Blink of an eye, 2021 is about to become a thing of the past, the original epidemic has unconsciously plagued us for nearly 2 years, although the world is still under the shadow of the virus, but some of people's lives seem to have gradually stabilized from last year's uneasiness. Many industries are starting to recover and find some new directions, and for trends, fashion, and various youth fields, 2021 has also changed a lot, some even directly and indirectly affecting you and me.
In addition to the previous fashion and sneaker review, we have also compiled the highlights of the entertainment and art fields in 2021 for you, and the following are the 20 key moments in the past year, do you still have a deep impression?
2021 The only album that traditionally sold more than a million
Traditional record sales (CD, vinyl, tape, and electronic downloads) have been hit hard by the pandemic and the rise of streaming, with many companies moving their main markets to streaming. On November 19, Adele, who recovered from her love injury and successfully lost weight, released her fourth official album "30", which was the first time that the singer returned after a gap of 6 years, which made fans excited. In addition to receiving good word-of-mouth, "30" is also the only album in the United States in 2021 that traditionally sold more than 1 million – not to mention that it took Adele just over two weeks to achieve this result. In the current decline in traditional sales, Adele's achievements will certainly have a good uplifting effect on the industry.
The most magical beef in the rap world
Two former friends, musicians who love each other: Kanye West and Drake, began a protracted war of words on social networks in July, with each other ridiculing each other, adding diss verses to new songs, Kanye exposing Drake's address and threatening his life... In the showdown, Kanye's single Twitter likes exploded to 160,000. However, after the two released their new albums in a similar period of time, the scolding war also came to an end. What is even more unexpected is that the two have ushered in a reconciliation after calming down for a while, and even cooperated to hold concerts, which suddenly makes people wonder whether this is real beef or century marketing?
Over 648 million views of the MV
The Weeknd's critically acclaimed album After Hours, released last year, also produced an MV for the track Save Your Tears earlier this year. The current MV is YouTube's most viewed English single worldwide, with 648 million hits, and the popularity has remained very high throughout the year. The Weeknd continues the visual presentation of his previous albums, from "plastic surgery failure wrapped in bandages" to "plastic deformed face", according to Google Trends data, the most relevant searches with The Weeknd and "Save Your Tears" include keywords such as "surgical plastic surgery" and "plastic surgery failure MV", which has also triggered a heated discussion about the flood of excessive plastic surgery in modern society.
Vintage dark horse group Silk Sonic
The retro trend has become more and more popular in recent years, from costumes to music are "reversing". And silk Sonic, which takes retro Soul and Funk music to a whole new level musically, is definitely a "newcomer group" that cannot be ignored this year: by well-known musicians Bruno Mars and Anderson. Composed of Paak, the duo's love of retro style is perfectly presented, incorporating R&B, pop elements, and not outdated in the present. Silk Sonic's new album "An Evening With Silk Sonic" released at the end of the year achieved a double harvest of word-of-mouth traffic as soon as it was released, and it was famous in the year-end summary list of many music media, the MV of "Leave The Door Open" exceeded 400 million hits, and many singles can be called the annual golden song, which makes people look forward to Silk Sonic being able to win awards at the Grammys with its unique style.
Netflix's blockbuster of the year that drives up stock prices – Squid Games
This year, the global TV drama industry has ushered in a big shock, all thanks to a Korean drama series from Netflix: "Squid Games". The series has continued to break viewership records since its release and has become the most popular series of the year, with news that "Squid Games" directly brought nearly $900 million in profits to Netflix. "Squid Game" also has a high degree of discussion on social networks, especially the Instagram fans of the heroine Zheng Haoyan have risen to 23 million since its launch, becoming a top traffic actor. After "Parasite" won the Oscar for Best Picture, "Squid Games" once again showed the maturity of the Korean film and television industry to the world, and also gave Netflix firm confidence to continue to increase the production of Local Content in South Korea.
The most difficult science fiction novel to adapt, Dune, was released
Many famous directors want to remake but only taste the bitter fruit, "Dune" can be said to be one of the most difficult science fiction novels to adapt into a movie. This year, Denis Villeneuve lived up to expectations for Dune to the screen, and while still controversial, it has become one of the most successful versions of all time. The new Dune redefines people's imagination of science fiction in some ways, and creates a refreshing audiovisual experience, science fiction is no longer just lightsabers and laser guns, even if it is a dusty wing fighter and cold weapon battle, it is also a kind of science fiction. With the first film reaching its box office expectations, the sequel to the film has also been officially put into production, looking forward to a complete story to make "Dune" famous.
