In 2016, music surrounded me, infiltrating every part of my life. I did not search for it, did not analyze it, and never gave much thought to the people behind it. Songs simply existed around me, playing on loop through shared earphones, Bluetooth speakers in school corridors, and YouTube autoplay that always seemed to know what to play next. My playlists were a mix of Shreya Ghoshal songs and global hits that had taken over the world. At the time, that felt like more than en

2026 is the new 2016. At least that’s the current social media trend. A largely nostalgic time for Gen Z-ers who were participating in the mannequin challenge and bottle flip battles, dance pop and upbeat music was born from a year dogged with political turmoil and uniquely positioned in pop culture.