2025: The year MAGA went pop and rage bait took over

After another 365 days stuck in our algorithmic echo chambers, it feels nearly impossible to parse the forest from the trees, more so this year than the previous. Blame it on the fact that 2025 was, perhaps, the year AI dominated all facets of life, flattening the contours of the online content world. Still, things happened — and when all is said and done, how will we collectively remember 2025?

We aren't psychics, but we are writers. Ahead, The FADER team tried to make our best predictions of how we think we'll all remember this strange year.

I spent a lot of the year thinking about 2017. Some recall the cultural response to Trump’s first term — defined by "resistance" art, social media activism, and celeb clapbacks — as cringily performative (and ineffective). In 2025, though, we saw the other side of that coin, with many cultural institutions and superstars foregoing politics for nonchalance or compliance. Paramount got bought by a Trump ally. Nicki went MAGA. Formerly outspoken pop stars like Taylor Swift moved toward an implicitly “trad” cultural conservatism. And generative A.I. imagery and audio, beloved by tech oligarchs and the right, began to seep into major cultural products.

But on the other end stars like SZA and Sabrina Carpenter are speaking up, and the rise of Zohran Mamdani has galvanized New York City’s artistic community. With that, I believe next year will be different … which is exactly why we may think of 2025 as a particularly grim time in culture. —Tobias Hess

Algorithmic platforms have created an entire cottage industry of creators who understand the fastest way to grow their platform is through rage. TikTokers like Louisa Melcher and Winta Zesu have amassed hundreds and thousands of online followers for faking lovers quarrels. Meanwhile, food culinary TikTokers rage-baited by creating "Dubai chocolate matcha Labubus" or rebranding gourmet tomato bites as "Crumbl cookies of the week." Even offline, VC-backed A.I. start-ups like Cluely and Friend.ai inspired mass rage by plastering New York City with their snarky billboards. I started to doubt the intent behind even the most innocuous piece of content. Living in 2025 has just been one, mind-numbingly long exercise in being always suspicious. Surely we aren’t meant to live our one life on God’s green earth getting mad at A.I slop? —Hajin Yoo

Since Spotify’s inception there have always been detractors. But in 2025, it finally felt like the noise from those discontented with the state of devalued musical consumption finally became louder than the optimists who loved the idea of having every piece of music ever recorded at their fingertips. I subscribed to Spotify the year it came out and gave the platform my money for upwards of 13 years. I left a few years ago, after realizing as a so-called “lover of music” that I actually had nothing to show for it outside of an app on my phone.

This year, a similar decision was made by many, who largely left due to Spotify’s own corporate foibles and greed, like allowing ICE ads on the platform and the former CEO investing in war and A.I. tech (Daniel Ek, you could’ve just.. not done that). A slew of brave artists led the divestment campaign, risking their livelihoods to take a stance. It felt like a glitch in the matrix moment—everyone jolted out of their senses to actually interrogate what it was we were giving our money to and spending our precious recreational time on.

I don’t have the exact data but streaming as a whole doesn’t feel as much of a monopoly as before. I bought a CD player and began scouring eBay and local record shops for deals. I have friends who bought iPods or other offline mp3 players. Others, who have never once questioned streaming before, asked me this year: “Hey, is this even good?” Let’s hope 2025 is only the beginning. —Steffenee Wang

NAD+ injections. Supplement cocktails. Cryotherapy. Oura rings. This year was riddled with optimized forms of self-care, bred from the desire that the body and mind need to be constantly tweaked, prodded, and upgraded to perform at their peak at all times. But as the goal posts kept shifting further back, thanks in part to the ever-changing wellness and digital landscapes, the biohacker’s quest for enhancement felt fleeting, and at times, posed serious risks. But in 2025, there was no stopping the pursuit of greatness, no matter the costs. —India Roby