2014-2015 Pop Culture Recap
This year’s pop culture events and trends were so crazy that they even broke right through the Academy’s fortified bubble. Let’s recap. Which pop culture trends got you this year?
In July of 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was created to raise awareness and funds for Lou Gehrig’s disease, which blew up on social media. The challenge dared people to either dump a bucket of ice water on themselves or donate $100 to the ALS Association. Many chose to do both. Celebrities even took to the challenge, like actor Charlie Sheen’s who donated $10,000. By the end of the summer, the ALS Association received over $115 million dollars in donations.
How to Get Away with Murder premiered on ABC on Sep 25, 2014. The show reeled in more than 14.2 million viewers just on the pilot. The show stars Viola Davis as Annalise Keating, the intelligent and sassy law professor and criminal defense attorney at Middleton University who guides five specially selected interns in their investigations of twisted murder cases. The second season of the terribly addicting show is highly anticipated by fans.
On Nov 7, 2014, Interstellar and The Theory of Everything, two of the perhaps most successful movies of the year, premiered on the same day, creating quite an enigma for moviegoers over which movie to see first.
Interstellar was an epic science-fiction film, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine. The film revolves around the story of a crew of astronauts who travel through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity. Interstellar, atypical of Nolan films, was very successful at the box office, grossing over $672 million worldwide. The film received many accolades from critics in terms of sound effects and actor/actress performances. At the 87th Academy Awards, the film won the Best Visual Effects award and was nominated for several others.
The Theory of Everything, directed by James Marsh, brought light to a side of scientist Stephen Hawking (played by Eddie Redmayne) never told before: Hawking’s love story with Jane Wilde Hawking (played by Felicity Jones). The film received four Golden Globe Award nominations and won two of them: the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for Redmayne and Best Original Score for Jóhann Jóhannsson. Redmayne swept the awards this year with his stellar portrayal of Hawking.
On Nov 21, 2014, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 hit the box offices, climbing to the number one spot during just its opening weekend with a $273.8 million worldwide gross. This marked the movie as the biggest opening of 2014. The Hunger Games film series is also the only franchise to have three films earn over $100 million in a weekend.
On Feb 1, 2015, the Patriots won the AFC Championship game against the Colts, which led the Patriots to their 2015 Super Bowl win. The Patriots were accused of deflating footballs, the ongoing saga termed “Deflategate.” Investigations led to a four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady, which led to quite an uproar from Patriots fans.
Mar 4, 2015 marked the date of release of “Nasty Freestyle” by American rapper T-Wayne that would onset the whip dance obsession across America. Is the whip taking over the twerk?
On Apr 24, 2015, Bruce Jenner officially announced his (currently preferring the pronoun “he”) gender transformation. He stated, “I’m a woman” in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ reporter Diane Sawyer. Jenner was once hailed as the greatest athlete in the world for his Olympic gold win in the decathlon in the 1976 games in Montreal. Later, he became a reality television personality on Keeping up the Kardashians. Now, the former Olympian has finally been able to reveal a deep secret that has caused him turmoil and unhappiness for decades. All respect goes out to Jenner.
On May 14, 2015, the CW aired the season six finale of The Vampire Diaries. The episode acted as a goodbye tribute to actress Nina Dobrev, the series lead as Elena Gilbert. Dobrev decided to leave the show to pursue other projects. Dobrev officially announced her departure April 6, 2015 and fans were extremely disappointed. Regardless, the series will continue into its seventh season without Dobrev. But what is a series without its queen? The CW is going to have to cook up something really good to make up for Dobrev’s absence or else the fans will be leaving with Dobrev.
What a year, Hollywood. As always, next year has some pop culture treasures in store for us as well. Surprise us, Hollywood.