Taylor Swift’s era, ‘Barbenheimer’ and AI: Pop culture moments that defined 2023

“You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been” goes the famous quote from Maya Angelou – at least according to a ChatGPT response to a query on Quora that I found via a link from X (formerly Twitter). If that’s not a uniquely 2023 sentence, then just pretend Austin Butler read it to you in his permanent Elvis voice.

Before the clock ticks over to 2024, let’s revisit what the past 12 months of pop culture hath wrought and the most pressing lessons therein.

AI everywhere

In the near future, when we’re stuck figuring out how to shut down computers against their will because they’ve realised their only logical end goal is “kill humans”, we’ll probably recall 2023 as the beginning of the end. This was the year of the “I asked ChatGPT to…” trope, from writing a song in the style of Nick Cave, to making art, to controlling a whole life. We get it: AI does things we used to do.
Lesson for 2024: When the end comes, we only have ourselves to blame. And Elon Musk, probably.

Rihanna’s return

The billionaire pop star’s halftime show at February’s Super Bowl was her first live performance in over five years, and she made it count – by subtly unveiling a baby bump (her second child with rapper ASAP Rocky) and sending the tabloid mill into overdrive.
Lesson for 2024: Rihanna unveiled a human life. Usher, it’s your turn.

Rihanna and her bump at the Super Bowl half-time show in February.Credit: Getty

The nepo baby discourse

The early weeks of 2023 were hard going for the children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces and nephews of the rich, famous and powerful. Oh, how we mocked them – until they realised the solution was just to mock themselves first (classic wimp behaviour).
Lesson for 2024: What, we can’t even mock the rich, famous and powerful now?

‘Angela Bassett did the thing’

It was back in February when Ariana DeBose did the thing – namely, an incredibly awkward viral rap opening to the BAFTAs that will endure longer than any of the actual films that were being celebrated (apparently we cared about you once, All Quiet on the Western Front).
Lesson for 2024: Note to the Oscars – musical numbers are high art, and Ryan Gosling is right there and willing.

Taylor Swift’s time

She’s not here ’til February, but Time’s Person of the Year already conquered. Swift’s Eras Tour – and how to possibly secure access – was the trending topic in June when she broke Australian ticketing records (the tour has since become the first in history to surpass $US1 billion in revenue). For those who missed out, there was always the three-hour concert film.
Lesson for 2024: Now that we all love Reputation, Fearless is Swift’s most underrated era. Discuss.

Farewell, prestige TV

It was a big year for TV’s heavy-hitters – nearly every show that’s dominated awards and acclaim in recent years finished up. Succession offered a predictably bleak future for its “eldest boy”; Bill Hader’s Barry gave us Hollywood cynicism at its darkest; The Marvellous Mrs Maisel went full Joan Rivers; and The Crown gave us Diana’s ghost. The less said about Ted Lasso, the better.
Lesson for 2024: “If you were gonna cross out, you wouldn’t start underneath, would you?”

Austin Butler, [insert Elvis voice] a-thank you very much

You had to feel for Austin Butler in 2023 – you make one Elvis movie with Baz Luhrmann, the ghost of the King gets trapped inside your throat for eternity, and Brendan Fraser’s fat suit still pips you for the Oscar.
Lesson for 2024: Actors, they’re ridiculous.

Idol hands are the devil’s playground

It’s rare that we come together over anything these days, but The Idol, Sam Levinson’s toxic satire of the pop music machine – featuring The Weeknd’s oily turn as Tedros, a near career-destroying performance – was a misfire for the ages.
Lesson for 2024: #ReleaseTheSeimetzCut.

He’s toxic, she’s slipping under: The Weeknd as Tedros, with his angel Jocelyn (Lily Rose Depp).Credit: HBO/Binge

Waltzing Matildas

The Matildas’ strong performance at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in July and August was so galvanising, it even forced immediate changes to the government’s anti-siphoning list so future tournaments are available for free viewing by all.
Lesson for 2024: Memo to Australia’s Olympics team: winning is everything.

Behold, Barbenheimer

Where were you in July, when the unlikeliest doubleheader in movie history saved cinema? You were fist-deep in popcorn, of course. The meme-induced mania around Barbie and Oppenheimer delivered: Greta Gerwig’s film topped the annual box office with a global gross of $US1.44 billion, and Christopher Nolan’s film finished third with $US951.4 million.
Lesson for 2024: I hope you’re ready for Garfield: a Mad Max Saga, coming this May.

Margot Robbie in Barbie.Credit: Warner Bros

Verdict: Gwynnocent

From her glamorous outfits to her bored demeanour to her incredibly ominous parting whisper (“I wish you well” is now a generation’s coldest kiss-off), Gwyneth Paltrow transformed her ridiculous ski trial into high-camp theatre. Of course, it’s a musical now.
Lesson for 2024: Cross Gwyneth at your own peril.

