2024 is coming to an end and once the year is gone and over, there are going to be plenty of moments that I’ll remember it for. In good news, it was the year that Sabrina Carpenter *finally* received her flowers as an artist and arguably blew up with the release of the summer pop hit “Espresso.” 2024 also saw some breakout moments online, including the introduction of “Very Demure, Very Mindful,” and the viral “looking for a man in finance” audio. It was also the year that Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election, marking the forthcoming return of former President Donald Trump. Yikes.
It’s safe to say 2024 wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but there were a few standout moments in pop culture history for which this historic year will certainly be remembered. From the baby obsessed with the luxurious Four Seasons hotel in Orlando to Taylor Swift breaking records on records, here are the 19 biggest pop culture moments and trends of 2024.
- Taylor Swift became the first and only artist to win AOTY four times.
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Admittedly, I love it when the Grammys roll around each year. Sure, there are always snubs and surprises, like Ariana Grande’s eternal sunshine barely receiving any praise from the Recording Academy. However, before the 2025 nominations were announced, Swift made history at the year’s 2024 ceremony, becoming the first and only artist to win the coveted Album of the Year award four times.
Before Midnights snatched up the win over the likes of SZA’s SOS and Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, Swift had won the award for Fearless, 1989, and Folklore. Notably, Swift triumphed over the likes of Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon, and Stevie Wonder, whom she previously tied with for three AOTY wins. Whether you’re a Swiftie or not, there’s no denying that the 2024 Grammys were a history-making moment for the music industry and another notch on Swift’s belt.
- “Who TF Did I Marry?”
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Reesa Teesa coined spilling the tea with 50 different TikTok videos back in February when she spilled the details of her split from her ex-husband in her viral “Who TF Did I Marry?” series. Yes, Teesa was the first creator to popularize this format that feels like a FaceTime with one of my best girlfriends explaining the story of her finding out her man wasn’t who he said he was. Her TikTok series went so viral that it’s being adapted into a TV series with Natasha Rothwell attached to star and executive produce. That’s how you turn a negative into a positive, y’all.
- I’m looking for a man in finance…
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Yes, 2024 birthed a slew of pop hits and viral moments, but TikTok creator Girl on Couch did both of these things when she talked about “looking for a man in finance.” The video seemed to be a joke with Girl on Couch talking about how she was looking for a partner who worked in finance with a “trust fund” and who stood at “6’5” with “blue eyes.”
It was a silly idea that she thought could have been the “song of the summer,” but it actually took flight when her audio was remixed by DJ and producer Tensteps (@tenstepsofficial), who certainly transformed the track into a bop.
- The song of the summer: Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.”
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Girl on Couch may have thought she released the song of the summer, but there’s no denying that Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” was the biggest song of the season — and arguably, the year. A few days before Carpenter was set to perform at Coachella in April 2024, she dropped a few teasers on Instagram for the single before her latest coffee-inspired song was released right before her big performance.
We simply couldn’t have anticipated just how big “Espresso” was going to be, but after I listened to it for the first time, I knew she’d struck gold. The song’s success came off of Carpenter’s virality with tracks like “Nonsense” and “Feather,” but Carpenter catapulted herself into mainstream admiration with “Espresso.” Now, the track has earned two Grammy noms, including Record of the Year and I wouldn’t be surprised if she walked away with the win.
- Chappell Roan’s transformative viral performance at Coachella.
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While Carpenter exploded into the mainstream zeitgeist this year, the same (and more) can be said about Chappell Roan, your favorite artist’s favorite artist. At the top of 2024, Roan picked recognition while opening for Olivia Rodrigo on the GUTS World Tour. Roan also dropped her ultra-catchy song “HOT TO GO!” and its accompanying “Y.M.C.A.”-mirrored dance. From there, Roan created Coachella’s most viral moment with her emotional performance of “Good Luck Babe!”
The performance quickly went viral, showcasing not only the power of the song’s lyrics that touch on compulsory heterosexuality but also the vigor of Roan as an artist and performer. One video of the performance has amassed over 20 million views, and fans were quick to call out the dynamism of Roan in the comments, with one user summing up the performance perfectly: “we are seeing the beginning of a huge career.” Since then, Roan has exploded as an artist, and is nominated for six Grammy Awards, including three for “Good Luck Babe!” and the always exciting Best New Artist category.
