for 1980s music is occurring during this decade.
Ethnic music is mainstream for most of the early to mid '00s, especially in the rise of Reggaeton in late 2005-early 2006.

Europe

Electronica of 1990s style, such as trance and drum 'n' bass, quintessential
Electro, as well as music that combines it with House becomes mainstream in the dance music scene in the middle of the decade, replacing the mainstream of more jazzy and latin influenced sounds from the beginning of the decade
Return of indie rock groups evoking the late 1970s, such as Franz Ferdinand and the Kaiser Chiefs.
Teen pop such as Backstreet Boys continues to be popular, although US-influenced R&B and hip hop music is popular until the middle of the decade.

Latin America/Caribbean

Rise of reggaeton hip hop, and Bachata music

Film

In the USA:
- Movie remakes and sequels hit an all-time high, in contrast to purely original scripts. Also, many movies based on old TV shows and novels become more popular in Hollywood.
- Depressed ticket sales throughout the decade due to general lack of quality films and decline of the general moviegoing experience, as movie theaters keep ticket prices high and increase the duration of advertisements before movies, in some cases going as long as 30 minutes. Other trends emerge, such as the decreasing cost and increasing size of quality home theater displays along with the availability mail-based movie rental services, most notably Netflix, which offered an unlimited number of DVD rentals for a fixed price per month. Movie executives attempted to place some of the blame on online piracy due to the advent of BitTorrent, however its effect has been disputed, as some claim that those who download these movies would not have paid to see them in the first place.
- Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, comic book movies, and the new Star Wars movie sagas dominate the box office. The high profitability of these films arguably has much to do with the lack of investment and quality in newer and more original films in the 2000s as opposed to decades like the 1980s and 1990s.
- The Matrix very influential on special effect styles (ie: 'bullet-time', dramatic effects in slow motion).
- "R" rated films are released at their lowest prevalence since the 1960s, reflecting a post-Columbine American society which increasingly lacks tolerance of violent films. While certain exceptions such as Kill Bill are made in protest of this development and in tribute to the overly violent kung-fu and action films of the 1970s, most action films of the 2000s are largely bloodless.
- East Hollywood High School becomes the first public film-oriented charter high school in the world.
- X-Men distributed by 20th Century Fox sparks the "Comic Book Movie Age." Many big-budget adaptions of various comic book characters are being made, primarily by Marvel Comics and DC comics. Some of these comic-book movies: Spider-man, The Fantastic Four, Batman Begins, and V for Vendetta.
- Independent films start to emerge as a more popular medium. Major film corporations had or created independent divisions; such as Fox Searchlight and Warner Independent, which saw the popularity of independent (Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite) as well as art-house and foreign film increase.
- Pixar produces hit movies such as as Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Monsters Inc., continuing a trend started in 1995 with Toy Story. Both Finding Nemo and The Incredibles win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
- DreamWorks Animation has hits with Shrek, Shrek 2 (which becomes the highest-grossing animated movie of all time in North America), Shark Tale, and Madagascar.
- Disney abandons traditional 2D animation altogether in 2005, with Home on the Range being the last Disney movie with any 2D animation. Disney releases two non-Pixar-produced 3D films (Valiant in the US and Chicken Little) in 2005. Also, in 2006 Pixar became a part of Disney, furthering the company's transition into the 3D era, although a return to two-dimensional animation films may not be out of the question under the studio's new management. In 2009, 2-D animation may be the center for almost all animated features in Disney once again.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe become huge hits for Disney live-action movies. Both spawning sequels in the near future.
- Brokeback Mountain, a movie about two gay shepherds, is considered controversial by some conservative Americans. Director Lee Ang receives Academy Award in 2006. Many parodies appeared on the Internet during early 2006.
- Several documentaries are given widespread cinema release: examples are Fahrenheit 9/11, Super Size Me and March of the Penguins.

