Pop culture was, as always, in a giving mood in 2014.
Hollywood gave us blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. Television parceled out its annual allotment of crime procedurals, prestige dramas, reality shows and zombies. Ariana Grande gave us a “Problem” (with help from Iggy Azalea). Grand Theft Auto V gave us ulcers. And the Frozen soundtrack began to give many parents headaches.
But the year took, as well. Our entertainment fixes took our time and attention. Some popular franchises got closed out and are gone. Some of our favorite stars and celebrities left us. Others fell from grace. And in one case, an Internet meme was instrumental in nearly taking a life.
Here’s a look at 10 of 2014’s top givers and takers.
Stephen Colbert: Is Stephen Colbert a comedian? A talk show host? A right-wing blowhard? The answer is yes. For a decade, Colbert was best known as the hard-right pundit Stephen Colbert, who bloviated almost every weeknight on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report since 2005. You would’ve thought the gag would’ve gotten old—but for the Colbert Nation, it never did. Writes Time’s James Poniewozik: “That Colbert was able to be ‘Stephen Colbert’ at such a high level for some nine years was the 56-game-hitting-streak of American comedy, a feat we may not see equaled again.” The Colbert Report was officially shuttered on Dec. 18 and, as was fitting for a man of Colbert’s strange influence, he was serenaded out the door by scores of political and cultural luminaries, ranging from Bill Clinton to Henry Kissinger, from George Lucas to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and even Big Bird. But while Stephen Colbert the character may be no more, Stephen Colbert the comedian is going on to bigger (can they be better?) things: He’s set to replace David Letterman in 2015 on CBS’ Late Show.
Bill Cosby: He started 2014 as he’s started so many years—as America’s favorite father figure. Sure, allegations had swirled for years that the comedian had drugged and raped women, but none of them stuck. Who would ever believe it of Bill Cosby? But then Cosby’s team tweeted out an old, Cosby Show-era picture of the comedian with the invitation to “Go Ahead, Meme Me.” Users did just that—many of them referencing those old, embarrassing allegations. Suddenly, Cosby was in the news for all the wrong reasons, and people began to wonder why they’d never taken his accusers seriously before. More and more women spoke up and the salacious stew heated up. And while Cosby has remained mostly mum on the subject, one thing seems certain: The country will never think of him as its favorite father ever again.
Elsa: Sure, Frozen came out in late 2013, but this ice princess remained one of pop culture’s hottest properties. In January, Frozen became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. In February, it collected a pair of Academy Awards. By May, the flick had become the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time, having earned nearly $1.3 billion worldwide. Oh, and it didn’t just make a splash at the movie house: The Frozen soundtrack, propelled by Idina Menzel’s smash hit “Let It Go” (she voices Elsa in the movie, as if you didn’t know), was almost 2014’s best-selling album, too, moving more than 3 million copies and losing out by one of Sven’s whiskers to Taylor Swift in the very last week of December. This Christmas—more than a year after the movie’s release—anything Frozen-related was still a big seller, with “Disney Frozen Snow Glow Elsa” topping the list.
Kim Kardashian: I’m beginning to feel a little sorry for Kim K. Has a media figure ever been so widely mocked and ridiculed? Maybe she’s OK with it since she seems so fond of bringing it on herself—and perhaps no more so than in 2014. For instance: She vowed to take 1,200 selfies (as PopSugar reminded us). She tried to “break the Internet” with her nude and mostly-nude photo shoot for the magazine Paper (some pundits said her greased-up derriere reminded them of a glazed donut). She married Kanye West—perhaps one of the only people who could stand toe-to-toe with Kim in a narcissism contest—and allegedly spent four days Photoshopping her wedding photos for Instagram. And just a few days ago, she admitted she doesn’t smile much for fear of getting wrinkles. But let’s give the lady some cultural credit. In an age obsessed with celebrity, she’s consistently one of the most talked-about, blogged-about personalities out there. Hey, her super-shallow online game—Kim Kardashian: Hollywood—made $43.3 million, even though the thing is technically free. Now that takes some talent.
Moses: This one-time Egyptian has been a pretty influential figure for, oh, several millennia now. But 2014 was a banner year, even by his lofty standards. He was the subject of a new, big-budget movie called Exodus: Gods and Kings (and played by none other than Christian “Batman” Bale himself). And earlier in the year, one of his major literary works (remember, Moses is credited with the writing of the Bible’s first five books) became the basis for yet another movie, this one called Noah. Granted, Christians and Jews were less than thrilled with some of the liberties that directors Darren Aronofsky (Noah) and Ridley Scott (Exodus) took with the original screenplay. But whether you liked the rock monsters or not, you’ve still got to admit that people were talking about Bible stories at the movies more than they have in decades.
