POP CULTURE IN 2025: RING FOR TAYLOR, KISSCAM FAIL AND WHATEVER '6-7' MEANS

Dictionaries define things.

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It’s their job. So when dictionary. com pronounced “6-7” as their 2025 word of the year, you'd think they would have, well, defined it.But no. “We're all still trying to figure out exactly what it means,” they told us of this year’s “linguistic time capsule.”

But that’s just how pop culture works, isn’t it? Who's to explain why parents alone in their cars were suddenly singing “up up up” from that “KPop Demon Hunters?” song? Or why, in the Venn diagram of pop culture and zoology, it was the capybara that emerged victorious and beloved? Goodbye, Moo Deng. You're adorable, but so 2024.

Despite our new obsessions, though, some things remained constant — by which we mean Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, of course. It seems like every year gets bigger for Swift. But in 2025, she put a bow — or ring — on it with Travis Kelce, announcing “your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” As for Beyoncé, the musical goddess finally won that Best Album Grammy she long deserved — and, on tour, introduced anew force: her daughter, Blue Ivy.

So from the inexplicable to the familiar, here’s our annual, highly selective journey down pop culture memory lane:

JANUARY

They may not be TAYVIS, but they’re a delightful couple just the same: Zendaya and Tom Holland are engaged. Let's hear it also for DEMI MOORE, who wins a GOLDEN GLOBE for her wild performance in “The Substance.”

FEBRUARY

“Salutations!” says Samuel L. Jackson, introducing Kendrick Lamar, the first solo hip-hop artist — and Pulitzer winner — to headline the Super Bowl halftime show. (P.S. Is that Serena Williams?) At the GRAMMYS, members of the Los Angeles Fire Department present Beyoncé with her best album trophy for “Cowboy Carter” — the most awarded and nominated artist in Grammy history becomes the first Black woman to win the top prize in the 21st century.

MARCH