12 DECEMBER 2025
Welcome to this week’s edition of Culture Wire, a newsletter brought to you by Singapore-based pop culture and lifestyle marketing agency Culture Group.
In this week’s edition:
- Headline of the Week: 5 trends that defined 2025
- Fax, No Printer: Spotify Wrapped isn’t just data, it’s the blueprint for Gen Z identity
Our final newsletter of the year is a chance to reflect on five trends that shaped culture in 2025 and remain relevant for brands. When we’re back in January, we’ll be looking ahead to what’s next. Thanks for reading along this year, and we’ll see you in 2026!
5 TRENDS THAT DEFINED 2025
🌿 TOUCH GRASS
Gen Z grew up online, but in 2025, many sought experiences the algorithm couldn’t deliver. While BookTok continued to drive reading trends, digital recommendations fueled distinctly offline pursuits: book club retreats and book club crafts (up 265% and 558% on Pinterest respectively). Analog bags and junk journaling clubs are on the rise in the US, alongside once-fossilized hobbies like crochet and zine-making. The trend is playing out across SEA too, with over half of Filipino Gen Z actively trying digital detoxes and Singapore Gen Z four times more likely than the global average to search for ‘pen pals’.
OUR TAKE
The algorithm can recommend a book, but it can’t replicate the book club. As concerns about the impact of AI on childhood and cognition intensify, the pull towards analog is only likely to grow.
💡Digital platforms are driving demand for offline experiences. Will you be the brand that actually creates them?
💕A FANTASY ROMANCE
Over the last 12 months, romance on women’s terms has taken center stage. Remember the cultural obsession with Conrad Fisher from The Summer I Turned Pretty? See also the growth of AI boyfriend apps and otome games — interactive romance narratives where players pursue fictional love interests — which won hearts and wallets in SEA. The momentum shows no sign of slowing: Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights lands on Valentine’s Day 2026, marketed with the tagline ‘come undone’ and a Charli XCX soundtrack.
OUR TAKE
Escapism? Sure. But when women invest at this scale, they’re not rejecting romance – they’re showing you what it’s been missing. No ghosting, no situationships, guaranteed emotional payoff. Fictional romance delivers what modern dating often doesn’t…
💡Does your brand or industry treat female desire like an afterthought? How is that changing?
Fax, No Printer*
For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’
How many days did it take for Spotify to gain 250 million active users for Wrapped 2025?
Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!
📦 ASIA IS ON EXPORT MODE
The Philippines’ Year in Search saw local artists claim four of the five top song spots. Vietnam went for five out of five, with a locally-made Red Rain ranking above Squid Game 2. But 2025 wasn’t just about Asian audiences choosing Asian content. It’s the year that content went global.
Back in January, we highlighted that Ne Zha 2 — a movie steeped in Chinese mythology that made no concessions for international audiences — had become the highest-grossing non-English animated film ever. It’s since crossed $2.2 billion to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and will land on HBO Max later this month. Physical 100 has expanded from a Korean phenomenon to a global franchise. And do we need to mention K-pop Demon Hunters…?
OUR TAKE
Cultural specificity isn’t a barrier to global scale; it’s why content travels. As Gold House CEO Bing Chen put it at All That Matters: “Asia doesn’t need the West — Asia has Asia.” The impact is rippling beyond entertainment, with aesthetic movements like Spicepunk rejecting Western templates for SEA heritage.
💡If the biggest hits of 2025 succeeded because of their cultural specificity, what does that mean for how you position your content?
🎬 IP WARS: OLD & NEW
Sequels, remakes, and known franchises dominated the box office over the last 12 months. Lilo & Stitch became the year’s first Hollywood billion-dollar hit. Zootopia 2 delivered the biggest global opening for an animated film ever. A Minecraft Movie pulled Gen Alpha into theaters en masse.
And then there’s K-pop Demon Hunters, a film so significant it deserves another mention. An original story with a $100 million budget and no franchise safety net, it was released the same day Pixar’s Elio flopped. It became Netflix’s most-watched film ever, landed TIME’s Breakthrough of the Year cover and put four songs in the Billboard top 10 simultaneously. Not bad for a movie that, as TIME put it, had success that ‘was hardly inevitable’.
OUR TAKE
Yes, K-pop Demon Hunters was a creative risk. But it was also a smart one, tapping into K-pop’s global momentum and K-drama’s crossover appeal. In a year of safe bets, it’s a reminder that risky and strategic aren’t mutually exclusive. But with K-pop Demon Hunters toys slow to materialize, some fans might be disappointed this holiday season.
💡You read the culture right. Are you backing it?
🤖 SLOP ERA
There’s more to connect AI slop and rage bait than ‘word of the year’ accolades. Both signal the same thing: the feed is broken. 2025 saw AI-generated content flood platforms at scale – from bunnies bouncing on trampolines to deepfakes of Elon Musk’s Thanksgiving dinner – while rage bait was weaponized to stoke division.
OUR TAKE
Against this backdrop, the battle for attention is getting harder. One report found that 89% of ad time is now missed, skipped or scrolled past. Brands are responding by experimenting with formats: Rare Beauty joined Substack, betting on direct connection over algorithmic reach. Microdramas continue to surge. And short-form shows are being pitched as the future of brand storytelling.
💡When feeds are full of slop, earned attention becomes more valuable than bought impressions.
This Week's Trivia Answer
B. 3 days
Last year, it took Spotify a full week to break its own record for active users during Wrapped season due to backlash over missing features like genre breakdowns and album summaries, as well as an AI podcast nobody asked for. This year? Spotify clearly listened. For Wrapped 2025, the platform hit 250 million active users in just three days, with content shared 575 million times globally. Within the first 24 hours alone, Wrapped drew 200 million engaged users (a 19% year-over-year jump), driven by high-engagement markets like India, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and the U.S.
Spotify has mastered the art of turning data into cultural moments. Wrapped has evolved from a music recap into a full-blown identity ritual — an annual event where users package and share their year in pop culture. At Culture Group, it’s basically tradition to swap Wrapped stats because, for a team steeped in music and fandoms, it’s a way to track how media becomes memory. New features like Wrapped Party, Clubs, Listening Age, and podcast/audiobook insights reflect something more profound: today’s listeners aren’t passive consumers. They’re curating multimedia identities and sharing them with the world. This is particularly true for Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences and brands would do well to look into a brand new cohort.
Expect more from us in 2026 as we unpack how these generations use data, storytelling, and nostalgia to shape who they are and how they connect with the world.
Happy Holidays and see you next year!
🚀 Over and Out!
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Your Culture Mavens,
Angela, Twila, Crystal, Helena Teri, & Vicki
