Are we back to 2000s? Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears to Lindsay Lohan, all that's old is new again
If you've been paying attention lately you'd notice something odd is happening.
The show 'Punk'd' is back, Lindsay Lohan dropped a new song, Amanda Bynes has re-emerged, Nicole Richie has a new rap-themed show, JoJo is finally back, The Pussycat Dolls are back together and Britney Spears' iconic song 'Toxic' and Justin Timberlake's equally-iconic 'Cry Me A River' have been the talk of the town.
As one Twitter user asks, "punk'd, raven symone, jesse mccartney, lindsay lohan on my trends.... what is this 2005?" Even some of the fashion choices from back then, from low-rise denim jeans and cargo pants to camo are all seemingly coming back into style.
Why exactly are the late '90s and early 2000s making a sudden resurgence? Well, the answer may lie in a weird mix of nostalgia for simpler times and a desire for some piping hot tea to spill and entertain us all.
Take, for instance, this thread on that iconic photo of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in the front of the latter's convertible after a wild night out on the town. It recounts how the drama between once-friends Lohan and Hilton began when the former allegedly hooked up with the latter's boyfriend at the time, Stavros Niarchos. Not long after, a video circulated of Hilton laughing her heart out as one of her friends verbally abused Lohan, following which Lohan referred to Hilton as a "c**t" while on one of her many nights out - only to deny she ever said such a thing mere seconds later. The back and forth continued, Lohan claimed Hilton physically assaulted her, then denied that ever happened right as she squeezed into the car with Spears and Hilton.
Here's where we all take a sip of our tea. Because no modern-day drama could ever live up to the early 2000s and we all need to acknowledge that truth.
As the years went by, the headline-making socialites and arguably the original influencers went their own ways. Some, like Spears, Lohan, Bynes, and others went down the well-known path of child stars who fall victim to spirals and embark on multiple stints in and out of rehab. Others, like Hilton and her partner-in-crime back in the day Richie both, went on to become savvy businesswomen. Some like Timberlake went on to have prosperous solo musical careers.
And now, they're all back. All at once. And in some cases, it isn't even because they have new news to share. They're trending during the off-season when they have no new projects lined up, and you really have to sit back and marvel at the power these once wild-children still seem to have.
Lohan has just dropped a new song titled 'Back To Me', hinting that she has found her way back to who she was before things went south. Bynes is engaged and seemingly doing better. JoJo, who broke free from the clutches of her previous label is finally releasing new music, the latest being the R&B track 'Man'. PCD have reunited sans Melody Thornton and put out new music, and are being criticized for exactly the same things as they were ten years ago, so it almost feels like they never left.
Timberlake was revealed to have not done the ending runs and adlibs on 'Cry Me A River', the song about Spears allegedly cheating on him with choreographer Wade Robson that significantly boosted his the singer's career, and never credited the actual singer Marsha Ambrosius, and one of Spears' most beloved songs 'Toxic' which helped revive her career was sampled from a variety of sources, most notably, Bollywood. Spears also made the headlines for her apparently socialist leanings, and her younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears made the news thanks to Zoey 101 fans reviving the conversation about what really ended that show.
And Lohan and Hilton are also back in the news thanks to the highly morbid and insensitive 'Mugshot Challenge' doing the rounds.
And that's not even all of it.
So what exactly is going on?
It's not entirely clear why the '90s kids are suddenly reliving their entire childhood. One user tweeted, "Okay but does anyone else feel like we’re all Lindsay Lohan at Camp Walden in Parent trap rn ?????!" alluding to the fact that we're all currently quarantined, mostly in isolation. And when we're alone with our own thoughts, sometimes, something odd happens. We start yearning for times gone by when things were so much more 'normal'. When every day was a new tabloid headline about yet another young celebrity doing something pearl-clutchingly scandalous and yet another famous socialite would tumble out of a club late at night and struggle to find her keys because the paparazzi's camera flashes were blinding them. When the child stars from the Mickey Mouse club were dating and cheating on each other while dressed entirely in denim, and when TV shows were about famous people playing pranks on other famous people as we all watched in total amusement.
Ah, the early 2000s, What a time to be alive.