Internet

The Internet becomes a major source of all types of media, from music to movies, thanks to file-sharing P2P programs such as KaZaA and Grokster. The debate continues over the ethics of file-sharing.
The diverse and spontaneous nature of the internet allows an internet culture to form. Online projects such as hamsterdance, EBaum's World and Homestar Runner become international trends within short periods of time due to word of mouth on and off the web, with little or no promotion required from their creators.
Legal music download services such as iTunes and the re-designed Napster open up a new market of digital downloading and becomes the number 1 music swapping program of all time.
Popular video shorts of the 2000s include Star Wars Gangsta Rap, D.R.A.F.T., and the SNL skit Lazy Sunday, which was controversially removed from YouTube.com in early 2006.
Television and Internet begin to merge as networks start streaming shows online.
Social networking and blogging sites such as Myspace.com (created in early 1999, and recreated in 2003), Facebook LiveJournal, and MyYearbook becomes popular among Generation Y, and is criticized for exposing teens and young adults to sex offenders via the Internet.
Craigslist.org, a popular online classified site, saps over 50 million dollars a year from newspaper revenues, with a staff of only 16 people in San Francisco.
Cell phones gain the ability to access the Internet.
Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol(VoIP) telephones and the Internet slowly begin to merge: Examples are Vonage and Skype.
Webcomics by amateur cartoonists begin to surpass the popularity of traditional print comic books and newspaper strips. Flash movies also become popular.
Re-cut trailers become popular in the mid-2000s, largely due to the many parody trailers of Brokeback Mountain during the 2005-2006 winter. Popular examples include "Brokeback to the Future", Lazy Brokeback, and the Sleepless in Seattle trailer cut into a horror movie.
Myspace, Xanga, Facebook, and MyYearbook become extremely popular to teen-internet users, inspiring others to share and trade personal information via online.

Video games

Next Generation Consoles: The first batch of "next-generation" home consoles are released at the turn of the new millennium featuring larger production values, more realistic graphics, and consoles with built-in multimedia such as DVD and a hard drive. Sony Playstation 2 (2000), Nintendo Gamecube (2001), and the Microsoft Xbox (2001) are the three main contenders in the ever raging console wars.
The Sims, released in fall of 2000 for PC, along with its expansions becomes the best selling video game of all time.
Sega in 2001 drops out the home console market after the Dreamcast (1999) fails to regain lost marketshare from the 1990s.
Nintendo releases the Game Boy Advance (GBA) in 2001, a 32-bit handheld system. A redesign of the GBA dubbed Game Boy Advance SP (GBASP) was released in 2003 introducing flip-top design and a frontlit screen. Another even smaller version of the GBA was released as the Game Boy micro in 2005. The GBA line is still the best selling handheld system today.
Gamers who were kids in the 1980s and 1990s are now adults. The average age for video game players rises into the mid to late 20s as videogames become mainstream global entertainment.
Grand Theft Auto series sparks a fad of Mature rated videogames based on including gang warfare, drug use, senseless violence and pornography into the gameplay or more commonly just the storyline. The controversy is followed by mothers, lawmakers and activists (such as Jack Thompson) pushing an agenda to ban the sale of Mature rated games to minors. See also, hot coffee mod.
Console gaming officially hits the Internet with Xbox Live. Introducing widespread use of voice-chat via headset and requiring broadband Internet connection for "no-lag" gameplay.
Sequels become the more prominent as popular franchises begin releasing new versions every year along with spin-offs. This flooding of the market is similar to what was happening before the video game crash of 1983.
Nintendo releases the Nintendo DS in late 2004 featuring dual screens, a touch screen, built-in mic and Wi-fi, and flip top design. The system's innovation allowed for new gameplay strengthening many genres such as simulation, platform, and puzzle games.
Sony releases the PSP (PlayStation Portable) in early 2005, a handheld gaming console with many multimedia features and sharp graphics to compete with the Nintendo DS and the still popular GameBoy Advance.
Around 2006 a new wave of consoles appears: Nintendo chooses to focus on innovation with new controller design for their 5th home console, code-named Nintendo Revolution (expected 2006), while the Microsoft Xbox 360 (2005) and the Sony Playstation 3 (expected 2006) have sharper HDTV ready graphics, multi-media and more integrated online features.
Video Games like Halo and Half-Life 2 with its Source engine are said to revolutionize gameplay. They pave the way for other hit first-person shooters such as FEAR and Doom 3.
Video chat devices are released for the Xbox 360.

