History repeats itself time and time again, and a few weeks into 2024, there seems to be several parallels between 2024 and 2020. Ranging from Grammy winners to Presidential Candidates, the media has caught the freaky, yet sometimes amusing, patterns between the two years that make viewers question society’s ability to replicate specific events from years past. Let’s unpack some of the similarities as 2024 settles into its second month.
Senior Laura Collins quotes, “The super bowl was interesting in 2020, but the way this year’s went into overtime, was an enthralling game to watch!”
The end of January and the beginning of February annually bring tons of attention to the NFL, as the association prepares for their biggest game of the year, The Super Bowl. This game entails the two winning teams of each respective conference playing a game to become the NFL champion for the year. The controversy regarding who plays the Super bowl, as this year Lion’s fans are devastated by their closest journey to the Super bowl in the team’s history, in addition to the attention sprung upon who is performing the halftime show, as viewers remember Katy Perry’s iconic tiger and shark back up dancers, is beyond control among all Americans. The 2024 Super bowl seemed to feature an identical match-up: The Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers. It seems that 2020 had the same teams playing each other in the game, with the Chiefs beating the 49ers, thirty-one to twenty. This might not be a surprise to Chiefs fans, as they’ve been to three Super bowls in the past four years, and won twice, but it is a remarkable parallel that has only happened one other time. History indeed repeated itself in 24, with the Chiefs on top again, 22-25 in overtime.
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In addition to the Super bowl parallel, Taylor Swift has remarkably made history in regards to winning Grammies in 2020 and 2024. In 2020, Taylor Swift surprisingly dropped her eighth studio album, Folklore, on July 24th, 2020. Not only did this album shock listeners with its abrupt release, but it also surprised listeners with Swift’s first album being of the Folk Genre, which centered around softer songs centered around fictional stories. The album from there on became a fan-favorite among Swifties, as they resonated with the vulnerable songs released, including Epiphany, which written for pandemic struggles. The hit single, Cardigan, was played constantly on the radio, and ultimately helped secure its spot for winning Album of the Year (AOTY). Folklore gave Swift her third AOTY award, as she previously won for Fearless in 2010 and 1989 in 2016. This made her the first woman in history to win the award three times, once again putting her on top for the industry. However, Swift is known for her ability to transform her image, going from country to pop, pop to folk, and evidently back to pop. In October of 2022, Swift released her tenth album, Midnights, which ultimately brought her image back to the world of pop. The album attracted even more new fans, as this album was a culmination of unreleased songs from her previous eras. The singles including, Anti-Hero, Karma, Lavender Haze, and Bejeweled stayed glued onto the Top 100 Chart, and also brought in many viewers for their respective music videos. The combination of the album’s success in addition to her record-breaking tour, The Era’s Tour, allowed Swift to win Album of the Year for the fourth time, with Midnights. This accolade broke yet again another record, as Swift is not the only person to win AOTY four times in their career. This ultimately demonstrates Swift’s never-ending ability to rule the music industry, securing awards despite the diversity across genres and culture across the media.
Despite having numerous lighthearted parallels, the hugest similarity is between the symmetry in Presidential Candidates. 2020 brought an immense dispute with Donald Trump running against Joe Biden. Former President Trump already was surrounded by attention regarding his first election, beating Hillary Clinton with the electoral college. While he did face conflict being in office during the beginning of the Pandemic, many citizens disagreed with his economic policies. Moving from right to left, Joe Biden had already had political experience being the Vice President for President Obama from 2008-2016. His age, however, as he was seventy-eight during the election, discouraged his campaign. He ultimately beat Trump, having over fifty percent of the popular vote and three hundred-six electoral votes. Since the election, the animosity between Trump and Biden supporters increased significantly, even leading to a raid of the White House at the beginning of 2021. This animosity in conjunction with Trump’s determination to win after losing has resulted in his reelection, going against Biden for 2024 President. Even though many citizens support their parties’ candidates and hope for a continuum of previous leads, there are also a number of Republicans and Democrats who respectively wish for their parties’ candidates to drop out, as both Biden and Trump would be the oldest presidents in history. While this election will make memorable arguments, the outcome will continue to rehash the tension that has previously divided America.
Sophomore Sofie Montano adds, “I think its ironic that the same presidential candidates are running from last election, despite their old age.”
All in all, these coincidences depict the close resemblance between 2020 and 2024. These parallels not only have caused attention amongst citizens but also enlisted analysis among the replications across the media . Despite the obvious recurring trends, like Leap Year and the plan for the summer Olympics, the year will have to pan out to truly determine the uncanny similarities that are set to come in 2024.
