Decades
Decades
[A timeline across the top of the box marks decades from 1960 to 2030, the labels are above the line and the ticks marking each decade are below.]
[Label: 1960] 60s Music; 60s Fashion; 60s Movies; 60s Culture
[Label: 1970] 70s Music; 70s Fashion; 70s Movies; 70s Culture
[Label: 1980] 80s Music; 80s Fashion; 80s Movies; 80s Culture
[Label: 1990] 90s Music; 90s Fashion; 90s Movies; 90s Culture
[Label: 2000 and 2010] [Items grouped over two decades.] Fashion; Culture; Music; Movies
[Label: 2020] [The text is in light grey font.] 20s Music?; 20s Fashion?; 20s Movies?; 20s Culture?
[Label: 2030]
[Caption below the panel:] It's weird how for 20 years we stopped grouping our cultural memories by decade because "2000s" is ambiguous and and "Aughts" and "Teens" never really stuck.


This comic shows, by use of a timeline, an interesting phenomenon where music, fashion, movies and culture created between the years 2000 and 2020 are not commonly grouped into the decade in which they were produced like previous decades. The comic asserts the reason for this is the lack of a single clear term to describe these decades, stating that the term " 2000s " is ambiguous (as it could refer to the decade, century or millennium as a whole) and the terms " Aughts " and "Teens" never became the widely accepted terms for these decades.
The time-line in the comic stretches into the future (as of the time of publication) and attempts to name the 2020-2029 decade as the 20s, but does so with an uncertain question mark, presumably because it's (presently) an open question whether this dating convention will be reinstated after a 20-year pause. As the comic points out, common vernacular has managed to operate without clear terms for that grouping for 17 years, and that may have left enough of a mark on our thinking that we'll simply continue to operate in that way. There's an argument to be made grouping culture by decades is fairly arbitrary and not essential in cultural discussions. It should also be considered that that "the twenties" is still occasionally used to refer to the 1920s, and so reusing it to refer to the 2020s could be a source of confusion. It's not impossible that decade-based grouping will fall out of favor altogether in the 21st century.
It should perhaps also be noted that culture (particularly when associated with young people) in the 2000s and 2010s is often termed " millennial culture ", although this term frequently comes with negative connotations.
The title text talks about Randall's local radio station. Until the 90s, they were able to use clear decade groupings to classify music. Once the year 2000 hit, they began saying "today", avoiding aughts or 2000s, which, as Randall says, never gained popular support. Instead of adopting a term for the 2010s, they simply continued to use "today" to refer to everything after the 1990s (this practice has been fairly common on American radio stations). Randall expresses interest in what change they will include in the 2020s (changing to the 20s or continuing their format), but includes a comedic jab at radio, suggesting that the medium might not last that long. The increasing speed and ubiquity of the internet, combined with compact digital music storage, has made radio programming increasingly obsolete in the United States and other wealthy countries. That said the joke is still based on exaggeration to an extent, since commercial radio is unlikely to disappear entirely in the next three years, but is likely to become less and less viable as an industry over time and what remains or springs from the ashes will likely shift radically in its format and delivery.
Twenties were discussed again later in 2249: I Love the 20s .
[A timeline across the top of the box marks decades from 1960 to 2030, the labels are above the line and the ticks marking each decade are below.]
[Label: 1960] 60s Music; 60s Fashion; 60s Movies; 60s Culture
[Label: 1970] 70s Music; 70s Fashion; 70s Movies; 70s Culture
[Label: 1980] 80s Music; 80s Fashion; 80s Movies; 80s Culture
[Label: 1990] 90s Music; 90s Fashion; 90s Movies; 90s Culture
[Label: 2000 and 2010] [Items grouped over two decades.] Fashion; Culture; Music; Movies
[Label: 2020] [The text is in light grey font.] 20s Music?; 20s Fashion?; 20s Movies?; 20s Culture?
[Label: 2030]
[Caption below the panel:] It's weird how for 20 years we stopped grouping our cultural memories by decade because "2000s" is ambiguous and and "Aughts" and "Teens" never really stuck.