Television and radio

In the USA:
- Reality TV shows, such as The Apprentice, Survivor, and The Amazing Race have become extremely popular, beginning in the year 2000. Big Brother began the craze in Europe a year earlier in the fall of 1999. The rise of "Reality" to the main networks was one of the first trends that differentiated 2000s television from that of the 1990s. As early as the second season (2001-2002) of Reality TV some fans of the genre began to tire of the trend.
- Popular and definitive TV shows include The Sopranos (1999-), Lost (2004-), Chappelle's Show (2003-2004), Survivor (2000-), South Park (1997-), Family Guy (1999-2002, 2005-), 24 (2001-), Alias (2001-2006), Spongebob Squarepants (1999-), Who Wants To Be A Millionaire(1999-2003) CSI (1998-), The O.C (2004-) Desperate Housewives (2004-). 1990s TV shows The Simpsons(1989-), The Man Show (1998-2003) Friends (1994-2004), Law & Order (1990-) and The Real World (1992-) remain varyingly definitive into the 2000s.
- The popular series Lost spawns a trend of paranormal shows in the mid-2000s, including Ghost Whisperer and Invasion.
- Continued trend of animated sitcoms as traditional sitcoms such as Family Matters and 3rd Rock from the Sun decline in number until approxiamately 2005.
- Medical TV shows, which rose to popularity in the mid-1990s with ER, are in vogue, along with crime shows.
- Rise of media violence, sex, and language decreases with the 2004 Janet Jackson incident at the Super Bowl. The FCC made their censorship rules more conservative at this point.
- The animation show South Park is popular among a large minority, especially around the opening of the decade. Its major attraction, a blatant disregard for political correctness, is also a repulsion for many.
- The Nineties sitcom Friends ends in 2004 in a similar fashion to the end of Cheers in 1993.
- Nickelodeon nearly abandons the live-action shows it had in the 1980s and 1990s in favor of Nicktoons. This ends towards the middle of the decade, as the network adds live-action fare such as Drake & Josh (2004-), Unfabulous (2004-), and Zoey 101 (2005-). In addition, the network begins to skew to a younger audience than in previous years, cancelling programs popular among teenagers, such as Invader Zim and As Told By Ginger, in favor of programs for younger adolescents, such as All Grown Up, Unfabulous, and Zoey 101.
- Disney Channel shifts from classic Disney programming to live-action shows in late 1990s and early 2000s (see Zoog Disney), while turning towards original cartoons beginning in 2000 with The Proud Family(2001-2005), The Weekenders (2000-2004) and later Kim Possible (2002-2005).
- Japanimation becomes focus of Cartoon Network and a staple of children's programming, along with more adult-oriented material (see Animatrix and Adult Swim).
- The Simpsons remains incredibly popular throughout the 2000s along with several other animated sitcoms and Family Guy returns with new episodes in May of 2005 after a 3-year cancellation. Some people, however say the show is "tired" and no longer funny and wish it was cancelled around the turn of the millenium.
- Talk radio shows such as Al Franken, Coast to Coast AM and Rush Limbaugh keep people on the AM dial.
- Prank-based comedy shows such as Punk'd (2002-), Da Ali G Show (2003-2004), Jackass (2001-2003), Trigger Happy TV (2002-2003), and Crank Yankers (2003-) became popular.
- In 2005, Star Trek Enterprise became the first Star Trek series since the original series to be cancelled due to low ratings and the first to suffer low popularity even among fans. It also ends almost twenty years of continuous Star Trek shows which started in 1987 with Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- 24-Hour Cable News Channels began to surpass the major broadcast networks as the main source for obtaining news on television. Fox News led the cable market with such programs as The O'Reilly Factor and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren while CNN, with CNN Headline News, and MSNBC attempted to compete with such programs as Anderson Cooper 360, Nancy Grace, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Trends indicated that viewers appear to prefer to get their news from sources that reinforce their opinions rather than seek out information that challenges these opinions. The trend of cable news channels overtaking broadcast networks in news coincided with the retirements of Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather from the anchor desks at the evening news programs of NBC and CBS respectively along with the death of ABC News World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings in 2005. Cable News anchors and reporters gain fan followings on the Internet though most are due to physical appearance and sex appeal rather than journalistic abilities or delivery of the news. Notable examples of this trend include Rudi Bakhtiar, Laurie Dhue, Robin Meade, and Juliet Huddy spawning such terms as Newsbabe and Infobabe.
- Increasing use of satellite radio. By 2006, XM claim 6 million subscribers and Sirius claim 3 million.
In the United Kingdom
- Much airtime was filled with a proliferation of "celebrity"-based television such as Celebrity Big Brother, Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!, and Strictly Come Dancing.
- Pre-watershed family sitcoms almost disappeared; more mature and specialist comedies were broadcast, such as Little Britain, Tittybangbang, the Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd and Nathan Barley. Several new sitcoms were made without laugher tracks, such as The Office and The Smoking Room; These latter shows were slow-paced and portrayed a more mundane side of life.
- In place of period dramas, many new drama series were broadcast which were expensively produced and adopted some American styles. Popular shows included Doctor Who, Spooks, Hustle and Waking the Dead.
- Big-budget American dramas became widely-watched, such as Desperate Housewives, Lost, 24 and CSI
- Digital TV became popular with the introduction of Sky Digital, Freeview, and subsequently, the growth of free-to-air TV stations like BBC Three, BBC Four, Sky Three, More4, abc1, ITV3, ITV4 and TMF.
- Digital Television allowed for greater choice when watching major sports events such as the Olympic Games and Wimbledon Tennis.
- Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) gained popularity; by 2004 most new radio sets sold in the UK were capable of receiving DAB signals. Many new specialist radio stations are almost exclusively broadcast via DAB.

