2015 May 2026

Musically, 2015 was a year of dominance by two very different artists: Adele and Drake. In November, Adele dropped 25, featuring the behemoth single "Hello." The music video broke the Vevo record for most views in 24 hours, and the album sold 3.38 million copies in its first week in the US alone—a figure that seemed impossible in the streaming era.

But while Adele owned the fall, Drake owned the summer. His mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late signaled a shift away from the traditional album cycle toward streaming dominance. The song "Hotline Bling" (and its meme-able dance video) became inescapable.

Other defining tracks of 2015 included:

2015 was the "Year of the Dress" and the "Talking Ginger."

The Dress (February) On a sleepy Tumblr, a user posted a photo of a frayed blue-and-black dress. Within hours, the internet broke. Was it white and gold? Or blue and black? NASA scientists weighed in. Celebrities fought. Divorces were almost caused. The Dress was arguably the moment the modern social media algorithm realized that "engagement" could be manufactured by confusion. It was stupid, harmless, and the most viral moment of the year. Musically, 2015 was a year of dominance by

The Left Shark During Katy Perry’s Super Bowl XLIX halftime show, a dancer in a shark costume performed choreography that was... off. "Left Shark" became a symbol of doing your best even when you have no idea what you’re doing. It was a wholesome meme before memes turned toxic.

As 2015 ended, we said goodbye to some giants. On July 27, we lost the legendary musician B.B. King. In October, the Back to the Future franchise noted that Marty McFly had arrived in the "future" (October 21, 2015 was hoverboard day—and we were bitterly disappointed by the lack of flying cars). Music (The Summer of "See You Again"):

We also lost beloved icons like Leonard Nimoy (Spock), who died in February, and Maureen O’Hara, the Queen of Technicolor. The end of 2015 felt like the end of the old guard.