The Pop Culture Junkie podcast is running a special series of episodes looking back at the past decade, chronicling the highs and lows, at least from a pop culture standpoint. Each episode deals with two years (The years 2010 – 2017 are out as of this writing) so we had to leave some stuff out. A year is a long time! So as a companion piece, here is a more in-depth look at each year in pop culture.

2015 HAD US ASKING…

• What color was that dress, and why did we not all see it the same?
• Was Alexander Hamilton the hottest founding father?
• How did wearing a watch become cool again?

THE FILMS

This was the year that new Star Wars content hit the big screen, as The Force Awakens was released to both cheers and complaints. Genre films did well this year; some of the year’s top films include horror It Follows, speculative sci-fi Ex Machina, Quentin Tarantino’s gruesome western The Hateful Eight, the latest movie about rescuing Matt Damon, The Martian, the comedic horror What We Do In the Shadows, from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, the fantastical Crimson Peak from Guillermo Del Toro, a movie that explored the world of horror’s Final Girls, and the post-apocalyptic Mad Max: Fury Road. Movies about uncovering or surviving crimes were also big, including Sicario, Spotlight, Room and The Big Short. Popular sequels this year included the lauded sequel to the Rocky series, Creed, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Pitch Perfect 2 and the end of the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay Part 2, James Bond in Spectre, Magic Mike XXL, and Fast and Furious 7. Female-led comedies like Trainwreck, Sisters and Spy got butts in seats. as did dramas like Leo DiCaprio’s Oscar-winning turn in The Revenant, Straight Outta Compton, the origin story of the rap group NWA, the uber-weird The Lobster. Paul Rudd became the Ant-Man and Pixar had us in our feelings (and their feelings) with Inside Out.

THE TUNES

The bop of the year had to be ‘Uptown Funk’ by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. But contenders for the top of the pops included ‘Thinking Out Loud’ by Ed Sheeran, ‘See You Again’ by Wiz Khalifa, ‘Trap Queen’ by Fetty Wap, and ‘Sugar’ by Maroon 5. Everything was working for The Weeknd, who put three songs on the top 15: ‘Earned It’, ‘The Hills’ and the cheeky ‘Can’t Feel My Face’. Soon-to-be convicted murderer Silento started the ‘Watch Me’ viral dance craze that had us Whipping and Nae-Naeing, and Walk the Moon came from out of nowhere (actually, they are from Cincinnati, Ohio) to tell us to ‘Shut Up and Dance’. Other high-charting hits include ‘Lean On’ by Major Lazer and DJ Snake, ‘Cheerleader’ by OMI, ‘Love Me Like You Do’ by dancing queen Ellie Goulding, and ‘Bad Blood’ from Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar. Drake’s meme-tastic ‘Hotline Bling’ was a hit, and Rihanna had us all collecting checks to ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’, and finally, the powerful ‘Take Me to Church’ by Hozier played in the background of a lot of romantic moments,

THE TELEVISION

While Supergirl on CBS (soon to be The CW) and Agent Carter on ABC were shows about all-American (or British) heroes, in 2015 the anti-hero was big. The year brought us the hacker drama Mr. Robot, the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul, Marvel’s first two entries into streaming television, Jessica Jones and Daredevil, drug lord drama Narcos, film-to-TV adaptation 12 Monkeys, the sympathetic yet misguided Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the scourge of the deadites, Ash vs. Evil Dead, and speaking of the undead, we had a crime-fighting brain-eater in The CW’s iZombie. 2015 was the year of wacky genre-defying sitcoms like Schitt’s Creek, which debuted on Canadian television and the little-known streaming service Pop before become a sensation on Netflix, ABC’s more adult take on The Muppets, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Last Man on Earth, graying hunks Rob Lowe and John Stamos returning to network television, headlining The Grinder and Grandfathered, respectively, Comedy Central’s Another Period, Superstore and Fresh Off the Boat. I Am Cait was how Caitlyn Jenner introduced herself and her story, and there was yet more shakeup in the world of late night: Jon Stewart gave up the stewardship of The Daily Show to the talented Trevor Noah, and Stephen Colbert landed a new gig, replacing David Letterman on Late Night.