Sports

Basketball dips somewhat in popularity with the loss of Michael Jordan and the Kobe Bryant controversy; football continues to become more popular, while professional soccer makes inroads into the United States and Canada.
Baseball in the United States undergoes controversy due to steroids; stars such as Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, ranked #1 and #2 in single-season home runs, are suspected to have used steroids, while others such as Jason Giambi and Rafael Palmeiro are confirmed to have been using the drugs.
Beach volleyball becomes an increasingly popular sport worldwide, establishing its first generation of superstars and branching out into large inland cities.
Football (known as "soccer" to Americans), particularly British, begins to gain popularity amongst North Americans.
Many British football clubs are being bought by Eastern European millionaires such as Chelsea by Roman Abramovich, Hearts by Vladimir Romanov and Portsmouth F.C. by Milan Mandarić and Alexandre Gaydamak.
The IRB Rugby World Cup increases in size and audience to become one of the world's most popular competitions.
WADA, The World Anti-doping Agency, introduces a standardised anti-doping code for all sports.
P.R. China's sportsmen make continuous improvements in several sports, in preparation for the Beijing (北京) Olympic Games.

Books & Literature

People

World leaders

President Hamid Karzai (Afghanistan)
President Néstor Kirchner (Argentina)
Prime Minister John Howard (Australia)
Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel (Austria)
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium)
President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil)
President Hugo Banzer Suarez (Bolivia)
President Jorge Quiroga Ramirez (Bolivia)
President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada Bolivia)
President Carlos Mesa Gisbert (Bolivia)
President Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé (Bolivia)
President Evo Morales (Bolivia)
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (Canada)
Prime Minister Paul Martin (Canada)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Canada)
President Ricardo Lagos (Chile)
President Jiang Zemin (China)
President Hu Jintao (China)
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (Convention on the Future of Europe)
President Alvaro Uribe (Colombia)
President Stjepan Mesić (Croatia)
Prime Minister Ivica Račan (Croatia)
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader (Croatia)
Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (Denmark)
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Denmark)
President Hosni Mubarak (Egypt)
President Tarja Halonen (Finland)
Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen (Finland)
Prime Minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki (Finland)
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Finland)
President Jacques Chirac (France)
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (Germany)
Chancellor Angela Merkel (Germany)
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (India)
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh (India)
President Megawati Sukarnoputri (Indonesia)
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Indonesia)
President Mohammad Khatami (Iran)
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran)
President Saddam Hussein (Iraq)
President Ghazi al-Yawer (Iraq)
President Jalal Talabani (Iraq)
President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga (Latvia)
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern (Ireland)
President Mary McAleese (Ireland)
Prime Minister Ehud Barak (Israel)
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (Israel)
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (Italy)
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (Italy)
Emperor Akihito (Japan)
Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro (Japan)
President Vicente Fox Quesada (Mexico)
Queen Beatrix (The Netherlands)
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (The Netherlands)
Prime Minister Helen Clark (New Zealand)
President Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria)
President Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan)
President Yasser Arafat (Palestinian Authority)
Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Palestinian Authority)
President Joseph Ejercito Estrada (Philippines)
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (Philippines)
President Jorge Sampaio (Portugal)
Prime Minister António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (Portugal)
Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso (Portugal)
Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes (Portugal)
Prime Minister José Sócrates (Portugal)
President Ion Iliescu (Romania)
President Traian Băsescu (Romania)
President Vladimir Putin (Russia)
King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz (Saudi Arabia)
Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić (Serbia)
Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong (Singapore)
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore)
Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek (Slovenia)
Prime Minister Anton Rop (Slovenia)
Prime Minister Janez Janša (Slovenia)
President Thabo Mbeki (South Africa)
President José María Aznar (Spain)
President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (Spain)
Prime Minister Göran Persson (Sweden)
President Joseph Deiss (Switzerland)
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer (Turkey)
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit (Turkey)
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkey)
President Chen Shui-bian (Republic of China on Taiwan)
Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom, et. al.)
Prime Minister Tony Blair (United Kingdom)
President Bill Clinton (United States)
President George W. Bush (United States)
Pope John Paul II (Vatican City) (d. 2005)
Pope Benedict XVI (Vatican City)
President Hugo Chávez (Venezuela)

State leaders by year: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006...

Entertainers