This is of course, an immediate follow up to my thread regarding when the '80s officially ended from a pop culture standpoint. I do think that the combination of the election of George W. Bush as president and the 9/11 terrorist attacks was really the beginning of a cultural shift (at least geo-politically). The weird thing about 9/11 is that you can make a fair argument that it really effect our popular culture too. Basically, hereas before 9/11, villains in movies, novels, comics, video game, and TV shows, were more frequently motivated by material things like money or power. However after 9/11, a lot of villains seemed to be inspired (for instance, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy) by or were flat-out real-life terrorist groups, tended to fight for ideals (like terrorists do).

I've heard the argument that the year 2002 marked the true beginning of a major pop cultural shift. At least from a TV standpoint, 2002 was the year that The Wire premiered (which arguably marked the beginning the emerging "Golden Age of dramas" on television), American Idol premiered (and thus brings the talent show back to mainstream attention), the USA Network scores perhaps its first real mainstream critical successes with Monk and Dead Zone, 24's counter terrorism storylines cement it as one of the earliest relevant post 9/11 dramas, and Star Trek's contemporary credibility and relevance were wiped away via the dubious Nemesis film, and the critically/commercially under-performing Enterprise (particularly "A Night in Sickbay").

I say the year 2000.

The previous decade always spills a little into the next one. I agree that '00s culture started to set in around late 2001/2002, and that 2000 and 2001 felt very in line with the '90s. The same could be said about the beginning of just about any decade, I think. (The most obvious example would be the early '90s which still had *very* 80s-tinted pop culture).

9/11 was definitely a huge turning point for the nation, both in terms of politics *and* the arts (which were heavily responding to the politics/tragedy of the time).

The whole decade pretty much felt like an extension of the 90s culturally, but I'd draw the line at 2005 when Friends and Frasier ended

2003 is when I felt it shift more. It started shifting right after 9/11 though. But, 2003 on just felt really different than 2000-2002 did.

I say the year 2000.

Again, I'm not talking from a "literal standpoint" but more of a pop cultural standpoint. Basically, styles or trends don't seem to immediately change the moment the new decade starts.

The last TV show that ended that began in the 1990's was The King of Queens.

There was an argument before the year 2000 to whether 2000 belongs in the 20th or 21st Century. Some say it is the 20th because there is no Year "0", so the 1990's for example, went from January 1, 1991 to Dec. 31, 2000. Dunno.

I tend to see eras and their dividing line from historical events.

The 1950's began when Ike was elected President and ended when JFK was killed. Look at pre 1963 television and television post 1963, and see how the culture just radically changed almost overnight.

The 1960's was the JFK murder to when the Vietnam War ended in 1973 (or can even be stretched to Watergate). Most of what we consider hippies, counterculture, flower power, war demonstrations and the like more or less ceased when Vietnam was ended.

The 1980's began when Reagan was elected President in 1981.

The 1990's began when Clinton was elected President in 1992.

2000's began when 9/11 happened.

2010's more or less began when Obama became President.