2000-2009: The Decade Without a Name

I named this post above, because unlike the 80's, 90's, etc. this decade has never really had a consistent name. It's been called the "zeros," "2000's," and the "Aughts." I usually call it "this decade", but I don't know what I'm going call it next year. (Speaking of which, can we go ahead and get an early start in conclusively naming this next decade, so we don't have the same problem. Do we call it the "Teens" or the "Tens"? Let's decide on this). But not only that, this decade has lacked an identity in culture and remembrance.

The 50's were remembered for good times, family values, and rock and roll (as well as the beginning of pop culture). The sixties had social change, the hippy movement, and incredible music. The 70's had great movements in rock with Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Springsteen, etc., and disco. The 80's had MTV, Michael Jackson, the Brat Pack movies, ridiculous clothing and hair styles, and Bird/Magic making the NBA huge. The 90's had grunge and the explosion of rap in the early 90's, followed by boy bands and Brittney Spears in the late 90's, phenomenal movies (google the Best Picture nominees/winners from the 90's...it's an incredible list), good tv with Seinfeld, ER, and Friends (remember back when NBC was king?), and Jordan.

Now you don't have to like the things that characterized these decades, but at least you can admit that they defined them. How do you find what defined this decade? Music sales have collapsed since 2004. There's been no defining band or even genre this decade. For the past decades the defining band/artist was easy: Elvis, Beatles, Zeppelin, Jackson, and Nirvana. Would Coldplay win it for this decade? U2? Timberlake? The top 10 selling artists this decade were Eminem, the Beatles (that says all you need to know. The #2 selling band this decade has been broken up for 40 years), Tim McGraw, Toby Keith (No!!!), Brittney Spears, Kenny Chesney, Nelly, Linkin Park, Creed, and Jay-Z. But I wouldn't say any of those artists really defined the decade (Eminem's 30 million sales pales in comparison with the top selling artist in the 90's: Garth Brooks with almost 100 million sales). The way I would define music for this decade is the I-Tunes Generation. What I mean is that most people don't really buy and consume albums or artists any more. Instead they just hear some random song at a coffee house, figure out what the name of it on their phone, and then buy/pirate it and put it on I-tunes. So most people's music looks like a hodgepodge of random acoustic ballads and pop hits.

Movies were solid this decade. There were great franchises (LOTR, Star Wars, Matrix, Pirates, etc.), some great comedies from the various comedy mafias (Apatow, Ferrel, Wilson brothers, Sandler, Stiller), and the "Oscar" movies were great, but again, not as good as the 90's. Luckily there have been several defining movies this decade (The Dark Knight, LOTR, Anchorman) so we're ok there. Perhaps the only pop culture category in which this decade excelled was television. You could argue that the best movies this decade were on tv. This decade had the two most critically acclaimed shows ever in the Sopranos and the Wire (I've never seen them, but I know the critics love them), currently acclaimed shows in "Mad Men" and "30 Rock," the show I would argue is the greatest show of all time in LOST, plus other great shows with The Office, How I Met Your Mother, West Wing, Battlestar, Arrested Development, and some cult favorite one season wonders with Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, and Firefly. Shows like The Daily Show and the Colbert Report became a mix between comedy and social/media awareness. Reality shows exploded this decade with American Idol and Survivor leading the way. The decade saw as an over-fascination with celebrities to the point where people became "celebrities" without even really doing anything (Paris Hilton, Kardashians, etc..).

The news stories that defined this decade all basically revolved around the singular event that most defined the decade in 9/11. The event has changed the nation, the world, cultural dialogue, politics, and spawned two wars and changed the way wars are fought. Many, if not most, of the other major events of the decade are either directly or indirectly tied to 9/11. The aforementioned Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the 2004 and 2008 elections, and the events of the Bush Administration. Other major events included the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the China earthquakes, a growing dependence on technology and social networking via blogs, Myspace, facebook, and twitter, a growing focus on energy, climate, and conservation, and the current financial meltdown.

So where does this leave a generation who spent their formative years in a tumultuous decade that lacked definition and identity? Will this lack of normalcy, consistency, and identity lead to a continued rise in a postmodern fickle worldview? Or perhaps could it raise up a generation who does not define themselves based on pop-culture, and can learn to adapt to ever-changing circumstances and ideas?

My age ranged from 12-22 in this decade. I suppose that this decade was "my decade" as much as other people claim to be "children" of whatever decade they grew up in. I don't really lament this decade's lack of identity, and I am learning to thrive in a turbulent age. Many in my peer group have graduated college only to find an economy in shatters and no jobs available for them. But I think that this crazy decade has left us better prepared for difficult circumstances than previous generations might have been. We know that this next century is likely going to continue to be chaotic with changing economies, diminished American power, climate change, and different cultural values. But I think we're able to roll with it and just handle whatever comes next. Many people have labeled the Millennial Generation (those born between 1983 and 2001) as the "Second Great Generation" because of the exponential rise of work in volunteering and social causes among Millennials. I think that my generation has really become empowered to not just talk, but act in behalf of social justice issues and has a unique perspective on global commonality. Also, Millenials are not constrained by traditional structures in politics, economics, religion, and nationalities. We're more free to think, act, love, and serve outside of the boxes originally provided for us.

It is imperative for the church to empower, equip, and allow this generation to live out the kingdom of God in new and exciting ways in the next decade. I've heard before that the church could thrive in Postmodern culture because it provides structure in a chaotic time. That may be true, but I would argue that the church could instead thrive by getting chaotic itself. The kingdom of God was never meant to be rigid, streamlined, and predictable. The kingdom of God is an ADVENTURE and a REVOLUTION where we never know where it's headed. Because God works in ways that we could never imagine and acts like a consuming fire and was never meant to be put in a box.

Throughout its history, the church has tended to thrive in turbulent times. Right now seems perfect.