People underestimate the changes in 2019

I don’t see see any cultural change or shift in 2019, only a minor collection of mostly fringe or small things that either ended or started, most of which not really related to the core foundation base of a new era. Nearly all these things were not even felt or noticed at any point in 2019 or most of 2020 for the most part then, no shifts or new era vibes in 2019 either imo. A chunk of 2020 is almost indistinguishable from the exact and literal pop culture of 2019 with or without Corona. It was literally frozen for a while because of it.

There were some very minor yet more visible cultural changes between mid 2020 to mid to late 2021 which is now ( some effects of Cornona on pop culture ( memes, restrictions, themes of it etc), removal of trump, PS5, bedroom pop and pop punk and few other genres more noticeable, emo nostagia a bit more widespread, more visible hints of incoming y2k revival in a mainstream sense beyond forums( modular sneakers more widespread than late 10s, bell bottom jeans, more video and social content on the topic etc )

We are still a modified version of 2018-2019 until proven otherwise with more substantial cultural turning points and radical and transformative era changes, not there yet imo. Epidemics don’t shape the style and aesthetics and base of pop culture they only have a limited after effect. Music changes need to be also more radical then they are at the moment. Roughly 95 percent or a bit higher is aesthetically identical to the mid to late 2010s with only things like certain film franchises and things like hipster and casual flashy fashion mostly fading or not as common. But these were already fading in 2018, 2019.

You say 2020 was like 2019 with Corona, ok. But 2019 was different from 2018..

I think the whole “2020 was like 2019 but with covid” narrative is a bit overused. Even if 2020 had certain aesthetics that were still similar to 2019, covid itself was enough to set it apart imo. Covid is uniquely 2020s (Ik it was first discovered in late 2019 but it was not a concern or even widely known until very early 2020). When ppl think of the early 2020s they will think of covid as the defining aspect of that time and 2019 (and the rest of the 2010s) will be looked at as the last days of the pre-covid world, automatically making 2019 and 2020 separate eras in most peoples minds looking back. Yes 2020 isn’t far removed from the 2010s but it still had a huge shift. 2019 set up the shift for 2020 but is still very late 2010s

I have to also personally agree on that. COVID will definitely define the early 2020s era when people look back on it and the mid-late March 2020 period was when the pandemic truly engulfed the world and forced systematically everyone to hunker down in their homes and adapt to a new reality of lockdown culture (ZOOM meetings, social distancing, required mask-wearing in the Western world, etc).

The world will return to "normal" after the pandemic mostly subsides and becomes endemic, but we will be in a post-COVID world in terms of having more awareness and possible restrictions inspired by protocol used in the thick of the pandemic in 2020. Sure, pop culture hasn't fully changed despite the pandemic, but COVID still changed lives in more ways than one.

I think the whole “2020 was like 2019 but with covid” narrative is a bit overused. Even if 2020 had certain aesthetics that were still similar to 2019, covid itself was enough to set it apart imo. Covid is uniquely 2020s (Ik it was first discovered in late 2019 but it was not a concern or even widely known until very early 2020). When ppl think of the early 2020s they will think of covid as the defining aspect of that time and 2019 (and the rest of the 2010s) will be looked at as the last days of the pre-covid world, automatically making 2019 and 2020 separate eras in most peoples minds looking back. Yes 2020 isn’t far removed from the 2010s but it still had a huge shift. 2019 set up the shift for 2020 but is still very late 2010s