Marvel's fourth phase of the focus will be tilted towards the TV series
Marvel's movies attract tens of millions of fans to the cinema every year, but this year's proportion of movies in Marvel Studios has decreased, first because of the epidemic, and second, because Marvel has long planned that the focus of the fourth phase will be tilted towards TV series. So this year we saw as many as five MCU TV series on Disney+, each of which received excellent word-of-mouth and ratings, and greatly strengthened the audience's feelings for these "secondary core figures". Among them, "Wanda Vision", "Loki", "Falcon and Winter Soldier" won the first, second and fourth places in the IMDb selection of popular dramas respectively, and the single-day Twitter discussion of "Wanda Vision" was as high as 600,000. It is foreseeable that TV series will become the focus of Marvel's next development.
Korean films have been introduced again in the past 6 years
It was already released in South Korea in September 2020, and it was not until December 2021 that the movie "Oh! "Moon Ji" can be said to have a pivotal significance in the domestic entertainment industry - it is the first Korean film to be released in Chinese mainland since "Assassination" in 2015. After the official announcement of the "Korean Restriction Order" in 2016, China has not introduced Korean films, although there have been many plans, but it finally ended in failure. 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea, and operation "icebreaker" has achieved good results this year: CCTV signed a cooperation agreement with the Korea Broadcasting Corporation, a number of Korean artists returned to Weibo, and the first introduction of Korean films, the lifting of the "Korean restriction order" seems to be no longer far away.
The Travis Scott Astroworld Festival ended tragically
Travis Scott's stage style has always been known for its wildness, and the audience will use "Rage" to describe the state of the scene, and there will often be accidents while the audience enjoys the "rage". This year, there was a serious stampede at the Astroworld Festival hosted by Travis Scott, which resulted in 10 deaths, hundreds injuries and a huge outcry around the world. In addition to public opinion, Travis Scott was also jointly sued with the guest of honor Drake, with compensation amounting to billions of dollars; the joint project with Nike was postponed indefinitely; the new album was lost in the unknown; the originally planned "W" magazine cover was also recalled to stop selling on the transport truck, and his career may be greatly affected.
Kanye West Audition of Donda
After transitioning to "Gospel Rapper" in 2019, Kanye West has released two albums celebrating God to date. Released this year, Donda is one of Kanye's most anticipated works. First, the album was named kanye as a tribute to her late mother Donda, and secondly, with as many as 32 songs and a super Featuring lineup, which fans couldn't wait for. In order to build momentum for the album, Kanye held three grand auditions for "Donda" and even invited BALENCIAGA Creative Director Demna Gvasalia to participate, becoming one of the biggest performances in the music industry this year, causing a hot discussion on the Internet. Although not a single lyric was sung, and the audience only listened to the recorded tracks live, these three auditions also brought Kanye an extraordinary income.
Nearly $70 million in NFT transactions
NFT – a non-homogeneous token that has created a new dimension in digital art in recent years. In February, Christie's announced the sale of its first NFT artwork, Beeple's Everyday: The First 5000 Days, which sold for $69,346,250, making it the most expensive NFT work to date. Since may 1, 2007, Beeple insisted on painting one work a day for 5,000 days, and 13 years later, "Everyday: The First 5000 Days" was created, this set of virtual works depicts real-world social phenomena, cultural technology and other issues, and expresses his thoughts and ideas in a variety of figurative or metaphorical artistic techniques. With this work, Beeple opened the door to NFTs and inspired more artists to participate, such as Takashi Murakami, James Jean and so on.
Sold for HK$300 million, Basquiat's works set a new Asian auction record for Western art
In March, Jean-Michel Basquiat's Warrior was unveiled at Christie's hong Kong for HK$323,600,000, setting a new auction record for Western art in Asia. The painting depicts a warrior wielding a sword and shield and wearing a thorn on his head, and the rough brushstrokes show the fearless and heroic character of the warrior, but also highlight the artistic characteristics of the painter's originality and spontaneity. In addition, the work was created in 1982, the year That Basquiat called "the best painting ever made", and the painting featuring black people was actually Basquiat's use to convey the concept of "black people struggling in a white world".
WORLD WIDE TOUR 3 is held BE@RBRICK 20th anniversary
Born in 2001, BE@RBRICK has now turned 20 years old, and this cartoon bear, designed and produced by Japan's MEDICOM TOY, has "played" many roles in various images in the past 20 years, or acted as a bridge to connect the culture and relationship between brands, becoming one of the "must-haves" in every hipster's "home". To celebrate, MEDICOM TOY opened the BE@RBRICK WORLD WIDE TOUR 3 (BWWT) exhibition at the end of this year, with the theme of "GARDEN", and invited Chen Guanxi to curate, and invited 100 units/artists to participate in the design, such as ACRONYM®, UNDERCOVER, Supreme, Nike and other brands, as well as artists such as Kongshanji and Haroshi, participated in the BWWT The largest number of participants and the largest annual exhibition so far.
