What up, readers? I’ve been tasked with creating an end of the year best of list by the fantastic folks at WYSO. Below are my pics for the best of American pop culture for this very interesting year.
You’ll notice that several of the categories have descriptions in their titles like “actually”, “really”, and “truly”. The reason for this is I wanted to write about content that the general public has more than likely seen and listened to, rather than the art that most critics love. Critic types may love a movie like The Banshees of Inisherin, but I’m betting you didn’t see it…you probably went to see Jurassic World: Dominion. And that’s OK. I’m going to celebrate the stuff that got the most reach.
So, check out the awards. And, if you have any thoughts, email me. Dialogue rocks.
The We’re A Culture Defining Money Printing Juggernaut And We Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere Award goes to: Marvel Studios. The much malignedproduction house still managed to drop hit movies that dominate not only the box office, but American culture. With mega smashes like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever re-writing box office records and pleasing global audiences, don’t expect the Marvel Machine to break down anytime soon.
The Real Movie Stars Still Exist, Marvel Studios Haven’t Killed Them Award goes to: Tom Cruise. If you saw Top Gun: Maverick this past summer, you saw a supernatural star turn. The movie became the biggest grossing film of 2022 for a reason. Cruise reminded us how charming and charismatic he can be. He put on a matinee idol master class with “...Maverick” Runner ups: Keke Palmer dazzling in Nope, Robert Pattinson smoldering in The Batman, and Viola Davis being…Viola Davis in The Woman King.
The “Holy ****!” Moment of the Year Award goes to: The Slap. As if there could be another one. We haven't seen anything like that before. Could it happen again? In a TikTok/Instagram/reality entertainment/Fox News influenced world? It’s a real question. Runner up: Brittney Griner’s release from Russian custody. Horrific in the beginning, joyful in the end.
The Best Movie People Actually Saw Award goes to: Top Gun: Maverick. No American movie this year rocked pop culture, movie audiences, and pop culture like it. Runner up: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The ultimate triumph from tragedy achievement.
The Best Song People Really Listened To Award goes to: Cuff It, from Beyoncé. The second single from her Renaissance album, the song did really well on the Billboard charts. But, its real impact is the Cuff It TikTok Challenges that the single inspired. They rocked 2022, and it’s possible they may make noise in the early part of 2023. Runner up: Harry Styles’ As It Was. Styles’ super smash broke records and the Internet.
The Album People Truly Cared About Award goes to: Renaissance, from Beyoncé. It would be easy to give the nod to Taylor Swift’s Midnights, since it vaporized the country upon its release. But Midnights didn’t have any songs that tore up cookouts, nightclubs, and parties. You wanna see the mood of a room change? Play Break My Soul. Cuff It. Church Girl. Swift dominated charts…Beyonce dominated hearts.
The Television Show We All Talked About at Work Award goes to: Stranger Things, season four. Many critics didn’t dig it. It didn’t matter. It broke viewing records for Netflix, took over Twitter for weeks, and became the most talked about televised IP of the year (besides The Academy Awards telecast). America still loves and lives and dies with the awesome kids of Hawkins, Indiana (I know it’s not a real place. Don’t email me.) The show was so popular it gave new life to a song from 1985. That is the power of Stranger Things. Runners up: Netflix's Wednesday was a late year grand slam, and ABC’s Abbott Elementary is still a magic sitcom.
The Comeback Nobody Saw… Coming Award goes to: Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). The 1985 single rose from the dead, courtesy of its inclusion in the recent season of Stranger Things. The tune’s popularity was so profound that it reached the number three position on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart this year. Runner up: Tom Cruise. He didn’t go anywhere, technically. But, for years, we forgot how much of a movie star he is. With Top Gun: Maverick, he gave us a thunderous reminder.
The Pop Culture Moment of the Year Award goes to: The Wednesday Dance. If you watched the Wednesday television show, you were already knocked out by Jenna Ortega’s star turn performance as the lead character. But, when she broke out this dance, she unleashed a pop culture super-moment and a now legendary scene. Ortega’s goth girl, hot zombie chick bop/shimmy was sexy, funny, fun, and mesmerizing. There hasn’t been a dance moment like this sincethe one from Pulp Fiction. Since its airing, the dance has created dedications all over TikTok. It’s a scene that may even be bigger than the show it came from. Runner up: unfortunately, The Slap is my number two moment. It’s something that will be talked about for decades, and will haunt the two men who were involved.
The Emperor of Pop Culture Award goes to: Empress Taylor Swift. Besides Drake, no one alive can literally conquer American culture like Swift can. When she drops an album, nothing else matters. She’s one of a small few who’s guaranteed to break some kind of record when she decides to do…anything. When Midnights dropped, it broke the single day streaming record (that Drake once held) on Spotify. Literally one day later, she broke another record, getting 228 million Spotify streams (breaking another Drake record). Neary every critic who matters loved the album. She had songs in the entire top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. For a full list of her accomplishments, check this out. Not only does Swift dominate music charts, she dominates news cycles. And the internet. When it comes to raw star power, there may be no one in the United States that has any close to Swifts. Runner up: Drake. Drizzy is Taylor Swift’s only real rival. His two album releases this year jolted the American media ecosystem as well. Champagne Papi is an expert at shaking radio, streaming services, and social media’s foundations with a new album release.
