We’re a little bit country.We’re a little bit rock ‘n’ roll.We’re a little bit of Memphis and Nashville,With a little bit of Motown in our soul.That’s right. I just referenced a Marie Osmond song to sum up our decade.And that’s not a good sign.Unlike our predecessors, not one culture, trend or idea sums up this decade.The ‘90s were the Grunge Era.The ‘80s were all about hair bands and ripped sweatshirts.The ‘60s and ‘70s embodied peace, free love and drugs.But our era is nameless and has consequently been dubbed the “Noughties,” which is basically just a catchy way of saying years that end in zero.If we are going to be known as the “Noughties” until the end of time, let’s spell it the “Naughties,” because at least that’s somewhat cool.We have less than a year to come up with a better name for ourselves, or else we’re going to be remembered as a group of people defined by the number zero — or, well, nothing.We certainly can’t define our decade by our music, since it’s basically a mixed tape of every other decade’s music.Everything from The Beatles and Bob Dylan to Journey and The Beastie Boys to Nirvana and the Biz Markie fills our iPods.Many can argue we introduced emo and indie rock to the music scene.But bands like The Killers were inspired by ‘80s synthpop and punk rock.The White Stripes are modeled after garage rock, and The Decemberists’ sound mirrors the Bach rock of the ‘60sOur fashion trends are certainly not original either.We copycatted the ‘80s leggings. We rocked the ‘90s the flannel and ripped jeans look. And as shameful as this may be, there’s no denying we’ve brought back the side-pony and teased, Aquanetted hair.Before you know it, the scrunchie and Topsy Turvy will be all the rage again.But I don’t want us to be remembered as copycats. And being considered unoriginal is even worse.We are a concoction of cultures and subcultures, a hodgepodge of past and present pop culture. Basically, we’re mutts.We may not be original, but we’re certainly creative. We’ve added spin to past trends. And we’ve spiced up the current ones.We are our own beautiful butterflies.And all this does make it rather difficult to characterize our decade into a single category or term.”One of the reasons it’s so hard to define this decade is the fact that there is really no single dominant trend, either in music or any other facet of popular culture,” said history professor Charles Shindo, who teaches American Pop Culture. “Much of this has to do with the fact that the greater number of media outlets and greater accessibility of media means that the culture is becoming less and less homogeneous.”The names given to particular decades are also subjective, Shindo said.”While many see the ‘90s as the age of grunge, others see it as a decade of rebirth for country music,” he said. “Grunge gets attention because it was new, and at least as far as music is concerned, there really is not a lot that is new. Grunge as an idea, a subculture, and to a degree, a commodity, defines the decade for many, but not all.”And pop culture, especially for this decade, is trivial compared to what else is occurring. “Decades which are defined or characterized by a cultural trend like music tend to be decades in which not much else of importance dominates. The ‘20s are known as the “Jazz Age,” but the ‘30s are known for the Great Depression and the ‘40s for WWII.”With the War on Terror and President Barack Obama becoming the first black president, trends in pop culture are probably not on people’s minds, Shindo said.This may be true, but I don’t want this decade to go down in history as a time solely dominated by war and ignorant leaders that dug us into this deep hole of depression and pessimism.I want to be known for the good, the bad and the ugly because all that is what sets us apart from prior decades.Since I began my column with Marie Osmond’s blood-curdling song, let me end with a slightly less cringe-worthy rendition of it to sum up this decade.                                              We’re a little bit emo.We’re a little bit out of control.We’re a little bit of Bush and Obama,With a little bit of the past in our souls.I don’t know if it’s good or bad,But I know I love it so.—-Contact Drew Belle Zerby at [email protected]