The OG Sugababes are back in full swing, a newly-reformed S Club are selling out The O2 Arena, and Kelly Rowland is headlining Mighty Hoopla at Brockwell Park. If we hadn’t lived through both Brexit and a global pandemic, you’d be hard pressed to believe we weren’t back in the 2000s – but alas, Noughties-fever is alive and well in 2023.
Without the assistance of a single time machine, it certainly feels like we’re in the grip of a huge revival for the era right now, with the influence of the millennium sweeping contagiously through the UK. Much like a devastating new mutation of the Y2K bug.
Evidence of the Noughties revival is evident everywhere, from Gossip Girl’s recent telly revival to the return of clunky flip-phones. The influence of the early millennium is most keenly felt, though, through music. Artists of today are notably sampling some of the biggest hits of the era – rapper Jack Harlow recently bagged a worldwide hit with his 2022 track First Class, which samples Fergie’s now-iconic 2007 classic Glamorous. Charli XCX has also been championing the sounds of the Noughties, having sampled September’s 2005 hit Cry For You on 2022’s Rina Sawayama collaboration Beg For You.
Today’s artists are also busy paying homage to memorable fashion moments from some of the decade’s biggest stars, including Girls Aloud and Sugababes. Both groups’ influences are still felt through artists including BRIT Award-winning breakthrough UK girl group FLO, who channel the aesthetic of iconic Noughties girl-groups with coordinated pleather and low-rise looks.
Above all, the Noughties was defined by paparazzi culture, with the idea of celebrity central to the time period. It’s difficult to think back without picturing Paris Hilton’s blonde girl era, Lindsay Lohan’s partying, and the ruthless tabloid pursuit of artists like Britney Spears.
The more negative aspects of the era, with its dangerous fixation on unattainable beauty standards, have largely been forgotten about when it comes to the Noughties revival, however. Instead, the decade has now taken on a more rose-tinted tone, with fans instead basking in the greatest musical moments of the glory days.
Dedicated accounts to the decade have also begun taking over social media. One such Twitter account, PopCulture2000s, boasts over 1M followers, regularly showcasing their love of all things Noughties with tributes to Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears and of course, Noughties IT-girls, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. The account posts some of the most iconic hits and moments in the era, including Beyoncé, P!nk and Britney Spears’ 2004 Pepsi ad, and tracks synonymous with the time, like Pussycat Dolls’ 2008 hit When I Grow Up.
Spotlighting the UK’s Noughties celeb culture, meanwhile, is Instagram stalwart Love Of Huns; the account takes frequent looks back at iconic moments from the era in an attempt to drill down into the core of UK culture – expect to see a lot of the Victoria Beckham Posh bob and all things Katie Price in the process.
The account has spearheaded the still-growing movement of UK hundom, which happens to be a key driver of the Noughties revival. Hun culture is difficult to pin down to its raw essence, but sits somewhere between an undying appreciation of reality TV icons like Gemma Collins, and a flurry of Kat Slater Eastenders memes. The Noughties had a distinct IDGAF factor about it that goes hand in hand with hun culture, and the account celebrates many of the era’s most entertaining celebs.
As any self-respecting hun will know, an appreciation of Noughties pop is also deeply connected with the LGBTQ+ community - Artists like Girls Aloud, Anastacia, Atomic Kitten, and Victoria Beckham all still command huge queer fan followings, even though most of the artists listed aren’t making music anymore.
Carolyn Owlett is a member of Noughties girl-band the 411, who made their breakthrough with Dumb in 2004. At the time of their initial rise, the group were marketed as a cooler, edgier take on the girl band, with a similar vibe to fellow UK pop group Liberty X. The effects of growing Noughties fever is rubbing off on the 411, and the singer admits that it’s prompted the band to reflect on their core audience now.
“Over our years as a band we have realised how huge our LGBTQ+ audience is; we didn’t know that back then, at all. We’ve really only just realised that [Dumb] made such an impact on gay audiences.” The track and its feel-good nature made for an iconic anthem for the community, which Owlett says the band were not immediately aware of.
This realisation influenced the 411’s decision to reunite at London’s Mighty Hoopla Festival last summer. “If there was ever a place that this is gonna go down, well, it’s gonna be Hoopla,” she says. “We were just absolutely shocked by how many people came.”
