Randall D. Hawes

10 Years Already

There was quite a lot of discussion ten years ago about exactly when the New Millennium began. I hold the view that the last millennium ended after second 59 – minute 59 – hour 23 – day 365 – year 1999, and the new millennium began before second 1 – minute 1 – hour 1 – day 1 – year 2000. In simpler terms, 12:00am January 1 2000. You may agree to disagree, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Do you remember the Y2K Computer Crisis and the worldwide panic/excitement it caused? I know that I rushed home from the New Years celebration and immediately checked our computer to make sure it was still running and connected to the internet. Of course, everything was fine. The world didn’t end, it carried on as it had done for eons previous.

Let’s have a little fun and go back over the last 10 years to remember some of the big news stories, the changes, the movements and the memories. We can’t cover them all, but a few examples should suffice to quench your curiosity. And let’s start with music. Music is like honey – it’s natural and everybody likes it. It is also very powerful. It can start whole movements and change history. Here are some examples that Ben Rayner of the Toronto Star thinks are important, and why.

” … they’re the ones that fomented or embodied a particular cultural moment. This is the stuff that got people talking or madly emailing YouTube links, the stuff that stunned us with its originality, that kick started movements and launched careers into the stratosphere. Whether you like it or not, it’s all stuff that mattered, stuff that captured the popular imagination.” Ben Rayner

• YOU FORGOT IT IN PEOPLE, BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE (2002)
• BACK TO BLACK, AMY WINEHOUSE (2006)
• “CRAZY IN LOVE“, BEYONCÉ (2003)
• “JESUS WALKS“, KANYE WEST (2004)
• “CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD“, KYLIE MINOGUE (2001)
• “I DREAMED A DREAM“, SUSAN BOYLE (2009)
• “A STROKE OF GENIE-US“, FREELANCE HELLRAISER (2001)
• TAKING THE LONG WAY, DIXIE CHICKS (2006)
• KID A, RADIOHEAD (2000)
• YOUTUBE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (2009)

Love them or hate them, all of these had an impact on our society, or reflected the changes in the way we do things, which is just a different way of saying the same thing. Listen to them all. And please support your local musicians!

And now, let’s review the biggest thing from the past decade that made the world stand up and take notice of things that would never have seen the light of day in past millenniums – online videos! There are several “Top Lists” coming out right now that review the best (or worst) videos on the New Millennium. There’s too many to list here, but I’m going to post some links to the pages that contain the videos, and make a few individual choices myself.

• Yahoo Canada Video – Viral All-Stars
• About.Com – Funniest Political Videos
• YouTube #1 – Wish You Were Here
• Business Promotion – Air New Zealand

That is a very small sample of what is the, in my humble opinion, biggest change in the way we view the world and interact with each other compared to ten years ago. And really, the technological revolution is just getting started. Ten years ago, the iPhone was on Star Trek, not in your hand.

Here are some quick hits from the last 10 years. Again, it’s a matter of opinion, but they give a sense of what happened in the 2000′s:

From the National Post:

• Pastry of the decade:  Cupcake
• TV show of the decade:  The Office
• Dubious academic discipline of the decade:  Happiness studies
• Political accessory of the decade:  Lapel flag pin
• Font of the decade:  Helvetica
• Overused magazine front-of-book feature of the decade:  What’s on your iPod?
• Emoticon of the decade:  Tie between ;) and :-
• Excuse of the decade:  Spending more time with family
• Unfortunate pant of the decade:  The skinny jean
• Worst Best Picture of the decade:  A Beautiful Mind
• Crossbreed of the decade:  Labradoodle
• Meaningless corporate phrase of the decade:  Moving forward
• Pop star of the decade:  Lady Gaga
• Rubber accessory of the decade:  The LiveStrong bracelet
• Menu adjective of the decade:  Braised
• CB radio equivalent of the decade:  Twitter
• Ironic sport of the decade:  Dodgeball
• Libyan website of the decade:  bit.ly
• Black Eyed Pea of the decade:  will.i.am/Fergie ( tie)
• Theatre gimmick of the decade:  The Musical!

All of the above gives us a very small sample of all the changes since January 1 2000. One can only dream what it will be like on this earth in December 2019. I believe that we are on the cusp of the greatest technological, scientific, medical and societal changes ever witnessed by mankind, even greater than the Industrial Revolution, even greater than the advent of the World Wide Web. So look back with nostalgia, and hang on to your seats. We are going to be wired for sound very soon.

R