Happy birthday, hip-hop

During what was its 50th anniversary, every awards show, from the Grammys to the ARIAs, offered a tribute to an art form (and ageing artists) they’d managed to marginalise for so long. Incredibly touching, but let’s give hiphop back to the children now.
Lesson for 2024: Happy 40th anniversary, techno. It’s your time to shine.

Remember the memoirs

If celebrities thought they could half-arse their memoirs, 2023 put an end to that. From horrid details about Harry’s frozen member in Spare to Britney sending Justin Timberlake’s PR team into conniptions with The Woman in Me, this year’s memoirs gave us exactly what we wanted.
Lesson for 2024: RuPaul, Darren Hayes and, um, Scott Morrison – give us the gossip in ’24 or sashay away.

Britney and Justin, in happier times.Credit: Reuters/Fred Prouser

The #Scandoval that stopped the world

That Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules was essential TV viewing in its 10th season was one of the year’s oddest wrinkles, but such is the appeal of a genuine cheating scandal. Why else do people watch reality TV?
Lesson for 2024: MAFS, you know what to do.

Hits and splits

In 2023, celebrities got around more than COVID. There were wild hookups (Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce; Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner; uh, Jewel and Kevin Costner) and even wilder divorces (Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness; Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas; Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello).
Lesson for 2024: Still sucks to be Matty Healy.

The great podcast purge

Well, that boom was short-lived, wasn’t it? In 2023, the medium stalled, with its biggest players – including Spotify, SiriusXM and NPR – all laying off staff and cancelling programs. Who would’ve imagined podcasts were just the 3D of radio?
Lesson for 2024: Don’t start another comedy podcast, we’re all begging you.

Strike up the Fran

This year’s Hollywood strikes by writers and actors who were seeking a cut of the streaming giants’ massive revenues and safeguards against AI’s encroaching effect on their jobs halted film and TV productions and nixed press responsibilities across 191 days of industrial action. Amazingly, it was all led by the “flashy girl from Flushing”.
Lesson for 2024: Fran Drescher for president? You know she could take Trump.

Fran Drescher, leading SAG-AFTRA’s actors union, through 2023’s historic strikes.Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake

Yeehaw for country

The country music renaissance hit a new peak. In Australia, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time was the most-streamed album of the year, while Luke Combs and Zach Bryan joined Wallen in dominating our pop charts and selling out tours. Oliver Anthony’s polarising Rich Men North of Richmond also made an impact, earning over 105 million views on YouTube.
Lesson for 2024: Invest in some boots and blue jeans already, this is not a fad.

Comedians lie? No way

Patriot Act host (and Obama truther) Hasan Minhaj was a whisker away from securing Trevor Noah’s vacant seat as the new host of The Daily Show until the New Yorker decided to fact-check his stand-up. Reader, it didn’t withstand scrutiny.
Lesson for 2024: “I’m joking” is not a valid excuse, not even for comedians.

Dad or grandpa?

That’s the game Robert De Niro (80) and Al Pacino (83) will be playing, after the Oscar winners (somehow) welcomed new babies in 2023.
Lesson for 2024: There’s still time for Clint Eastwood (93) to win this competition.

Good lord, Elordi

The internet’s boyfriend of the year was unexpected: Australian Jacob Elordi. The 26-year-old, whose breakthrough turns included The Kissing Booth and Euphoria, became a bona fide superstar this year with roles in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla… and with his beguiling off-screen persona: he’s already been credited with “redefining what it means to be a Hollywood hunk”.
Lesson for 2024: “Jacob Elordi is the number one babygirl.”

Jacob Elordi, superstar and babygirl.Credit: Chris Pizzello

Don’t throw that

For some reason (TikTok clout?), this was the year we started throwing inappropriate things at performers: bottles (Sexyy Red), jewellery (Kelsea Ballerini), phones (Bebe Rexha), your dead mother’s ashes (Pink). It was only to be expected they’d start throwing things back (Cardi B’s microphone).
Lesson for 2024: Duck!

Cousin Richie, you did it

The Bear was the TV show on everyone’s lips in ’23 and Forks, the episode that came right after the manic Fishes, was feelgood TV at its finest.
Lesson for 2024: Give Cousin Richie the Emmy, cowards.

Mend it like Beckham

Remember in Netflix’s Beckham docuseries, when Posh Spice – shoes off, sprawled elegantly across a divan – said: “I am not into football at all. I wasn’t into football then, I’m not into football now”? Easily TV’s comedic highlight this year.
Lesson for 2024: Netflix, it’s time for the Spice Girls doco.

The Aussie pop overthrow

First Kylie Padam Padam-ed her way into the hearts of the entire world (at 55!) and then Troye Sivan did the same with Rush, to the point he earned his own parody on Saturday Night Live featuring Timothee Chalamet.
Lesson for 2024: Forget iron ore, queer club anthems are now Australia’s premier export.

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