Reminders of a difficult time don’t always have to be difficult themselves. In fact, some of them are also reminders of one of the most impactful eras in both pop-culture and fashion history.

“Sports Car” by Tate McRae 

If you’ve found yourself humming the lyrics to the 2025 hit-single, “Sports Car” by Tate McRae in the past few weeks, you’re reaping one of the few benefits of a recession indicator. This song falls in a genre that can only be described as “Recession Pop”, and that genre is on the rise once again. Other songs that fall in this category are “Boom Boom Pow” by Black Eyed Peas, “Like A G6” by Far East Movement, The Cataracs and DEV, and “Magic” by B.o.B (ft. Rivers Cuomo). If you hadn’t noticed, this type of music left an unerasable mark on the USA in the late 2000s, much like the country’s last recession. However, unlike the last recession, this music brought about a beautiful change to the music industry – later causing albums such as Planet Pit (Deluxe Version) by Pitbull, Pink Friday…Roman Reloaded by Nicki Minaj and Believe (Deluxe Edition) by Justin Bieber to be created. This music also instilled a sense of hope in the people of the United States. In a time when everything seemed bleak and uncertain, a rise in upbeat and happy music helped change the mindset of not just young people, but everyone else as well. This is why the genre continued to be popular even without a recession to this day! Even though we are not in a recession, there are an indescribable amount of pressures that everyone goes through which can cause them to feel uncertain and afraid, but Recession Pop music  can always be counted on to help them see the light at the end of the tunnel! I can honestly tell you that I listen to songs in the “Recession Pop” genre more than anything else, and for that reason, it’s one of my favorite recession indicators. 

Chuck Taylor All Star XXHi

Picture it: The day is December 25, 2007. You woke up at 6:00am but stayed in bed till 8:00am to give your parents a chance to wake up. You race to your living room, more specifically the Christmas tree whose bright lights you can already see from around the corner. After fifteen minutes of shredding wrapping paper with a Sony Handycam HDR-CX7 in your face, you reach for the last and biggest box. Once you’ve gotten rid of its paper vessel, you are met with pure, solid gold. Just kidding, but the real content is not much different to you because you’re also a tweenage girl – you are met with a pair of Chuck Taylor All Star XXHi’s. Fantasy over. Knee-high converse were every ten to fifteen-year-old girl’s dream shoe in the late 2000s and early 2010s. This sneaker was popular amongst all aesthetics, from UrBling to Prep to Emo, because of how seamlessly it blended in with all of them. The shoe was as versatile as it was cute, which is why Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” and No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” could be heard from the bedroom of every tweenage girl in America’s room when they discontinued it – an absolutely devastating event. Converse, and various other brands were forced to discontinue fan-favorite-products because of the severe lack of revenue during the last recession. However, the Sun never fully set on the Chuck Taylor All Star XXHi’s. The sneakers made their dramatic return on June 28, 2024 with more than fifteen versions, and fans across the nation were obsessed. They were sold out back to back for four months straight. Although I wish the shoes had never been discontinued in the first place, I kind of love that they came back when they did because now Gen-Z fifteen-year-olds are able to experience the same magic that Millennial fifteen-year-olds were able to nineteen years ago when the first knee-high converse came out.  

“It” Girls

In the late 2000’s, there were a handful of things you could do to become powerful. You could become a successful doctor, a highly regarded lawyer, an innovative business owner or you could even become President of the United States if you were determined enough. Yet all of these titles pale in comparison to the most powerful thing you could be in the late 2000s – an “It” girl. In a time when nobody had any money, the most worthwhile thing to do was obsess over someone (specifically a young woman) who did. Notable “It” girls of the time include Tyra Banks, Christina Milan, Gisele Bündchen, Paris Hilton, Leighton Meester, Megan Fox, Kim Kardashian, Jessica White, Nicole Richie and many, many more. These ladies led lives that it seemed everyone wanted to live – they were rich, famous, beautiful and carefree while everyone else was drowning in bills. They were a fantasy that, while indulging in, allowed common folk to forget their own lives. Many of the “It” girls were actresses (Christina M.; Leighton M.; Megan F.), models (Tyra B.; Gisele B.; Jessica W.) and socialites (Kim K.; Paris H.; Nicole R.). With the rise of social media in the 2010s, the “It” girl began to die out as the influencer came to life. Nowadays, it seems like everyone wants to be an “It” girl or “It” boy but it is almost impossible with trend turnover, political tension and the sheer amount of people who have access to content-creating supplies. In my opinion, the closest people we have to “It” girls today are Mckenna Grace and Bailey Bass (actresses), Charli XCX and Addison Rae (singers), and Alex Consani and Anok Yai (models). Although the “It” girls of today are of an entirely different caliber than the ones of 2006–2010, they have the same effect on us — the ones who observe them. While we go to school or a 9–5, we sit and wonder what life would be like if we were in their shoes and how we’d act while in them.

The nostalgia of all three of these recession indicators doesn’t just remind us of how glamorous the 2000s were – it reminds us of how despite going through a rough time we were able to see the bright sides. We came together as a nation and pushed through a recession that changed and, in some cases, ruined lives. But we rebuilt, got used to a new normal and did it all while bumping Recession Pop, rocking our knee-high Chuck Taylor’s and admiring the “It” girls we love so much. Maybe future generations will be able to take a few pages out of our book if they go through a recession and maybe they’ll be able to take away the good parts of it like we could!