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The Biggest U.S. Pop Culture Trends of 2010

Social networking’s rise, search-fueled music discovery, blockbuster franchises and event television defined major strands of U.S. pop culture in 2010.
Opened Runtime4 min Written byDocumentaryTube Team
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In the United States, 2010 pop culture was shaped by social networking’s growing share of online life, searchable music stars, blockbuster franchises, event television and the transition from physical media. The examples below are “best” in the editorial sense: each is tied to a specific measure—online time, survey-reported use, search interest, domestic box-office gross, television ratings or sales of physical media. Those measures illuminate different parts of the year; they do not make one universal ranking.

Social networking moved to the center of online life

By June 2010, social networks accounted for 22.7% of measured U.S. internet time, up from 15.8% in June 2009. Nielsen reported that social networking, online games and email together made up 40% of online time. Games represented 10.2%, overtaking email, whose share fell from 11.5% to 8.3%. These are shares of time measured on U.S. computers, not percentages of people using each service. Nielsen also cautioned that its Videos/Movies category covered video-specific or movie-related sites, not all online video viewing. Nielsen’s 2010 online-activity report provides the time-use figures.

A separate Pew Research Center survey shows how broadly social networking was spreading. Among online adults, reported social-network use rose from 35% in December 2008 to 61% in May 2010. Among online adults aged 74 and older, it increased from 4% to 16% over the same interval. These are survey-reported adoption rates, not Nielsen’s measure of time spent online. Pew’s analysis of online activities documents the generational comparison.

Music and celebrity became easier to discover through search

Google’s retrospective on its 2010 search trends names Justin Bieber the year’s top trending musician and notes his March album debut. Its song list offers a snapshot of what people were searching for, led by “Pants on the Ground” by Larry Platt, “Love the Way You Lie” by Eminem featuring Rihanna, and “Like a G6” by Far East Movement. Other listed tracks include “We Are the World,” “Teenage Dream,” “Rude Boy” and “Hey Soul Sister.” These are search-interest examples, not a comprehensive sales chart or proof that one genre dominated listening. Google’s decade-in-Search retrospective describes the trends.

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Blockbuster films combined franchises, animation and spectacle

On Box Office Mojo’s 2010 U.S. domestic-gross chart, the top six were Avatar, Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, Iron Man 2, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Inception. Together, they make a strong case that franchise stories, animation, fantasy and science-fiction spectacle were highly visible at American theaters that year; they do not prove those categories led every market or measure.

Toy Story 3 is a useful anchor: Box Office Mojo lists its domestic gross as $415,004,880 and ranks it second for 2010. Google also calls it the top trending movie in the U.S. that year. The first figure is a box-office ranking; the second reflects search interest. Their overlap shows the film’s broad prominence without treating either measure as a substitute for the other. See Box Office Mojo’s 2010 domestic chart and Google’s search retrospective.

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Television balanced event viewing with returning and new series

Nielsen’s year-end report captures both appointment viewing and the steady draw of regularly scheduled programs. Super Bowl XLIV and related coverage led its top single-telecast rankings; the Academy Awards and an episode of Undercover Boss also appeared. Among regularly scheduled shows, American Idol led the listed ranking, followed by Dancing with the Stars and Sunday Night Football. Other programs in Nielsen’s regularly scheduled list included NCIS, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains and Two and a Half Men.

Search offered a different view of what was capturing attention. Google notes that The Walking Dead entered its top trending TV shows list with its series premiere. That indicates search visibility, not a Nielsen audience ranking. Nielsen’s telecast rankings generally cover January 1 through November 28, 2010, rather than every day of the calendar year; its report also treats timeshifted-viewing increases separately from total audience size. The distinctions matter when comparing event broadcasts, series ratings and online conversation. See Nielsen’s year-end report and Google’s retrospective.

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Books and discs show what people were still buying

Physical formats remained visible in Nielsen’s measured sales rankings. In its adult-fiction print-book list, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ranked first, followed by The Girl Who Played with Fire. Nielsen’s book measurement covered January 4 through November 28, 2010, and excluded Walmart, so it is a measured sales snapshot rather than a complete count of every U.S. book sale.

In Nielsen’s aggregate DVD, Blu-ray and other-disc ranking, Avatar placed first and Toy Story 3 second, followed by The Blind Side, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Iron Man 2. The list covered January 10 through November 28, excluded Walmart, and was published while some fourth-quarter titles had not yet been released as of December 6. It supports a picture of the disc-era hits, but does not separate a title’s DVD sales from its Blu-ray sales. These rankings appear in Nielsen’s 2010 report.

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How to read “the best” of 2010

These examples are strongest when their evidence is kept in its lane:

  • Online time: Nielsen’s percentage measures how U.S. computer users’ measured internet time was divided among activities.
  • Social-network adoption: Pew’s percentages describe survey respondents who reported using social networks.
  • Search trends: Google identifies topics that trended in searches; that is not a chart of sales, audience size or listening time.
  • Film success: Box Office Mojo’s listed amount is domestic theatrical gross, not worldwide revenue or profit.
  • Television rankings: Nielsen’s audience measures and Google’s search trends answer different questions.
  • Book and disc sales: Nielsen’s rankings have stated dates and retailer exclusions, and the disc list combines formats.

Read together, the measures describe a year when social networking was claiming more online attention, films and familiar TV formats remained powerful, and internet search made emerging stars and new series easier to track. They do not produce a single objectively ranked list of everything Americans watched, heard or bought.

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