When we asked our DAILY TRIBUNE digital team to dig through the noise and pull out what really trended each year, they came back with more than just viral moments. They brought back a timeline showing how every shift in pop culture, tech, fashion and fandom shaped our collective sense of cool, cringe and survival instinct. It also reminded us how we cling to humor when the world feels too close to “burning.”
Between 2000 and 2005, the Philippines and the rest of the world saw cultural shifts that redefined how people dressed, connected, entertained themselves and built communities. While politics and economics filled the headlines, daily life was shaped quietly but deeply by fashion, gaming, TV, music and our first taste of the digital age.
At the start of the new millennium, Y2K fears vanished fast and gave way to streetwear and youth fashion. Metallic tops, low-rise jeans, cargo pants, butterfly clips and spaghetti-strap camisoles filled department stores. In the Philippines, the “barkada” street style came alive with oversized shirts and branded sneakers. Bandanas, crimped hair, jelly sandals and G-Shock watches gave teens their own language. This was the start of a national style with a mix of hip-hop, punk and Asian pop.
Internet cafés popped up everywhere as online gaming took hold. Titles like Ragnarok Online, Counter-Strike, MU Online and FlyFF turned digital spaces into the new tambayan. By 2003, Dota, a custom Warcraft III map, crept in and by 2005 ruled every barkada’s after-school plan. These cafés did more than host games, they fueled snack rituals and spur-of-the-moment tourneys that shaped a generation’s social life.
Entertainment kept up with the times. In 2003, Taiwanese drama Meteor Garden took over TV screens, bringing Asianovelas into the mainstream. With it came the “chinito” crush and school-uniform looks that redefined beauty trends. Korean dramas like Winter Sonata soon followed, pulling in huge primetime audiences and setting new standards for what young love looked like on screen.
Back then, VCDs and pirated DVDs were king. DVD players were household must-haves and weekends meant movie marathons. Viva Hot Babes pushed pop culture limits while novelty OPM hits and danceable jeepney anthems played in canteens and tricycles. By 2005, alternative and emo rock replaced novelty songs. Hale, Sponge Cola and Kamikazee filled school fair lineups and rewrote the soundtrack of teenage heartbreak.
Fashion evolved as quickly as the playlists. Late 90s grunge eased into early 2000s urban glam. Bubble hems, wide belts, trucker hats and baguette bags found their place in teen closets. Thrift shopping quietly rose in university circles, setting the scene for today’s ukay-ukay boom. Divisoria stalls mixed low-rise jeans and tube tops with knockoff Adidas jackets and faux luxury bags.
By 2005, YouTube launched and unknowingly set up the decade ahead. But even before content turned global, the Philippines lived in a hybrid world of slam books and Friendster messages, mix CDs swapped alongside sweet text messages. Emo fringes showed up in both rock bars and school hallways.
The digital shift sped up in 2006 with MySpace. Part blog, part personal stage, it let teens build bios, show off playlists and claim their own corner of the internet. Friendster faded into the background as MySpace crowned new music stars and pop culture bloggers.
Then came the 2007 arrival of the first iPhone. Steve Jobs made good on the idea that a phone, music player and internet gadget could fit in one hand. It turned Apple into a mobile giant and changed how people listened, called and scrolled.
By 2008, the Beijing Olympics had the world glued to their TVs. Michael Phelps ruled the pool, Kobe Bryant won his first gold medal and Carli Lloyd’s extra-time goal sealed a victory in women’s soccer. China hosted for the first time and 87 countries took home medals.
A year later, the world stood still when Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, passed away in 2009. His songs, dance moves and influence had shaped music across continents for decades.
The 2010s opened with One Direction stealing teenage hearts worldwide. The boy band rode the social media boom, dropping hits that defined school dances, summer trips and heartbreaks.
In 2011, a quirky track took over the charts. Somebody That I Used to Know had a strange video, raw lyrics and a minimalist vibe that made heartbreak sound strangely catchy.
Before AI fake news flooded timelines, there were real-world panic moments like the 2012 apocalypse rumor. People braced for earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis when the Mayan calendar ended. The 2009 movie 2012 only added fuel, making doomsday feel all too real.
That fear turned tangible in 2013 when Super Typhoon Yolanda battered Eastern Visayas on 8 November. It claimed thousands of lives, injured thousands more and displaced millions.
2014 brought fairytale endings to the celebrity world. Heart Evangelista got engaged to Senator Chiz Escudero in Sorsogon while Dingdong Dantes proposed to Marian Rivera live on TV. By December, their “Royal Wedding” filled screens and front pages.
2015 gave Filipino Catholics a moment of faith and unity. Pope Francis visited the country and an estimated six million people gathered at Luneta Park for his historic mass, breaking old attendance records.
The line “Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now” echoed through 2016 when Hamilton bagged 16 Tony nominations and 11 wins. It brought the life of Alexander Hamilton back to life on stage with a fresh, modern twist.
2017 forced the country to hold its breath as the Marawi Siege unfolded. Government forces clashed with militants for months, leaving hundreds dead and Mindanao under martial law.
By 2018, TikTok entered the scene. The short video app took over daily lives, turning random lip-syncs and dance trends into viral hits. Bella Poarch’s “M to the B” helped push the platform to the top, locking Gen Z onto endless scroll mode.
2019 put SB19 on the P-pop map. Their song Go Up became an anthem for chasing dreams and showed local talent could make it big with the right blend of Filipino and English lines.
Then 2020 flipped the world inside out. COVID-19 brought fear, lockdowns and staggering losses. It changed how people worked, studied, ate and grieved.
When Squid Game landed in 2021, it captured screens worldwide with a grim take on classic children’s games twisted for survival. Suddenly, everyone knew Player 456.
Politics painted 2022 red and pink. The heated presidential race ended with Bongbong Marcos taking the country’s top seat and Sara Duterte stepping in as VP. Campaign rallies became massive meet-ups, bridging pandemic rules with old-school political noise.
In 2023, the streets clacked with lato-lato. Kids turned the toy into contests, echoing a throwback to simple games that brought neighbors together.
And in 2024? Bruno Mars and Rosé’s APT kept us dancing while rumors of debts and denials turned into jokes and memes. Their playful song racked up billions of views and had everyone mastering the choreography in living rooms and malls.
Now halfway through 2025, all eyes are on politics, uneasy world affairs and a changing Church. After the death of Pope Francis, the world welcomed Pope Leo XIV, bringing new hope for Catholics everywhere who look to him for comfort in uncertain times. Meanwhile, Duterte’s arrest enroute to The Hague, Trump’s tariffs, China’s sea claims and tensions in the Middle East have people swapping coping memes and “WW3 outfit” jokes.
If anything, maybe next year’s big trend will be our stubborn sense of humor, still alive even when the group chat is planning an apocalypse-themed OOTD just in case.