Seemingly as soon as the Times Square Ball dropped, ushering in the new year, social media was flooded with throwback selfies, memes and playlists as part of a trend proclaiming that 2026 is the new 2016.
Rae Sremmurd’s decade-old smash “Black Beatles” soundtracked every other video in For You feeds. John Legend relived the triumph of La La Land on his social media. And Reese Witherspoon posted years-old selfies with Taylor Swift.
After the early 2020s oscillated between ’80s and Y2K aesthetics, it became clear that this year, the culture had zeroed in on one era in particular; now, 2016 could very well shape the way pop music moves throughout 2026 as Gen Z artists in particular can throw it back to a year they have vivid memories of. As Drake’s “One Dance,” Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Desiigner’s “Panda” dominated conversations and culture, perhaps just as crucially, 2016 was also the last vestige of life before the rise of Trumpism and the alt-right, and later, AI’s domineering shadow and algorithms that replaced monoculture with infinite silos.
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When Fetty Wap earned an early release from prison a few days into 2026, his homecoming landed as a cosmic sign. The New Jersey rapper’s dominant run lasted between 2015 and 2016, and now his music is back in the zeitgeist as fans celebrate his return. According to Luminate, “679” and “Trap Queen,” Fetty Wap’s two biggest songs from that era, both vaulted over 200% in U.S. on-demand audio streams between the last week of December 2025 and the third week of January. During the same period, several notable 2016-era pop smashes rose in streaming activity; “Panda” was up 68.6%, while The Chainsmokers’ hits “Don’t Let Me Down” with Daya jumped 35.6% and “Closer” with Halsey leapt 42%.
As much as consumers are revisiting music circa 2016, artists from that era are also using this nostalgia wave to bring attention to more recent releases. Chief among them is Swedish pop sensation Zara Larsson, who has harnessed the resurgence of 2015’s “Lush Life” (which has since reentered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 36) to lift still-rising 2025 releases like “Midnight Sun” and “Stateside” with PinkPantheress. The latter track earned a notable boost after it soundtracked gold medalist Alysa Liu’s exhibition gala skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics, which earned rave reviews from both “Stateside” singers on social media.
Ten years after the “Black Beatles”-soundtracked Mannequin Challenge dominated social media, Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee is now gearing up for Same Difference, his first project solely under his name. “Broccoli” singer DRAM has started teasing a new single, and Mike Posner, whose “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” ruled 2016 by way of a Seeb remix, will release a rewritten version of the Hot 100 top 10 hit in March, honoring the late Avicii and ushering fans into a new era of spiritual enlightenment in his music.
Several artists are also bringing this approach to the live arena, bolstering more recent tracks with their 2016-era hits. Halsey, who spent 12 weeks atop the Hot 100 with 2016’s “Closer,” recently wrapped her Back to Badlands Tour celebrating 10 years of her debut album, Badlands, while Bronx MC A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie sold out a February Radio City Music Hall show in New York (where Fetty Wap was a surprise guest) feting the 10-year anniversary of his debut mixtape, Artist. Moreover, R&B duo dvsn, Grammy-nominated blues rock outfit KALEO and rock band The Wonder Years all announced forthcoming tours in honor of their respective 2016 releases.
In this way, established artists and newer acts are moving in lockstep. As early as summer 2025, Dream Academy alum and rising pop star Adéla, who’s set to open for Demi Lovato’s arena-headlining tour this year, was banking on 2016 nostalgia to market her “Sex on the Beat” single on TikTok. “Do we think I’d have a crown if this was 2016?” she captioned a clip of her lip-syncing to the track. Eli, a buzzy pop artist gearing up for her own North American headlining trek this spring, went a bit further, pulling from late-2000s/early-2010s Hannah Montana-esque fashion to establish a persona for her debut album, Stage Girl, across social media. Chxrry, the ascendant first lady of R&B on The Weeknd’s XO record label, has looked to Cassie’s mid-2010s hairstyles to streamline her social media aesthetic and single covers. And in the music video for her hit single “Chanel,” a song that reached No. 43 on the Hot 100, Grammy winner Tyla donned a wig that almost directly references Cassie’s bright yellow bob from the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.
Beyond music releases and consumption, this 2016 nostalgia wave is also already affecting the way artists move online — part of the collective yearning for a less curated internet experience. As the biggest social media sites have adopted algorithms that strip much of the internet’s levity, musicians have turned to other channels to express their humanity and connect with fans, namely Substack, with Troye Sivan, Charli xcx, Doechii and Lizzo becoming early artist adopters of the platform. It’s possible that 2026 could see Substack becoming the go-to destination to launch album rollouts or house exclusive content.
As 2026 continues to unfold, the true test for the year’s cultural legacy rests on whether it can rise above the shadow of 2016 nostalgia and offer something distinct — or prove that there’s truly nothing new under the midnight sun.
This story appears in the March 7, 2026, issue of Billboard.
