Uggs and Usher’s Halftime Show: The Return of 2004

From lusting after a Motorola Razr phone to adding Ugg boots to your online basket, here are the 2004 trends that are dominating music, fashion, film and tech as we kick off 2024. 

Mean Girls is in the cinema, the OG Sugababes are performing live and winning awards, Natasha Bedingfield is trending on TikTok and Saltburn has Gen Z looking for the Kate Moss Topshop range on Depop. We’re in the grip of an unstoppable noughties revival.  

Playing into the 20-year trend cycle, 2024 is seeing specific callbacks to 2004 across pop culture. From lusting after a Motorola Razr phone to adding UGG boots to your online basket, here are the 2004 trends that are dominating music, fashion, film and tech as we kick off 2024. 

Usher is bringing back the sounds of 2004

The Big Game halftime show is a pretty big deal. Historically the most watched musical performance of the year, previous performers include some of the world’s biggest stars, from Rihanna and Beyoncé to Coldplay, Prince and the Rolling Stones. This year, the honour went to global R’n’B star and prolific musical collaborator Usher. 

Usher has sold over 80 million records in career but his biggest hit is still banger Yeah! featuring Lil John and Ludacris, which was the longest running No.1 single in 2004. 

That wasn’t the only hit Usher had that year; My Boo, featuring Alicia Keys, also reached No.1 on the Billboard charts. Keys became a superstar in 2004 after the release of her album The Diary of Alicia Keys, which included the single If I Ain’t Got You. 

Usher isn’t alone in driving the sounds of the noughties into 2024. R’n’B and hip-hop star Akon, whose debut album Trouble was released in 2004, is bringing ‘The Superfan’ tour to the UK and Europe this year, while Natasha Bedingfield’s 2004 smash hit, Unwritten, has won over a whole new host of fans twenty years after it was first released. The song started trending on TikTok after it was featured in the new romantic comedy Anyone But You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell. 

Fashion is in its Y2K era

Credit: Highsnobiety

From classic shoulder bags to rhinestones, noughties fashion staples are popping up across runways and high streets. Women’s fashion — especially among Gen Z — is dominated by 2004 staples. Think tees with glittery logos paired with low-slung jeans (not for the faint of heart), bucket hats jazzed up with sparkles or patches, cardigans that tie at the top (perfect for showing off your belly button jewellery) and form-fitting corset tops. 

But the biggest 2004 comeback award goes to UGGs. Once inescapable and loved by the likes of Paris Hilton and Kate Moss, we collectively vowed never to wear these comfortable-but-oh-so-impractical shoes again sometime around 2010. In the last few months, the likes of Bella and Gigi Hadid and Emily Ratajkowsi have been spotted out and about in UGGs, going viral on TikTok and sparking a new-old fashion movement. Just pray the Hadid sisters don’t adopt footless tights next. 

The Mean Girls revival

When Mean Girls arrived in cinemas in 2004, it quickly joined the ranks of the best high school films of all time. Twenty years later, the film is a cult classic, particularly amongst (now adult) millennial women who inhaled the film as tweens and can often be found shouting “You go, Glen Coco!” at random intervals. The film helped launch the careers of the likes of Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfriend, cemented Tina Fey’s success off the back of 30 Rock and marked Lindsay Lohan’s transition from child star to teen icon. 

Now, Mean Girls has been rebooted: the 2024 release is a filmed version of the stage musical, sticking closely to the original script but with added song and dance numbers. The film has become a box office hit, packing out cinemas worldwide and proving affection for the original film hasn’t lessened over time. 

Meanwhile, star Lindsay Lohan is experiencing her own career renaissance, signing a three-picture deal with Netflix that includes Christmas rom-com Falling for Christmas and the upcoming comedy Irish Wish. 

Mean Girls isn’t the only 2004 hit set to make a comeback — The Incredibles, Shrek and Dodgeball are all slated to get sequels over the coming months. When it comes to early noughties entertainment, we just can’t get enough. 

Flip phones are back

It’s not just entertainment and fashion that’s feeling the noughties effect. Even technology isn’t immune to the retro throwback. Last year, online searches for flip phones rose by a whopping 15,000% among Gen Z and younger millennials. But it’s not any old flip phone that’s caught the eye of a nostalgic younger generation; Google searches for “Motorola Razr flip” rose by over 240% in the past year, in part driven by the company’s decision to release an updated Razr for the new era. The original Razr model was released in — when else — 2004, making the new Razr neck-and-neck with UGGs for best throwback accessory.