The Design Museum in London hosts an exhibition on the history of sneakers
From May to October, the exhibition "Sneakers Unboxed: Studio to Street" opened at the Design Museum in London, featuring more than 200 pairs of sneakers, including sneakers designed for professional sports in different eras such as CONVERSE Chuck Taylor All Star and Nike Alpha Fly Next%, as well as iconic and collaborative models that have shaped the sneakers all the rage – from Michael Jordan to Run-DMC, collaborations from Supreme to Kanye West and more. In addition, visitors can also see the adidas FutureCraft.Strung production robot, as well as the controversial Vibram "5 finger" prototype shoes, all exhibits are the most iconic, breakthrough and innovative shoes and technologies in the history of modern sneakers, and the entire exhibition reflects the historical evolution of sneakers.
FUTURA's largest solo exhibition to date "FUTURALAND"
In June, FUTURA kicked off his largest public installation to date, FUTURALAND, featuring space at the Hong Kong Landmark Atrium, featuring a large 6-metre-tall rocket spacecraft surrounded by seven 1.8-metre-tall FL-006 alien sculptures. FUTURA hopes to introduce him and his work through "FUTURALAND". "I wanted to familiarize people with my character's world, and the thoughts behind my characters and the perceptions in the game — where did they come from and then come here?" In this spaceship project, the alien characters help tell that kind of interesting story, and as far as the characters are concerned, it's really just my own fantasy."
After 20 years, KAWS returned to Tokyo to host the exhibition
KAWS TOKYO FIRST, KAWS's large-scale exhibition in Japan this year, features more than 150 works by the artist from the early days to the present day, tracing his unique creative process and development, as well as the historical significance of art. In addition, the name of the exhibition is the same as KAWS's first solo exhibition in Japan in 2001, "KAWS TOKYO FIRST", which expresses KAWS's concept of "returning to the original point". Returning to Japan after 20 years, IN CELEBRATION, KAWS TOKYO FIRST has launched many peripheral products, including the iconic Tee and bags launched by UNIQLO and POTER, as well as several ORIGINAL KAWS character dolls, including the well-known COMPANION.
The work "Arc de Triomphe, Parcel" was officially completed
The triumphal arch, parcel, which took 60 years from conception to real creation, was finally officially "opened" this year, which is a work of art jointly conceived and created by the well-known landscape artist Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude, wrapping the Paris landmark - the Arc de Triomphe with cloth and rope, the competition between the forces of nature and the fabric space, the perfect refraction angle of the light reflected behind the fabric, all of which are included in the eyes of designers, artists and citizens. Punch in for yourself in this magnificent and spectacular work of art.
Banksy's shredded works were auctioned again, and the price was doubled 18 times
Three years ago at Sotheby's in New York, there was an incident in which the artist Banksy's Girl With a Balloon was hammered for $1.4 million, when the painting was suddenly crushed into a note by a shredder in the frame, and when the audience was stunned, they realized that it was an event of Banksy's "self-directed and self-acting" and claimed that it was part of the entire work. This year, the self-destructible work was renamed Love is in the Bin and was recently auctioned off again at Sotheby's. It was resold for $25.4 million, 18 times the original price. Interestingly, the act of tearing up the painting, which Banksy used to mock the art elite, is now "gaining power" for 18 times the price. Still, BBC News Art Editor Will Gompertz claimed the work was "one of the most important works of art of the early 21st century."
In the post-pandemic era, Art Basel Miami finally returned to offline
As one of the biggest art events of 2021, Art Basel Miami has finally returned to offline exhibitions at the Miami Beach Convention Center. From 253 galleries around the world, there are 253 galleries from rare historical masterpieces to the work of emerging artists of the moment, including art forms such as painting, installation and sculpture, as well as the popular digital art NFT, creating a hybrid exhibition between tradition and new. In addition, high-end brands such as LOUIS VUITTON "objects Nomades", Saint Laurent, RIMOWA®, CHANEL and even CHROME HEARTS host events during Art Basel miami and bring modern and contemporary art works combined with fashion.
The craze for NFT creation of star entertainers
Since Beeple sold NFT works for more than $60 million and Musk released NFT songs on Twitter, all the major stars have been "Amway" on this new digital artwork and even joined the creation. For example, Snoop Dogg collaborated with digital artist Coldie to release 10 different collages with audio of NFT-themed lyrics recorded by Snoop Dogg; contemporary artist Damien Hirst transformed Drake's Certified Lover Boy album cover into 10,000 NFTs; Estonian rapper Tommy Cash co-created "Rick Owens" Mona Lisa", while rap mogul JAY-Z celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of his debut album Reasonable Doubt through an NFT auction... All these phenomena show that it is the convenience and inclusiveness of NFTs in creation that allows celebrities, creatives and even the general public to become "creators of NFT artworks" and join this trend.
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