TikTok cemented its status as the primary tastemaker for the music and entertainment industries. The platform drove tracks to the top of the Billboard charts and revived catalog music from previous decades. It also popularized short-form vertical video, a format quickly copied by YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.

No discussion of 2021 popular media is complete without mentioning the rise and fall of . The drop-in audio app went from a $4 billion valuation to a ghost town in the span of six months. Yet, it forced every major platform to clone it (Twitter Spaces, Spotify Live).

The rapid cycle of TikTok trends birthed niche internet subcultures like "Cottagecore" and "Dark Academia." Entertainment brands quickly realized that community-driven content, user-generated memes, and fan edits were far more effective at driving engagement than multi-million-dollar traditional marketing campaigns. 4. Television and the "Peak TV" Era

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Olivia Rodrigo broke multiple Spotify records for streaming numbers with her debut single "drivers license" in January and her debut album SOUR .

: Listenership continued to surge, with "true crime" remaining a dominant genre, further reflected in scripted TV parodies like Only Murders in the Building Gaming & Twitch : Video games remained a favorite activity for Gen Z, while

September 17, 2021, saw the release of Squid Game , which quickly became Netflix's biggest-ever series at launch , surpassing Bridgerton with over 142 million households watching in its first four weeks.

Spider-Man: No Way Home shattered pandemic-era records, grossing over $1.8 billion worldwide and becoming one of the highest-grossing films of all time.

Streaming services reached new heights with "appointment viewing" hits that sparked global conversations. Top 50 Best Films of 2021 - IMDb

Popular media in 2021 firmly solidified the shift from "who is in it?" to "what universe is this?"