As the holiday season approaches, now is a good time to make your New Year’s resolutions, future plans, and reflect on what is past. The year of 2024 has been one of the most eventful years over the past decade historically as much as culturally. It allowed us to reflect on our values and perspectives on life. This year we experienced both the Election and reforms in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in the US. Nonetheless, this year had much more to offer than just politics. As it turns out, 2024 had many significant pop-culture events like major music releases, the total solar eclipse, the Summer Olympics, and many others. Let’s see what The Oracle’s top cultural highlights of this year are.

News From Space

Surprisingly, 2024 was rich in space-related events. It began with the launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral on May 17th, which could be seen from our local Target parking lot. Even for the people not interested in space travel and developments, this launch was worth noting because anyone could observe it. For me, this symbolized the progress that we made over the past couple of decades in technology and it really made me think about the future. The most notable space-related event of the year, however, was the total solar eclipse that happened on April 8th this year. People all around the US gathered in parks and backyards to see the moon covering the sun, filling the streets with night-like darkness for four full minutes and then moved on with their lives. Another note-worthy event that happened this year is the Aurora seen over NYC and many other northern cities all around the world on October 10th. It was truly a divine experience seeing the sky filled with pink, blue, green, and purple lights. These events sum up the year from a scientific point of view, but what else did this year have to offer?

Cinema

2024 did not disappoint with its movie releases. Following the success of “Barbenheimer” in 2023, more and more filmmakers began playing into the double feature phenomenon. Glicked, a double feature of Gladiator II, starring Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal, and Wicked, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, hit the theaters on November 22nd. Another double feature set to come out this year on December 25nd is Babyratu, a combination of Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman, and Nosferatu, starring Lily-Rose Depp. Both of these versions of classic “Barbenheimer” appeal to different audiences, nonetheless, are equally perfect. Another noteworthy release of this year was Zoe Kravitz’s directorial debut with Blink Twice. Her film explores the themes of class marginalization and abuse of power caused by the feeling of impunity assumed by the rich, sparking many conversations about her way of conveying the message and the issue she uncovered with her film. Many other significant movies came out in 2024 including Dune Part 2, I Saw The TV Glow (remarked by Martin Scorcese himself), The Substance, Anora, and Challengers. All of these are very complex movies with beautiful cinematography and deep topics and are a must-watch. Animated movie industry also had quite a comeback this year. In 2024, Coraline celebrated its 50th anniversary, releasing a special 3D version of the film into theaters all around the country. Disney worked extra hard, announcing the release of Zootopia 2, Moana 2, Frozen 3, Toy Story 5, prequel to the Lion King titled Mufasa: The Lion King, and much more. Viewers are excited to once again dive into the incredible stories of classic Disney movies reimagined, for many, reminding them of their childhood. 

The Summer Olympics

Another notable event that happened in 2024 was the Summer Olympics taking place in Paris. As per usual, the US ended up with the most overall medal count, receiving 126 medals, 40 of which were gold, 44 silver, and 42 bronze. Many of the American athletes gained notoriety on the internet, such as Ilona Maher who became a niche celebrity, recognized for her active body-positivity stance and incredible rugby skills. Another viral moment was Katie Ledecky finishing the 1,500-meter freestyle swim with such a large margin in time compared to the rest of the athletes, she appeared to be the only one in frame at the finish line, taking home a total of two gold medals. 

The US gymnastics team has probably had the most talked-about performances at the Olympics this year. Simone Biles, AKA “the GOAT”, took the Olympics by storm taking home two gold and one silver medal, also contributing to the overall women’s gymnastics team gold medal. US Men’s gymnastics, on the other hand, had a tough few olympiads in the previous years, so this year they were hoping to get back on track and at least try and catch up with the women’s team. They ended up receiving that bronze, all thanks to Stephen Nedoroscik. He went viral on social media because he was sent to the Olympics for just one specialty, which was the pommel horse. The entire men’s gymnastics section he spent on the bench talking to his teammates, rehearsing his routine, and, honestly, having the time of his life. Then, when the time came, he pulled off his glasses, performed the most flawless routine, collected his bronze, and… went back to the bench. Internet users started jokingly calling him “the pommel horse guy” and “Clark Kent”, referring to the superhero hiding in disguise of a nerd, while NBC featured an actual countdown from the beginning of the event until Nedoroscik’s performance. 

Other viral moments include Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen, AKA the Muffin Man, who earned a lot of new fans by posting many videos dedicated to his love of the Olympic Village chocolate muffins. The most popular moment of the 2024 Olympics, however, became the Turkish pistol sharpshooter Yusef Dikec, who, unlike his competitors, arrived with no special equipment like eye cover or special glasses and casually won silver for the Turkish team with a hand in his pocket. His relaxed stance and simple attitude resonated with the internet users giving Dikec the deserved recognition, which put him on track to committing to getting gold in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. These were all the most talked about moments at the time of the Olympics, which later resurfaced on the internet, inspiring many Halloween costumes. The Olympics gave us many significant internet moments and became the highlight of the year.

Music World

Out of all the things 2024 had to offer, the music industry has arguably had the most iconic season since the release of Born This Way by Lady Gaga in 2011. Pop artists came out to please their audiences with fresh recordings like Ariana Grande with Eternal Sunshine, Sabrina Carpenter with Short n’ Sweet, Billie Eilish with Hit Me Hard and Soft, and Tyler, the Creator with Chromakopia. Social media users jokingly say that with this many pop music releases, they fear for the uneventful next couple of years. The most unexpected release is probably Ke$ha’s return to the charts with electro-pop hit Joyride, following her settlement of a lawsuit and emancipation from Dr. Luke. 

However, THE return of the year has arguably been Charli XCX’s release of her dance-pop album titled Brat. This record contains 15 songs in which the young artist explores the themes of family trauma, love, fame, and womanhood. The promotion for this album began in February of 2024 with the release of a single that will eventually show up on the tracklist of Brat, titled Von Dutch. It teased her listeners and predicted the release of new music. Eventually, after many other clever marketing tactics like filming a star-stacked music video on one of the other songs from the album and changing the covers of the previous Charli’s albums to the ones fitting a specific style of Brat’s cover, on June 7th Brat was released. Catchy songs quickly went viral for their lively beat and simple lyrics talking about complicated topics. Her songs unearthed an old conflict with another pop artist Lorde, to whom Charli XCX has been constantly compared over the years, and talked about the harsh realities of being a public figure. The release of this album began a movement on social media defined by lime green posters and clothing, blackout sunglasses, and a hedonistic lifestyle. “Brat” was crowned the word of the year by Collins dictionary defining someone with a confident and independent attitude. The phenomenon of “Brat” took social media by wave and it can arguably be named the defining pop-culture moment of the year.

What a ride has 2024 been!!  We started with astonishing space events, seeing the launch of an actual rocket and northern lights from our homes, then dove into the world of athletics at the Summer Olympics, all supported by the releases of incredible music and films and even saw the rise of a new internet phenomenon. Seeing this only leaves us to expect an even better following year with as many iconic and interesting pop-culture moments and significant events.