Slender Man: In late May, two 12-year-old Wisconsin girls allegedly lured a friend of theirs into the woods for a game of hide-and-seek. Instead, they stabbed their victim 19 times and left her for dead—all in an effort to please Slender Man, a modern-day bogeyman who also is unquestionably an Internet-based fiction. Slender Man was created by Eric Knudsen for the online forum Something Awful. Since then, the grotesquely tall, faceless, well-dressed man (who often has tentacles coming out of his back) has taken on new life on the Internet. “He is everywhere, every day,” writes Newsweek’s Abigail Jones, “a specter of our anxieties about raising children in a world where technology reigns and the lines between reality and fantasy grow dimmer.” For two young girls, now awaiting trial for attempted murder, the line between reality and fantasy—with an assist from the Internet—grew very dim indeed.
Taylor Swift: Really, Taylor Swift could be on this list practically every year. So why not 2014? After all, she released her album 1989 in the fall, which marked a break from her country roots and a dive into unadulterated pop. For a musician to change genres is risky, given the prickly possessiveness of fans, but for Swift? No prob. While Plugged In took issue with some of the album’s content, fans snapped up 1.3 million copies of 1989 in its first week—setting an all-time sales record for Swift. And the last time an album went platinum in its first seven days was in 2012 … when Swift’s Red sold 1.2 million. Swift also spent 2014 taking on her own changing industry—first by penning a critical column for The Wall Street Journal, then by yanking her entire playlist off the ubiquitous music-streaming service Spotify. “I think there should be an inherent value placed on art,” she told Time. “I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify. Everybody’s complaining about how music sales are shrinking, but nobody’s changing the way they’re doing things.” A reminder: Swift is 25—an age when many of us are still trying to figure out how to move out of our parents’ basements.
Kevin Systrom: You might not know his name, but you’ve probably heard of his technological baby. Systrom is the co-founder and CEO of Instagram, a photo-sharing service with more than 300 million users. That figure is a three-fold increase since April of 2012, by the way, making it one of the fastest-growing social networks in the world. It’s particularly in vogue with teens: According to a fall poll by Piper Jaffray, 76% of teens said Instagram is one of their favorite social networks—up from 69% in the spring of 2014. Twitter ranks a distant second among teens (59%), and Facebook comes in third (at 45%). Good thing for Mark Zuckerberg that Facebook owns Instagram, right?
Robin Williams: He was Aladdin, Mork, Mrs. Doubtfire and Peter Pan. He was nominated for his first Oscar as Adrian Cronauer (Good Morning Vietnam) and won one as Sean Maguire (Good Will Hunting). And sometimes it seemed that the only person Robin was uncomfortable playing was … himself. On Aug. 11, Williams—the era’s most manic comic, and many say its best—died by his own hand. The world lost a great many talents in 2014, from the remarkable Philip Seymour Hoffman to the indomitable Joan Rivers. But for me personally, Williams’ loss was the hardest to bear. It certainly made his turn as Teddy Roosevelt in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb bittersweet. “I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world!” Williams, as John Keating, quoted Walt Whitman in Dead Poets Society. Williams’ own yawp brought smiles to our faces for decades … and sometimes tears to our eyes.
Shailene Woodley: It’s quite the achievement to star in a hit movie. But two? Released in the span of a few months? That’s the sort of year 2014 was for Shailene Woodley, who became its cinematic “it” girl. As Tris, she helped push Divergent to a $151-million domestic box office take. The Fault in Our Stars, wherein Woodley plays the sickly Hazel, earned another $125 million—not counting all the extra tissues she helped sell. She’s not a great spiritual or sexual role model for her young fans, unfortunately: “My religion is the earth, man,” she told Women’s Wear Daily, and she’s joked with reporters about how many times she’s lost her virginity onscreen (five). But she does have something meaningful to contribute when it comes to being real in an age of vetted sound bites and manufactured tweets. “I started hugging people because I was tired of fake interactions,” Woodley told Vulture. “You have only 30 seconds with a new person. I will give you a hug so you know I’m real, and then you’re real too. It helps to cut the bulls‑‑‑ and say, ‘Now—what do you really want to talk about?'” In 2014, apparently, a lot of people were talking about Woodley herself.
Recent Comments