- The Kendrick vs. Drake beef.
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ICYMI, Drake is “Not Like Us,” according to Kendrick Lamar. Yes, Drake and Lamar had the rap feud of the year, with their beef actually beginning long before they began firing back and forth at each other with diss tracks this year. After Drake claimed he, Lamar, and J. Cole were “the big three” in his 2023 collaboration with Cole on “First Person Shooter,” Lamar used his 2024 track “Like That” with Future and Metro Boomin’s to affirm that “it’s just big me.”
In April, Drake released his diss track “Push Ups” and the subsequent “Taylor Made Freestyle.” From there, Lamar responded with “Euphoria” and “6:16 in LA,” with Drake once again releasing another rebuttal with “Family Matters.” Lamar then released his track “Not Like Us,” which blew up,and notably broke the record for the most weeks spent at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs charts. Now, we can look forward to Lamar performing the track on one of the biggest stages at the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show.
- The Four Seasons baby.
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Every year, there seems to be a new baby going viral online. This year, we had the pleasure of meeting the esteemed Four Seasons Orlando baby after a video of a man, a baby, and a toddler being asked if they wanted to visit the high-class hotel in Florida began making waves online. When asked, all three of them (including the baby who looked to be barely a year old with only a diaper on) raised its hands and replied, “Me!”
The clip has accumulated over 85 million views, leading the family of the Four Seasons baby, whose real name is Kate Wise, to take many trips to various Four Seasons as the hotel chain’s unofficial brand ambassador.
- “This is going to ruin the tour…”
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In June 2024, Justin Timberlake was arrested after getting pulled over for allegedly being intoxicated. That headline made waves in the news, but Timberlake’s response to the incident is what had everyone talking this year. An anonymous source told Page Six that the officer who pulled the singer over didn’t know who he was and “Justin said under his breath, ‘This is going to ruin the tour.’”The cop replied, ‘What tour?’ Justin said, ‘The world tour.’”
Whether this exchange happened between Timberlake and the cop or not, the rumor that he said his arrest was “going to ruin the tour” quickly caught fire online, with everyone agreeing it was an amusing, rather out-of-touch thing to mention at the moment.
- Brat summer.
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I may be biased, but I’d have to say the biggest pop culture moment of 2024 was undoubtedly Brat Summer. Of course, I’m talking about the release of Charli xcx’s latest album, Brat, where she notably claimed the color neon green and re-championed party girls everywhere. Jam-packed with mainstream hits like “360” and “Apple,” which also prompted the TikTok dance of the summer, I could make a case for why each track on the album is a modern masterpiece.
Charli didn’t stop there, though. She fed us all with her remix album Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not. On this project, we got her Grammy-nominated hit “Guess” with Queen Billie Eilish and the collab of the century with “Girl, so confusing,” where Charli and Lorde finally worked it out on the remix. In simpler terms, here’s how I see the impact of Charli’s latest record: The Louvre has the Mona Lisa, and 2024 has Brat. It’s that simple.
- Love Island USA season 6.
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As a longtime fan of Love Island, I had a feeling Love Island USA Season 6 was going to *hit* when Ariana Madix was announced as the show’s new host. Turns out, I was totally right, and the show produced viral moment after viral moment all summer long. With fans obsessed with the cast, the show’s unique format, and the endless drama it generated, Season 6 really did its big one, and I’m hoping Season 7 will be just as juicy.
- The 2024 Paris Olympics.
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Every four years, the Summer Olympics roll around, and this year’s games in Paris were full of standout moments. 2024 became the first year break dancing was an official sport, and Australia’s very own Raygun Gunn simultaneously intrigued and confused everyone with her dance moves. On the flipside, USA athletes like Ilona Maher and Pommel Horse Guy (aka Stephen Nedoroscik) managed to win over the internet with their skills in their respective sports and personalities outside of athletics. Both Maher and Nedoroscik were so beloved by fans that they went on to compete in Season 33 of Dancing with the Stars, where they both made it to the finals and finished in 2nd and 4th, respectively.
