OPINION: "2016 Takeover Block Party": What Exactly Was 2016 About?
By William Magrino | September 21, 2026
I would say I walked into the Block Party on Labor Day feeling a little confused. Not because of all the representation of student organizations, which I was happy to see, and I loved seeing all these campus groups represented and found a lot of them very easy to talk to.
Overall, I could say Block Party was a pleasant experience, for my first time properly attending one. But one thing just kept bothering me in the back of my mind: what exactly did the theme “2016 Takeover” mean?
The UAlbany Student Association decides the theme every year, with last year’s “Freaknik” being a way more defined idea to begin with, and something people could design and dress for. When I asked my friends about what exactly “2016” as a theme meant, most of them just couldn’t put their finger on it. Pokémon Go was mentioned, and I certainly saw references to it on a few posters.
Someone commented that not much has changed in terms of fashion since 2016, and I couldn’t really argue with that. Another friend mentioned the “Snapchat filters” which, arguably, Snapchat has lost its relevance as we have grown older, so it makes sense that it would usually be associated with 10 years ago. There were certain organizations and posters around Block Party that had made reference to the Snapchat filters. There were also organizations I saw that had fidget spinners out, and fidget spinners were referenced on the official poster, however it has been widely stated that the fidget spinner trend really began and peaked one year later, 2017.
Ultimately, when it came to my view from what I saw at Block Party, it also did not necessarily feel like much had changed in terms of music either, which is just as important of a detail to 2016. Hearing artists such as Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, BLACKPINK, Fifth Harmony, and The Chainsmokers around Block Party, most of them still have relevance musically in 2026. Sure, 2016 feels defined in terms of music, but not really in much else.
Another friend also told me the early 2010s is what feels more defined and even might be closer to what people are yearning for: the early 2010s nostalgic sound to pop music, Obama era politics, and even less to worry about before the impending doom of the late 2010s.
After all, 2016 was the year Donald Trump was elected as president. If anything, because of that, it still feels like we are living with the consequences of 2016. So a lot of older people asked “why are Gen Z looking at 2016 as a fun year?” If the idea of the trend is “2026 is the new 2016,” which is the name for the Wikipedia article associated with the trend, why do we as people not acknowledge the negatives that have happened since then?
There was constant negative propaganda even being spread politically in 2016, with Trump’s political campaign setting off a depressingly huge wave of anti-immigrant sentiment throughout America. A lot of older generations even at the time used to call 2016 a terrible year, which is interesting even viewing from the perspective of now. 2016 would just seem so tame compared to the chaotic state of the world now, where so many people are just doomscrolling through AI slop.
Is the nostalgia for 10 years ago simply because we’re now all college students and we had an “easier life” then? Anyone who is graduating UAlbany in 2027 would have been in middle school in 2016. It’s mainly Gen Z people like us that are presenting the idea of 2016 being so much better than now. 2016, as a concept, is certainly just as connected to nostalgia as we are looking back on it now.
The first season of Stranger Things premiered in 2016, which set off a wave of 80s nostalgia for a lot of people that year, as well as the 80s being used as a trend. A Zara Larsson song called “Lush Life” which was already well-known when released in 2016 became a chart and TikTok success at the beginning of this year. Does every generation yearn for when they were young? Did millennials miss 2006 or 2007 in the way we’re looking back on 2016? Nostalgia as a trend feels like it got even more obvious after 2016, compared to the 2000s.
Honestly, from my perspective, 2016 does not look so great, and it does not feel so long ago. What we viewed as positives does not necessarily outweigh the negatives for that year. However, I do not think it’s a bad thing for us who are college students, coming to terms with being adults, to hold on to our memories. If 2016 was the beginning of doom for older generations, 2020 was where things started to feel doomed and get “real” for us, having to deal with a longstanding pandemic which we are still recovering from to this day. So I don’t think we can say the 2016 trend is a “good” or “bad” thing, just something that takes us back to before we knew how much we would change as people.
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