Inside -2007 Access

Musically, 2007 belonged to the rise of digital distribution. Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black dominated the airwaves, while Kanye West’s Graduation and Radiohead’s In Rainbows (released as a “pay-what-you-want” download) signaled a rebellion against the old record label system. On television, the golden age of prestige drama was in full swing: Mad Men premiered, The Sopranos delivered its infamous cut-to-black finale, and Breaking Bad was just months away.

To step inside 2007 is to stand at a peculiar hinge in recent history. From today’s vantage point, the year feels both reassuringly familiar and eerily naive. It was a time when social media was still a novelty, the smartphone was about to change everything, and the global economy was unknowingly dancing on the edge of a cliff. inside -2007

Inside 2007, the tech world was buzzing. Apple had just unveiled the first iPhone in January — a device that seemed magical but was initially met with skepticism. “No physical keyboard?” critics asked. Meanwhile, Facebook was expanding beyond college campuses, Twitter was spinning out of a podcasting company, and YouTube, bought by Google in late 2006, was still a Wild West of grainy, viral videos. We lived inside a world of wired internet, flip phones, and the last gasps of the CD and DVD. Streaming was a distant dream; you still owned your music and movies. Musically, 2007 belonged to the rise of digital distribution

Inside 2007, we didn’t know we were living in a prologue. We thought we were just living in the present. To step inside 2007 is to stand at

Politically, George W. Bush was still president, the Iraq War was grinding into its fifth year, and the 2008 election cycle was just beginning to heat up (Barack Obama announced his candidacy in February 2007). But the most significant story hiding in plain sight was the housing bubble. Inside 2007, subprime mortgage lenders like New Century Financial were collapsing, Bear Stearns was still standing, and few outside of finance realized that the global economy was about to implode. The stock market hit record highs in October — right before the first tremors of what would become the Great Recession.

Inside the multiplexes, 2007 was a landmark year for film: No Country for Old Men , There Will Be Blood , Ratatouille , and The Bourne Ultimatum . It was a year that balanced dark, complex storytelling with blockbuster craft.