- Being very demure and very mindful.
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Everyone and their mother was obsessed with being very demure, very mindful this fall, but Jools Lebron is the creator behind the phenomenon. The trend took off after Lebron posted a video sharing with her followers how to do their makeup “very demure, very mindful” for work.
It started as a savvy play on words that the internet ate up, with everyone including Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis taking part in being demure and mindful. To this day, I still see people talking about how courteous and modest they are, and we have Lebron to thank for that!
- Lana Del Rey’s secret wedding to an alligator tour guide.
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Having a secret wedding to an alligator tour guide months after the world finds out about your hidden romance is just so Lana Del Rey, am I right? After meeting her husband, Jeremy Dufrene, in 2019 during a swamp tour, multiple outlets began reporting that he and Del Rey were a couple in back in August. Then, just one month after reports of their relationship surfaced, the pair got married in a small wedding in Louisiana right by the bayou. Truly, it was one of the wildest headlines to some, but it honestly made sense to me.
- Baby Moo Deng won over the internet’s heart.
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While LDR was busy planning a secret wedding, Moo Deng was preoccupied with becoming the internet’s new favorite animal. Hailing from Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo, clips of an adorable two-month-old Moo Deng (which means bouncy pig, BTW) began circulating online in September 2024. After the pygmy hippopotamus’ caretaker began posting videos of her, everyone and their mother fell in love with the adorable, sometimes sassy hippo, myself included.
- Liam Payne’s passing.
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On Oct. 16, 2024, One Direction’s Liam Payne passed after reportedly falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I remember being in the drive-thru when I came across the news on Instagram, not sure how to feel about the headline I had read. Payne’s untimely passing has been much talked about on social media and in the press, with Directioners everywhere coming together to mourn the loss of the beloved artist.
- The 2024 presidential election.
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There’s no way I could discuss 2024 without taking note of the havoc that was the 2024 election. Former President Trump embarking on another presidential run was historical in the first place (for the wrong reasons, I must note), let alone him actually winning the presidency. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s late withdrawal from the race led to Vice President Kamala Harris taking on the Democratic nominee. VP Harris may not have won the presidency, but she and her team had a hell of a campaign, which smartly harped on the success of Brat Summer and championed women’s rights in the United States.
- Celebrity lookalike competitions popped up everywhere.
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One of the most random trends of 2024 saw everyday civilians suddenly professing their physical likeness to celebrities after a Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition popped up in New York City on Oct. 27. Seriously, the mock contest went so viral that Chalamet himself attended the event. Since then, a slew of similar A-list replica competitions have popped up around the world. There’s not a direct rhyme or reason as to why these lookalike contests were happening, but I have to say, it was one of the most fun, lighthearted trends of the year.
- Holding space for Wicked.
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Wicked came out in late November 2024, but that didn’t stop its cast from creating a slew of viral moments, on and off the big screen. Grande and Cynthia Erivo were incredibly emotional during the press tour, which caught some fans off guard. However, the most viral moment of the tour had to be when journalist Tracy E. Gilchrist informed the co-stars that “people [were] taking the lyrics to ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that.”
The clip from Gilchrist’s interview began circulating online at the end of November, solidifying it as one of the latest (yet still impactful) pop culture moments of the year.
- The Eras Tour *officially* came to an end.
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After 632 long days on the road, Taylor Swift’s historic Eras Tour officially closed out on Dec. 8, 2024, in Vancouver, Canada. The tour began back in March 2023, and saw Swift cycle through all of her musical eras. ICYMI, she began the tour still in a relationship with Joe Alwyn. Since then, she’s snatched up two Grammy wins and released a brand new album that occupied its own set during the tour. Swift notably broke several records relating to the Eras Tour during its run, including becoming the first tour to gross $1 billion, rounding out with over $2 billion in ticket sales. Long live the legendary Eras Tour.
I, for one, can’t wait to see what pop culture moments 2025 has in store for us.