2000s Pop Culture Quiz: iPods, American Idol and Mean Girls

This 2000s pop culture quiz rewinds to the decade of Facebook, the iPod, American Idol, YouTube, Mean Girls, the first iPhone, *NSYNC and The Dark Knight. Ten questions about the gadgets, shows and stars of the 2000s, 90 seconds.

Start 2000s Pop Culture Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 90 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 90s

Internet
Which social network did Mark Zuckerberg launch from his Harvard dorm room in 2004?
Gadgets
Which portable music player did Apple release in 2001?
Television
Which talent show premiered in the U.S. in 2002 and made Kelly Clarkson a star?
Internet
Which video-sharing site was launched in 2005?
Movies
Which 2004 teen comedy introduced a clique called the Plastics?
Gadgets
Which phone, unveiled by Steve Jobs in 2007, changed the smartphone forever?
Music
Which boy band included Justin Timberlake?
Movies
Which 2008 film starred Heath Ledger as the Joker?
Gaming
Which game console, released in 2000, became the best-selling console of all time?
Reality TV
Which 2000s reality show sent Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie to live on a farm?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Which social network did Mark Zuckerberg launch from his Harvard dorm room in 2004?
Answer: Facebook
Facebook started as a site for Harvard students and opened to everyone over 13 in 2006. Myspace was the biggest social network until Facebook overtook it around 2008.
Q2: Which portable music player did Apple release in 2001?
Answer: iPod
Apple promised 1,000 songs in your pocket with the first iPod. Microsoft's Zune arrived in 2006, and Sony's Walkman dated back to 1979.
Q3: Which talent show premiered in the U.S. in 2002 and made Kelly Clarkson a star?
Answer: American Idol
Kelly Clarkson won the first season of American Idol in 2002. Judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson became celebrities in their own right.
Q4: Which video-sharing site was launched in 2005?
Answer: YouTube
YouTube's first video, Me at the zoo, was uploaded in April 2005. Google bought the site the following year for 1.65 billion dollars.
Q5: Which 2004 teen comedy introduced a clique called the Plastics?
Answer: Mean Girls
Mean Girls was written by Tina Fey and starred Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. October 3 became an unofficial Mean Girls Day because of a line in the film.
Q6: Which phone, unveiled by Steve Jobs in 2007, changed the smartphone forever?
Answer: iPhone
The first iPhone combined a phone, an iPod and an internet device with a multi-touch screen. The App Store followed in 2008.
Q7: Which boy band included Justin Timberlake?
Answer: *NSYNC
*NSYNC's 2000 album No Strings Attached sold more than 2.4 million copies in its first week in the U.S. Timberlake went solo with Justified in 2002.
Q8: Which 2008 film starred Heath Ledger as the Joker?
Answer: The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger won a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight. The film was the first comic-book movie to earn more than 1 billion dollars worldwide.
Q9: Which game console, released in 2000, became the best-selling console of all time?
Answer: PlayStation 2
Sony's PlayStation 2 sold more than 155 million units, helped by its large game library and built-in DVD player. The original Xbox arrived in 2001.
Q10: Which 2000s reality show sent Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie to live on a farm?
Answer: The Simple Life
The Simple Life premiered in 2003 and followed the two socialites as they took on rural jobs. The Hills and Laguna Beach were MTV reality shows set in California.

2000s Pop Culture Quiz – The Decade Everything Went Digital

The 2000s began with fears about the Y2K bug and ended with millions of people carrying the internet in their pockets. In just ten years, people went from burning CDs and renting DVDs to downloading songs, uploading videos and sharing their lives online. The way we watch, listen and talk to each other changed faster than in any decade before.

Technology drove much of that change. The iPod made it possible to carry a whole music collection everywhere, YouTube turned ordinary people into stars and Facebook connected friends and family across the world. When the iPhone arrived in 2007, it brought all of these together in one device.

Television was ruled by reality and talent shows. American Idol drew huge audiences every week, and shows like The Simple Life made celebrities out of people who were already famous for being famous. Meanwhile, teen comedies such as Mean Girls produced lines that are still quoted today.

Pop music had its own boom. Boy bands and pop princesses filled the charts, MTV's TRL counted down the hits every afternoon and stars like Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé and Britney Spears dominated awards shows.

This quiz looks back at the gadgets, shows, movies and music that made the 2000s unforgettable.

Fashion was just as memorable. Low-rise jeans, trucker hats, velour tracksuits and flip phones covered in rhinestones filled school hallways, and many of these trends have come back in recent years as younger fans rediscover the decade.

What This Quiz Teaches

This quiz is made for millennials, nostalgia lovers and younger fans curious about the decade before smartphones were everywhere.

When Facebook, YouTube and the iPhone first appeared
How the iPod changed the way people listened to music
How American Idol launched Kelly Clarkson
Which films defined 2000s pop culture
Which console became the best-selling of all time
The reality shows that shaped celebrity culture

Quick Facts About the 2000s

Wikipedia was launched in January 2001.
Twitter sent its first tweet in March 2006.
The final Harry Potter book, released in 2007, sold about 8.3 million copies in the U.S. in its first 24 hours.
Nintendo's Wii, released in 2006, got families playing with motion controls.
Napster, the music-sharing service, was shut down in 2001.
Netflix began streaming in 2007, ten years after the company was founded.