When you ask most kids from the 2000s and 2010s, “What was your favorite year?” Their answer is usually the same – 2016. 2016 was an incredible year all around, but especially for sports, music, and the overall culture. You could argue that people only say 2016 because of the “nostalgia,” but I’m here to change your mind and prove to you why this year is the best.
Music: 2016 was a great year for rap and hip-hop music, but the most well-known album of this year has to be Views by Drake. This album was filled with great songs, the most popular being “Hotline Bling,” “Too Good” ft. Rihanna, “Redemption,” and of course “One Dance” ft. Wizkid and Kyla. Views is one of Drake’s best albums, and to this day, it is still in a lot of people’s music rotation.
Another amazing album from this year is Blonde by Frank Ocean, with popular songs like “Ivy,” “Pink + White,” “Nights,” “White Ferrari,” and “Godspeed.” Blonde is Frank Ocean’s most popular album, and the entire album is beautiful and filled with hidden meanings. An iconic album from 2016 has to be Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo, featuring songs like “Father Stretch My Hands Pt 1,” “Famous,” “Saint Pablo,” and “Real Friends.” This album was during a great era of Kanye’s music and was filled with Soul and Rap. Finally, my personal favorite album of all time, 4 Your Eyez Only by J. Cole, featuring songs such as “Ville Mentality,” “She’s Mine Pt 1 and 2,” “Change,” and “Neighbors.” This album’s story is simple yet extremely effective: a drug dealer trying to stay alive and provide for his family.
This is just a small handful of the incredible musical works of 2016. Many other albums, including “Awaken, My Love!” by Childish Gambino, “untitled unmastered.” by Kendrick Lamar, and “Imperial” by Denzel Curry, revolutionized the music scene and established this year as one of the best in music.
Sports: From great finals, improbable wins, and record-breaking statistics, 2016 was an impeccable year for sports. The best game from 2016 has to be the NBA Finals. Lebron James, the greatest of all time, went down 3-1 to the stacked Golden State Warriors featuring prime Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. Nobody in the history of the NBA has come back from a 3-1 deficit, but Lebron changed history. The Cleveland Cavaliers won back-to-back games, bringing us the most electric final ever. Lebron ran full court to block Andre Iguodala’s potential game-winning layup. This play brought one of the greatest announcer lines of all time: “Oh, blocked by James!”
Another legendary moment was when Leicester City won the English Premier League. The season prior, they were narrowly demoted to the lower division and had extremely low expectations coming into the new season. Their odds to win it all were 5000 to 1; no one believed in them, but they somehow were crowned champions for the first time in their 132-year history. Another awesome moment has to be the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series, breaking their 108-year drought. The final game went into extra innings and finished 8-7 after 3rd baseman Kris Bryant threw the ground ball to Anthony Rizzo to end the game. This game sent shockwaves through Chicago for months. There was also the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where Usain Bolt reclaimed his title as the fastest man, Michael Phelps won 6 more medals, and Serena Williams tied the record for the most Grand Slam Singles titles at 22 wins. Finally, the 2016 NFL season brought us Peyton Manning ending his amazing career with a Super Bowl win against the dominant Carolina Panthers with a prime Cam Newton, 24-10.
Trends: There were a lot of awesome and funny trends in 2016, including the huge game that took the world by storm in the summer, Pokémon GO. Especially in the early phase of the game, whenever you saw someone else playing, it would always be a funny and exciting interaction. This game was a great time to be outside in the hot summer with your friends and family, meeting new people, and catching Pokémon. There was also a disturbing trend around 2016, this being the “Killer” Clowns popping up all over the place. People would dress up as clowns and stand around at night or in threatening and scary places like schools or forests. Some of these sightings even led to arrests or school lockdowns. Thankfully, most, if not all, of these Clowns were harmless, and some people speculate that it was a publicity stunt for the new adaptation of the movie “It” by Stephen King that would show in theaters the following year. Finally, the last huge trend that took over in 2016 was “The Mannequin Challenge.” This trend involves people filming themselves to the song “Black Beatles” by the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd. As they listened, they would stand as still as possible, imitating mannequins, hence the name. Everyone was posting this trend, from celebrities to athletes. The Mannequin Challenge was huge and extremely fun.
All of these things combined created one of the most legendary years in the past decade. Looking back at 2016 really puts into perspective how different the times were compared to 2025, talking to your neighbors and creating conversation is general is hard for kids now a days because of Covid-19 and people being so sucked into their phones. It was something I believe that kids these days will never have, which is why this year was so special.