THE TRENDS, TOYS AND TECH

Who would have thought that the dry history of the founding of our nation would turn into a must-see hip-hop musical? Lin-Manuel Miranda, that’s who. The sold-out forever, Tony-winning Broadway musical was the ticket to have in 2015, and suddenly everyone you know was singing songs about the guy on the $10 bill. Caitlyn Jenner transitioned right before our eyes, and captured it all on her reality TV program. Speaking of Jenners, the latest trending “challenge” among the youth was the ‘Kylie Jenner lip challenge’, which had teens putting their lips into a bottle or glass, sucking out the air, and letting the resulting vacuum plump up their lips in order to mimic the star. Needless to say, it went wrong, injuring many of the misguided participants. This was the year Taylor Swift gave us #SquadGoals, palling around with fellow female A-listers (though the actual squad changed over time. Information gleaned from Sony’s hacked emails in 2014 led to a LOT of discussions about the pay gap between male and female actors, even for the same movie when both were leads.

In tech, this was the year that streaming TV services like Netflix and Hulu started to take over a bigger share of the market as customers who had cut ties with cable or satellite distribution started to get frustrated with how many streaming services they now needed to subscribe to in order to see the same content. Apple rolled out a new phone with new features and apps, like a 3D touch screen and iPay, and this year the company introduced the Apple watch, further tethering us to its products. (The MacBook Pro also launched this year.) The new Star Wars movie made a star out of a roly-poly robot called BB8, and toys based on the character were all the rage at Christmas.

THE MEMES AND CATCHPHRASES

Memes make the world go around, and nothing brings back the feeling of a year like a meme, viral video or the phrase that everyone, even your mom, was saying. While it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when one of these begins, it can be noted when something viral reaches critical mass, before becoming overused. Here’s a quick list of everything that had us talking in 2015.

• White and gold or blue and black? A simple picture of a dress had us wondering if we could believe our own eyes in 2015. A woman posted a picture of the dress she planned to wear to her daughter’s wedding, and the comments it sparked surprised everyone – what color was the dress? The bride posted it to Facebook for further debate, and Buzzfeed picked up on a juicy clickbait item and put it out there for the whole world to argue over.
• Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’ video showed the singer saying yes and no using body language, making a multi-purpose meme for disliking one thing and being happy with another.
• A rat in New York City got a slice of pizza to go, and the resulting photograph went viral as everyone found Pizza Rat one of the more relatable characters in 2015.
• Ted Cruz is a lot of things, but he (probably) isn’t the Zodiac Killer. But in 2015 a tongue-in-cheek meme that capitalized on Cruz’s creepy demeanor went viral.
• Katy Perry’s Super Bowl performance featured two dancers dressed in shark costumes. The one on the right performed the dance routine unremarkably, but Left Shark’s awkward moves captured the imagination of the nation, and in no time #LeftShark was trending on Twitter.
• Having a date over to “Netflix and Chill” became a catchphrase meaning pretty much the exact opposite. A lot of Netflix programs were begun, only to play out unwatched as the amorous audience focused their attention on other things.

SAYING GOODBYE

One Direction broke up in 2015, and Grey’s Anatomy killed off Patrick Dempsey’s character McDreamy, pissing off fans of the show, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, judges on The Voice, found true love with each other, divorcing spouses Miranda Lambert and Gavin Rossdale to be together. Celebrity deaths this year include Mr. Spock himself, Star Trek‘s Leonard Nimoy, as well as classic TV stars James Best, Donna Douglas, Al Molinaro, Martin Milner, Dick Van Patten and Wayne Rogers. We also lost singers Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), Lesley Gore, Percy Sledge, B.B. King and Natalie Cole, as well as soap star David Canary (All My Children.) The daughter of Whitney Houston, Bobbi Kristina Brown, passed away, as did baseball’s Yogi Berra, ESPN personality Stuart Scott, and wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper. Movie royalty Omar Sharif, Rod Taylor and Maureen O’Hara and studio head Samuel Goldwyn Jr. John Lennon’s first wife Cynthia passed away, as did horror movie director Wes Craven.

Shows cancelled in 2015 include Community, Mad Men, Parenthood, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Glee, Justified, Nurse Jackie, Two and a Half Men, Hart of Dixie, Revenge, and Key and Peele.

And that’s a bigger, better look at the year in pop culture, circa 2015.