Brat Summer feels like yesterday, and Raygun feels like a lifetime ago, yet neither of these things are true as we reach the end of 2024.
To help make sense of another baffling 12 months, we’ve picked the pop culture moments that have kept us sane, occupied and, most importantly, distracted this year.
Sad Oompa Loompa: The Willy Wonka Experience
The year began strongly when photos began circulating in February of an incredibly depressing industrial warehouse in Scotland that claimed to be “The Willy Wonka Experience”.
The sad Oompa Loompa at the disastrous Willy Wonka chocolate factory experience in Glasgow, Scotland, which instantly became a viral sensation.
Taking a leaf out of Fyre Fest’s book, the experience was billed as an interactive exhibit paying homage to Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Instead, fans rocked up to a draughty warehouse with sad-looking employees and a half-inflated bouncy castle. Ten out of 10, no notes.
The long, hot Brat summer
If 2024 had a colour, it would definitely be brat green. While we might have been shivering through winter, it was hard to avoid Brat Summer, with British musician Charli XCX releasing one of the most-played albums of the northern summer, with no shortage of TikTok hype to go with it. Brat was everywhere, and everyone wanted a piece of it – even Vice President Kamala Harris – until it was over, with Charli XCX taking to social media in September to declare the season was finished.
Rise of the popgirls: Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter
This was the year popgirls seized the narrative and brought us along for the ride. Arguably, the biggest winner of 2024 was Chappell Roan, who told the crowd at Coachella “I’m your favourite artist’s favourite artist”.
Joining her atop the list was pop’s newest pint-sized princess, Sabrina Carpenter. After touring with Taylor Swift, Carpenter exploded onto the scene off the back of her album Short n’ Sweet. Think we’ve seen the last of these two ladies? Good luck, Babe.
Chappell Roan, Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter (left to right) are bringing us the fun we’ve been missing.Credit: Compiled by Monique Westermann.
Rap battle: Kendrick v Drake
Meanwhile, the two most powerful men in the rap game lit up the internet by engaging in an old-fashioned feud. The battle between Drake, rap’s pop-loving poster boy, and Kendrick Lamar, the thinking man’s rapper of choice, was almost too bizarre to believe. For weeks on end, the pair traded tracks and barbs before Kendrick finished it with the stinging rebuke record Not Like Us.
Drake v Kendrick: Nothing makes a rapper less cool than the shameless publicity grab that is the rap feud.
The Hawk Tuah Girl
Every so often, the internet serves up a viral star that no one saw coming. Enter: the Hawk Tuah Girl. Haliey Welch was just another face in the crowd, walking through downtown Nashville, when she was approached by a pair of YouTubers for an on-camera chat.
Hawk Tuah girl Haliey Welch (left).
In response to the question about her go-to move in the bedroom, Welch paused, laughed, and then said: “Aw, you gotta give him that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang – you get me?” And so a star was born. Fast-forward to today, and Welch has more than a million Instagram followers and her very own podcast.
From Hawk Tuah to Ruin the Tour
Spare a thought for Justin Timberlake, who was arrested for driving while intoxicated this year. His exchange with the police offer (who didn’t know who he was) went viral after being published in Page Six. “Justin said under his breath, ‘this is going to ruin the tour’. The cop replied, ‘what tour?’ Justin said, ‘the world tour’.”
Sent from iPhen: Baby Reindeer
First came the Netflix series, then the hype, then the amateur sleuthing, then came the Piers Morgan interview, then the lawsuit, and then … you get it. Baby Reindeer was a pop culture phenomenon like no other.
Created by comedian Richard Gadd, the Netflix series introduced the world to Martha, a character allegedly based on Gadd’s real-life stalker. The series became a smash hit, but when the internet unearthed the “real” Martha, Gadd soon learned that the truth can be stranger (and more costly) than fiction.
Richard Gadd plays a bartender whose life is invaded by an obsessive, lonely patron in Baby Reindeer, which is based on his one-man show of the same name.Credit: Netflix
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour
Australia got its taste of Taylor-mania when the world’s biggest pop star touched down in Australia in February, and she didn’t disappoint. With seven sold-out shows in Sydney and Melbourne (and two hilarious visits to Sydney’s second-best zoo), for a moment, Swift had the entire nation captivated with her every move. The Eras tour had a cultural and social impact that will remain hard to beat, cementing Swift’s reputation (ha!) as our most influential artist. In total, Swift played 149 shows across five continents and 51 cities on the tour.
