This month there were many trends ranging from U.S. politics to sports to pop culture. As you can tell from the list below, it is evident that One Direction dominated the trends this month. This is not surprising as the fans are known for having a very large online presence and for being aggressive tweeters. All of these trends were taken from either the Canadian or U.S. top trending lists.
1. #GOPDebate
The “Grand Old Party” debate is a debate between all of the republicans. This is an event that is very important in the USA since elections are a very big deal and their elections are coming up in November 2016. Before this though, they have to pick one candidate each from both the Republican and Democratic Party. They talk in these debates in order to win the public’s votes. The reason this was most likely trending in Canada was because Donald Trump is running which has caused huge media coverage. Not only that, but American politics does creep it’s way into Canadian media all the time.
2. #1DHistory
On January 26, One Direction dropped a music video for their new single, History, without any prior announcement. As this video is the last one before their 18 month hiatus, they made it into a montage of all the videos from 2011 when the band had started up. Directioners panicked on Twitter as the video ended with all four members of the band walking off the screen, thinking that they had lied about their break. It was later revealed that the directors had decided to cut out all of them running back and hugging since they thought it “looked awkward”.
3. #Conchobar [#FreddieTomlinson, #CongratulationsLouis]
On January 21, Louis Tomlinson from One Direction had a child with Briana Jungwirth. After the birth, there were many speculations about the name of their baby. One name that had stood out in particular to the directioners was the name “Conchobar”, the Irish version of Connor. This was most likely due to its absurdity and uniqueness. Fans mocked the name as they made different memes and scenarios which spread through Twitter. One joke that spread in particular was that Tomlinson had lost a bet to his Irish bandmate Niall Horan. Two days after the uproar of “Conchobar”, Louis Tomlinson posted a picture of him and his newborn son on Instagram killing all the name rumours with the caption “Meet my little lad, Freddie.” Welcome to the world Freddie Reign Tomlinson!
4. #Superbowl
The Super Bowl is occurring on Sunday, February 7 at Santa Clara’s Levi Stadium. The teams who are competing are the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. These two teams qualified to the Super Bowl after winning the AFC championships and the NFC championships. The halftime show this year will be performed by Coldplay and Beyoncé, while the national anthem will be sang by Lady Gaga. It will be airing on CBS at 6:30 EST.
5. #GreaseLive
Grease: Live aired on January 31 starring Vanessa Hudgens, Julianne Hough, and Aaron Tveit. As you can tell by the title, this was based off of the musical, Grease. Although people were skeptical at first, the reviews for this remake were mostly positive. A critic from the New York Post wrote “Regardless of its flaws, Grease is a reason to look forward to the next round of live musicals on TV.” Overall, this musical has gotten a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. A special mention to Vanessa Hudgens for performing even after her father passed away a few hours prior.
6. #PillowTalk
Pillowtalk is the new single that was released by ex-One Direction member Zayn Malik on January 29. All of his fans and others had been looking forward to what kind of music Zayn would end up releasing after he had stated that he was more R&B and that One Direction’s music was not his type. After the long wait, the song was finally released with the new music video. With this song, he definitely broke out of One Direction’s reigns. It covered a very mature subject matter unlike any of the other songs he had sang with the band. Although this song is definitely pop, it is a different type of pop song and is sounds more like a Justin Bieber song than One Direction. Good job and Good luck Zayn!
7. #XFiles
The XFiles is a science-fiction television show that follows the lives of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. This tv show is not a new one as it already had nine seasons and was renewed for a tenth season fourteen years later. It is supposed to consist of six episodes and is supposed to take place 14 years after season nine. This new season has been getting mixed ratings with only a 57% on rotten tomato.
On the last week of January, there was a huge blizzard that hit the east coast. This near-record snowfall caused schools, roads, public transportation, and government offices closed. There were even 42 weather-related deaths. For example, In New York City, 26.8 inches of snow fell and while the snowstorm made history for the snowfall was the most to hit the city in one calendar day. Everything seems to be okay now.
9. #ANTI
ANTI is the new Rihanna album that came out on January 28 on TIDAL and 29 to the general public. This is the eighth studio album released by her and includes the single “Work” featuring Drake that debuted at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. This album has received mostly positive reviews. Rolling Stones magazine gave this album a 4/5 and said that it was “banger-free”.
10. #NineTrackMind Nine Track Mind is the debut album of singer Charlie Puth, mostly known for featuring in Wiz Khalifa’a hit single “See You Again”. The singles off of this album include “Marvin Gaye” and “One Call Away”. Both of these singles debuted at the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. This album has received mostly negative reviews with The Guardian giving him a 3/5 and The Observer giving Puth a 2/5. Hopefully he can do better on his next album!