Quick, name one thing you remember about 2002. What were the big stories? Who were the big celebrities? What was the top movie in the theaters? What was popular?
How will 2002 be remembered in the future if we can barely remember it now?
Over the last five decades, only a handful of years are easily definable, usually by major events - 2001, the year you were born, the year your favorite team won its last championship, 1969, 1963 and so forth. Culture usually moves in periods, whether it is with hippies or yuppies or grunge kids.
But sure enough, some years just melt away into the bowels of history. Now just a year and a few months after 2002 ended, it's safe to say that down the line, no one is going to remember it at all.
So what was all the rage in 2002? According to Google - of course - the three most searched news stories in 2002 were "World Cup," "Iraq" and "sniper."
The World Cup was played in North Korea in June, and in order to watch, residents of the Eastern Time zone had to stay up until 4 a.m. I, of course, watched several U.S. games, including a thrilling victory over Mexico followed by a 1-0 loss to Germany in the quarterfinals.
Honestly, I did not remember the World Cup when I first thought of 2002, and since one occurs every four years, it's hard to say that it is a defining moment of 2002.
As far as Iraq goes, there's a huge spike in the number of searches in early September. Unfortunately for 2002, 2003 is clearly the year of Iraq. It got sandwiched between 2003's Iraq and 2001's terrorism, not really weighing in on either scale.
The domestic terrorism story of 2002 was sniping, gripping the nation, especially around Virginia for a short stint in October. But who is going to remember Chief Moose and Lee Boyd Malvo more than they remember Richard Jewel, Elian Gonzalez or Dr. Zizmor?
If anything, the sniper story would claim the top spot of 2002 because it is unique, but it just does not have the staying power. It will probably be forgotten until someone decides to be a copycat - and no, I'm not advocating sniping to return glory to 2002, or for any other reason.
According to Google, the biggest celebrities of 2002 were Shakira, Eminem and Spider-Man. Isn't Shakira a one-hit wonder? Comically, I can't remember any of the words of the song that catapulted her to the top, but I can picture parts of the video - probably the reason for all those searches.
Eminem was silent for much of 2002 until the release of "8 Mile," which won a 2003 Oscar for its original song, "Lose Yourself." Eminem is part of the whole late-90s and early-00s culture, and since his career is still in progress, it is hard to nail down the most defining moment of his career.
The Academy Awards gives another great example, as it tabbed Chicago as the top film of 2002. A movie that was a play for many years is a poor showing of the creative juices of the year.
Again, the most searched movie was "Spider-Man," the tremendous summer blockbuster that generated a record intake on its first weekend. But just like a microcosm of 2002, it was a rehashed story that was poorly written, and its highly touted record was quickly eclipsed by some British kid on a broom.
The failure of 2002 provides us with many lessons. First of all, some things are going to be bad. It is not anyone's fault that 2002 will drift off and slip from our minds, and it's not even a bad thing. Maybe we'll all be better off if we completely forget the average things that happened and focus on what's really important.
History is best if we can learn from it, and we've got 11 months of 2004 ahead of us. I do not want to be doomed to repeat the mediocrity of 2002, so let's turn this year into something memorable. How about some original movies, groundbreaking social events or even a revolutionary invention?
The least we could do is get a new guy in the White House.