Taylor Swift performs at an Eras Tour concert in Sydney in February.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Of those shows, 62 occurred in the US across 23 cities. The remaining 90 were in Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Canada. Swift played her final show on December 8 in Vancouver, meaning the Eras era is over. Thankfully, friendship bracelets are forever.
Katy Perry ruins feminism
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While it was a big year for pop girls, one of music’s long-time leading ladies missed the mark. Katy Perry’s much-hyped return was a massive story for all the wrong reasons when her single Woman’s World snowballed into a punchline. The video saw Perry in full #GirlBoss mode, on a construction site wearing a bikini and screaming nonsensical lyrics like, “She’s a winner, champion, superhuman, No.1!” Unsurprisingly, it became Perry’s worst-performing single release from an album in her 16-year career.
Raygun breaks internet
You may feel like you’re on the verge of a breakdown, but no one broke harder in 2024 than Rachel Gunn, aka Raygun. Competing for Australia in breakdancing at the Paris Olympics, Raygun was delightfully out of her depth, her unconventional (and sometimes un-coordinated) moves transforming her into a global star. Divisive she may have been, but Raygun reminded us all to never give up on our dreams, even if we’re not that good. Judges awarded her zero points in Paris.
Timothee Chalamet crashes Timothee Chalamet lookalike competition
Trust Timothee Chalamet to make a Timothee Chalamet lookalike contest all about himself. What started as a dumb-but-funny event in New York (the contest winner was to receive $50) became a global news story when the real Timothee Chalamet rocked up.
Finalists Miles Mitchell (left) and Zander Dueve (centre) shake hands at the Timothee Chalamet lookalike contest.Credit: AP
He didn’t win, but his presence motivated other contest organisers to host their own lookalike competitions in the hope that their main subject would also make a surprise appearance. This year, we’ve had Jacob Elordi lookalikes compete in Melbourne and a Heath Ledger contest in Sydney.
The downfall of P. Diddy
Rumours of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ alleged behaviour had been doing the rounds for years, but in 2024, the whispers resulted in a very real federal indictment that led to Diddy’s arrest. Combs, 55, faces charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Diddy has pleaded not guilty and is due to stand trial in May next year. He is also facing multiple civil lawsuits and denies the allegations against him.
The death of Liam Payne
One Directioners were in mourning when news broke on October 16 that Liam Payne had died after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires. Three people have since been charged. The charges include abandoning a person after death and supplying narcotics.
Payne, 31, became one of the most recognisable names in pop after appearing on The X Factor and rising to fame with the boy band One Direction in the 2010s. The singer’s shocking death was met with widespread disbelief, including from former bandmates Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan.
Tributes to former One Direction singer Liam Payne near the hotel where he was found dead.Credit: Natacha Pisarenko AP
Angry Angry Hippo: Moo Deng
Grumpy, angry and prone to biting, if ever there was an animal that symbolised how we felt in 2024, it would be Moo Deng, a pygmy hippopotamus living in Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand. Moo Deng, which translates to bouncy pork, became a star in September after images of her went viral online. Audiences fell in love with Moo Deng’s take-no-prisoners attitude and general apathy towards everything and everyone. Since taking the world by storm, a line of very popular merchandise has, of course, been added. Treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen, Moo Deng.
Rise up, Rodent Man
In sad news for conventionally attractive men, this was the year that everyone decided looking like a rodent was hot. If you had an angular face and a toothy smile, chances are the internet was in love with you sometime around mid-June. Among the hot rodent men leading the movement were Jeremy Allen White, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor, the above-mentioned Timothee Chalamet, and Matty Healy.
The Rat Pack 2.0: Timothee Chalamet, Josh O’Connor and Jeremy Allen White.Credit: Getty
Holding space for the Wicked press tour
The global press tour of the highly anticipated screen adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked ended up being the best part of the whole production. The film’s lead stars, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, turned the junket into an exercise in meme-making, peaking with the now infamous holding space interview. After Out reporter Tracy E. Gilchrist told Erivo people online had been “holding space” for the song Defying Gravity, Erivo appeared moved (if not confused). That triggered Grande to offer support by holding Erivo’s fingernail and stroking it. While the entire episode was less than 30 seconds long, it became immortalised on the internet, and so too did the words “holding space for defying gravity”.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo during an interview with Out on the Wicked press tour in November.Credit: Out.com
Very demure, very mindful
Coined by TikTok creator Jools Lebron, the phrase “very demure, very mindful” started as internet-speak to describe anything or anyone mindful, considerate, sweet and cute. Since then, it’s become a way of life, a state of being and an entire movement. Don’t believe me? Ask your Gen Z niece or nephew.
Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Instagram at @thomasalexandermitchell and on Twitter @_thmitchell.
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