Mighty Hoopla is a pop festival at heart, and in the organisers’ words, “provides a focus for emerging and established LGBTQ+ artists and performers, as well as delivering a safe and welcoming event for our diverse audience and attendees”. First evolving out of beloved club night Sink the Pink, it encapsulates the growth of affection for the Noughties. This year’s festival takes place this weekend, on June 3-4. The two-day takeover of Brockwell Park is essentially the country’s biggest millennial get-together, with this year’s bill featuring Jamelia (arguably only just a millennial, since she was born in 1981), A1 (only one of whom could argue millennial status), and Sophie Ellis-Bextor (nope).
The festival’s organisers say it’s important for their ethos to tap into the nostalgia that sets them aside from other festivals in the calendar. “We’re literally just chasing the stuff that we love; to make us feel great, and bring us joy,” says co-founder Glyn Fussell. “The more scary and bleak and crazy the world gets... I think that’s also no coincidence that [Mighty Hoopla] is like a beacon of light for people, because we tap into that nostalgia of youth.
“[It’s] that feeling when you’re in a club, and someone plays something that reminds you of when you were 17, and it was all so innocent, and it makes you feel amazing,” he continues. “We’re just doing that on a very, very large scale.”
Festival director Jamie Tagg says inclusivity has always been a central factor: “I think we felt like we had a real duty put something on that the [LGBTQ+] community are not only proud of, but is inclusive in a way that you can bring your friends and allies,” he says. “Even those that don’t know much about the scene, they can still come and learn a little bit more.”
“It is a really fun scene to be part of,” he says. “That’s the one area that we spent a lot of time and effort; to make thing as safe and as welcoming as possible.”
And many of the Noughties artists feel the same way about the festival and its audience. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who plays on Sunday June 4, is returning after having a great time there in 2021. “It’s gonna be amazing,” she says. “I have played it before, and I think it was actually probably one of my happiest festival experiences. The atmosphere with everybody was just so warm,” she says.
Ellis-Bextor is one of the UK’s most enduring stars from the decade, having gifted us with the smash-hit classic Murder On The Dancefloor, as well as more recently, her iconic pandemic-born Kitchen Disco. Though she’s deviated from her early pure pop sound and branched into more experimental takes on the genre since her 2000 breakthrough Groovejet (If This Ain't Love), she still enjoys revisiting early hits through a slightly different lens.
“It’s really special, and you can tell that for a lot of people that go to it, it’s something that’s very precious to them and their calendar. This is the time when they’re going to wear that outfit, and go with their friends, and just feel 100 per cent themselves, and feel good.”
The festival’s Saturday tickets have already sold out, and Sunday tickets are quickly disappearing. The weekend’s line-up includes Kelly Rowland, Natasha Bedingfield, Girls Aloud’s Nadine Coyle, and Kelis among many other major Noughties figures; as well as more current hit-makers such as Years and Years and the recent Eurovision winner Loreen.
Gabriela Serpa, a behavioural analyst at Canvas8, says affection for the Noughties may have grown following the pandemic. “If you look back at 2019, polls show that the 2000s were not a popular decade at all,” she says. “Then in 2021, after the pandemic, people changed their mind. Lockdown saw people re-watching shows like the Sopranos and Dawson’s creek. For Gen Z especially, the Noughties really cemented themselves as a great era. It felt far removed from the turbulence of the present, but close enough to be relatable.
“As the last era before massive digitalisation at the level that we know it today, it really resonates with a lot of people because it offers a sense of stability. The analogue [nature] of it all makes it feel reliable. But it’s not so analogue that it’s unrelatable to young audiences either,” she says.
Ellis-Bextor also has her own take on our growing love of the Noughties: “It’s carefree, without all the responsibilities… all the things you’re worried about now: mortgage, or rent, or whatever the other things are”, she says.
“You’ve now got all these pop bands from that era going out on tour and doing really well with their ticket sales and stuff. Maybe everybody’s like, actually, that feels really like a really happy time to go back to?”
The 411’s Owlett shares a similar view, though her insight into how people might be feeling now is startling: “People just want a good time, they want to remember how they used to feel”, she says. “They want to remember songs of a time when things were a little bit easier, I think, or they had less responsibility. Everybody likes the feeling of when they feel young, or when they actually felt anything, you know?
“Sometimes we can just go into these kinds of mundane states where we’re just living – it’s not really like, pinnacle moments. I suppose your teens, and early 20s are such moments in time when everything becomes accessible, and everything is new and exciting. I think people want that; they want it back.”
Even if the reality of the Noughties was far more chaotic, the passage of time tends to make us view things through a warmer, more positive lens. Was life back then really more settled than the present? The jury’s out on that one, but in the meantime, nostalgia is one hell of a drug.
