2022 was definitely a year to remember when it comes to pop culture news, whether it was Harry Styles and Florence Pugh starring in “Don’t Worry Darling”, or the release of Taylors Swift’s “Midnights.” All in all, it has been a year filled with both drama and excitement.
2022 brought some amazing new movies to the big screen such as “Top Gun Maverick” and “The Batman”. Disney’s Pixar dropped two major hits, “Turning Red” released on March 1st, and “Lightyear” released June 17th. Both movies climbed up the charts, along with several others from this year. The movie “Elvis” was another fan favorite starring Austin Butler as Elvis Presley himself. The movie goes through Elvis’ life and shows the hardships of show business. Another popular movie from 2022 was Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, the second movie of the Black Panther series. With Chadwick Boseman’s passing in 2020, the Black Panther legacy was carried on by his co-stars, including Angela Bassett, Michael B Jordan, Letitia Wright, and Lupita Nyong’o. These movies have made records, and moviegoers are very pleased with the year’s productions.
2022 also brought some interesting trends. Some were very beneficial, such as Wordle and the hilarious TikTok tortilla challenge. One of the most popular trends was the butter board— a charcuterie board filled with butter. People garnished their butter in fun herbs and spices, and the new snack took the world by storm. However, some trends were not as exciting. For example, the NyQuil chicken challenge was initiated on Tik Tok when people began to cook their chicken in- you guessed it- NyQuil, calling it “sleepy chicken.” Eventually, the Food and Drug Administration issued a serious warning due to its negative effects. Another bad trend was the Orbeez Challenge. This challenge had teens loading water bead guns with orbeez and shooting them at anyone and everyone. Although they look harmless, when shot in these guns, they can do serious damage and even break skin. There were many reports of injury from this trend. To make matters worse, teens froze the beads and it caused even more serious injuries. Some teens were even arrested for shooting the beads at innocent bypassers. However, one of the biggest trends of the year involved people all over the world all at the same time; BeReal is an app that allows people to take a picture at the same time all over the world. The app has become of the most popular apps of 2022.
Celebrity news was wild this year. All of the drama started when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscar Awards. Kanye West was trending for the majority of the year after his divorce with Kim Kardashian, the loss of millions of fans, and new remarriage to Yeezy Designer, Bianca Censori in 2023, who people claim to be a “knock-off Kim”. He initially lost fans (and his wife) due to anti-semitic comments over the year, and has lost partnership with many brands, including his Adidas-Yeezy partnership. This means the end of his shoe production, which will cost him millions of dollars. After Kim’s split with Kanye, she moved on to 29 year old actor Pete Davidson. The couple then split later in the year. Another celebrity scandal was the “Don’t Worry Darling” drama, rumors spread that Harry Styles allegedly spit on Chris Pine. However, these rumors were debunked and declared false. However, he did split up with actress Olivia Wilde, who was 10 years older than him.
Unfortunately, there were also many celebrity deaths in 2022. One of the most shocking of the deaths was the unexpected death of Queen Elizabeth, who passed away September 8th from old age, as revealed by her death certificate. Other celebrity deaths of the year include beloved actor Leslie Jordan, Ivana Trump, ex-wife of Donald Trump, and top-scoring soccer legend, Pelé. Another shocking death was that of Bob Saget. The “Full House” star died January 9th from a head injury in a hotel room.
The music of 2022 was also phenomenal and left fans satisfied. The song that topped the charts is “As It Was” by Harry Styles, which was a part of his album, “Harry’s House”. Not only was his album successful, but also the return of massive pop artist, Taylor Swift. Swift dropped her album, “Midnights” which immediately climbed the charts. She also announced her tour, “The Eras Tour,” which sparked controversy from tickets. Ticketmaster caused an issue with ticket sales and angered many fans. However, the issues are currently being settled in court. Beyonce has also made a comeback with her album, “Renaissance.” The album has quickly hit the top of the charts, including songs like, “BREAK MY SOUL.” This was exciting for Beyonce fans considering her last album was in 2019 when she dropped “Homecoming.”
All in all, 2022 was a year that will not be forgotten. From fun trends to juicy drama, the year definitely did not disappoint.