There was more to 2023 than Barbie pink.
[Photos: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images, Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu/Getty Images, Buda Mendes/TAS23/Getty Images/TAS Rights Management, Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Parkwood/Getty Images, Warner Brothers, Pantone, Twitter/X]
Looking back at the biggest news stories of the year is a time-honored holiday tradition in the media industry, and to borrow a popular John Oliver-ism: it has been a busy one. Donald Trump was indicted (4 times), interest rates in the U.S. jumped to highest levels in 22 years, Hollywood went on a strike, the Titan submersible imploded, wildfires devastated Maui, the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action, Prince Charles became king.
We could keep building on that list, but instead, we decided to to something a little different and look back at 2023 through the lens of color. From the “Barbie pink” frenzy that took the internet by a storm this summer, to the much more sobering glimpses of red, black, white and green watermelons waved in solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war, 2023 can be defined in colors. Here are 8 of them, in order of their appearance.
[Image: Taylor Swift Official Store]TAYLOR BLUE
Before I get skewered by a Swiftie for singling out blue over the nine other colors painting the pop star’s landmark Eras tour, let me preface this by saying: I know. Taylor Swift cannot be reduced to one shade. Taylor Swift contains multitudes. She is sparkles, and she is sequins. If iridescence were a color, she would be it.
But if you’re a Swiftie, you also know that the color blue blue is the official color of her album 1989, which the singer re-released in October this year. And iridescence is not a color. So if we can’t agree on a color, then we can at least agree that this was Taylor’s year. Her Eras tour became the highest-grossing tour ever. She was Spotify’s most streamed artist of 2023. Even Time magazine named her the 2023 Person of the Year, making her the first person to be selected because of her achievement in the arts.
[Photo: Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu/Getty Images]HAZY ORANGE
On June 7, the sky turned orange—at least for people on the Northeast coast of the U.S (and later, for those on the West Coast.) The haze, thick and apocalyptic, was, in fact, smoke that had drifted south from more than 400 wildfires burning in Canada. For a brief moment, New York City had the worst air quality world in the world. Dystopian images of New York City shrouded in a tawny halo took over the internet, but the drama was even realer in Canada, where fires scorched more than 15 million hectares.
[Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Parkwood/Getty Images]BEYONCE SILVER
Silver was trending earlier this year, and we have Beyonce to thank for that. Queen Bey kicked off her Renaissance tour donning glittering eyeshadow, and wore several silver outfits across the stops. On August 22 (her birthday), she decreed that fans come to her subsequent shows decked in silver to create “a shimmering human disco ball each night.” And in November, to mark the premiere of her Renaissance film, she pushed the silver envelope even further by dying her hair an icy-silver blond.
[Photo: Warner Brothers]BARBIE PINK
The least surprising contender of this list, Barbie pink was practically impossible to miss this summer. Mattel’s movie Barbie was a box office smash hit when it came out on July 21, earning it quite a few superlatives. With more than $1.38 billion worldwide, Barbie became the highest grossing film in Warner Bros.’s 100-year history and the highest the highest grossing film ever from a female filmmaker at the domestic box office. Fueled by a masterful marketing campaign, the entire world seemed bathed in fuchsia, both online and offline.
[Image: Twitter/X]GRUNGE-ERA BLACK
Twitter’s blue and white bird was simple, recognizable, iconic. When Elon Musk chose to rename the social media platform X.com, he erased 10 years of brand equity and replaced a meticulously crafted logo with a crowdsourced symbol that looked an awful lot like the classic X Windows System logo from 1984. Later, he “upgraded” the new X logo by adding decidedly grungy scratches and scuff marks, which my colleague Zachary Petit rightfully remarked worked perfectly as a ”a metaphor for his dinged and damaged platform.“
[Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images]PALESTINIAN RED, BLACK, WHITE, AND GREEN
Last year, the watermelon became a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance. This year, it emerged in a different corner of the world, as a symbol of Palestinian solidarity in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
The use of the watermelon by Palestinians dates back to 1967, when Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza and banned the Palestinian flag. In response, Palestinians started using images of sliced watermelon because it has the same colors as the Palestinian flag: red, black, white, and green.
More recently, protesters around the world have been seen carrying watermelons in the streets, and watermelon emojis have cropped up on social media. Since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas. To date, more than 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombings on Gaza, almost 50,000 have been injured, and more than 2.3 million Palestinians have been displaced.
[Image: The Development/Pantone]PEACH FUZZ
Technically, Peach Fuzz was crowned Pantone’s Color of the Year for next year, but that hasn’t stopped a constellation of brands from jumping on the bandwagon and casting the pastel hue onto Motorola phones, Ruggable rugs, Cariuma sneakers, wallpapers, lip glosses, and so much more. The color may not signify an important event from this year, but it reflects, at least according to Pantone, our growing need for compassion and kindness. Eye rolls are welcome, but here’s to more of that for 2024.
