Music captured the year’s romantic mood: a blend of euphoria and melancholy. Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” (however problematic in hindsight) dominated summer parties with its swaggering confidence. But the deeper romantic anthems were sadder: Lorde’s “Royals” rejected the bling of love songs; Imagine Dragons’ “Demons” spoke of loving someone despite your darkness; and Bruno Mars’s “When I Was Your Man” was a piano ballad of regret that became a prom staple. And then there was Taylor Swift’s (technically late 2012, but its singles ruled 2013) — a masterpiece of mapping the colors and car-crash chaos of falling hard and breaking fast.
continued their dominance, notably celebrating their fifth anniversary in Cuba . 📺 TV Relationships: The Year of the "First Kiss" NGN's Best of 2013: TV Relationships - Nerdy Girl Notes
If you were a TV fan in 2013, you did not sleep. You were on Tumblr at 2 AM, arguing about subtext. This year was the peak of "shipping culture," where the romantic trajectory of characters became more important than plot or villains.
aged 20–25 were in a committed relationship (married or cohabiting), with the rest either dating (27%) or not involved in romance at all. Emerging Adulthood
Relationships weren't "real" until they were updated on Facebook. This was the peak of the digital announcement. The "It’s Complicated" status was unironically used by drama-prone characters.