"Cybercore" redirects here. For the video game, see Cyber Core.
Apple's iMacG3, an example of the blobject-style design common in Y2K aesthetics.
Y2K is an Internet aesthetic based around products, styles, and fashion of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The name Y2K is derived from an abbreviation coined by programmer David Eddy for the year 2000 and its potential computer errors. The Y2K aesthetic can include synthetic or metallic materials, inflatable furniture, and computer interfaces of the dotcom era. Y2K may also borrow elements of the McBling aesthetic,[1][2] with which it is sometimes conflated.[3]
Originally, Y2K as an internet aesthetic retrospectively referred to a retrofuturistic art movement, characterized by metallic materials (also called chromecore), blobjects and reflective clothing.[1] As the term "Y2K" garnered mainstream attention over the course of the 2020s, this term has since expanded to refer to 2000s fashion in general;[4] the former definition of Y2K is sometimes known as Cybercore or Y3K in East Asian countries[5] to differentiate itself from the latter.[6]
Origins
Y2K has been compared to "nowstalgia", a phenomenon where culture changes so quickly that newer generations miss things from the recent past.[7] The fast change in the 2000s came from the September 11 attacks, the war on terror and the decade's quick advancements in technology, such as the iPod and iPhone.[8] Evan Collins, the founder of the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute, created the "Y2K Aesthetic Institute", which Vice described as "the best source for the Y2K".[2] Additionally, The Designers Republic, a British graphic design collective, is sometimes associated with popularizing Y2K.[9][10]
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