According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, a trend is “a current style or preference”.

Over the past 30 years that the school has been open, Highland High School has seen a variety of trends regarding different types of fashion and entertainment. When Highland first opened, the common trends weren’t too different from the current trends that are in place now.

In Highland’s first yearbook, students were shown spending their time outside of school water skiing, four-wheeling, horseback riding, and tossing around footballs. Students nowadays spend their time thrifting, wake surfing, cliff jumping, hiking, and playing video games. 

The fashion during the early 90s consisted of striped shirts, baggy jeans, “jorts”, flannel print, doc martens, baseball caps, thin-framed glasses, and Birkenstocks. For hairstyles, the students and teachers at Highland were big on bangs, perms, highlights, and mustaches. Currently, Hawks have been wearing crocheted accent pieces, cargo pants, baggy jeans, crop tops, Birkenstocks, and statement sneakers like Jordans. Hairstyle-wise, colored hair and curtain bangs with long layers have been a hit for the girls of Highland. While the guys have been seen with mullets and shaggy cuts. 

During 1993 and 1994, the top music genres were “hip hop, R&B, rap” (Wikipedia), and in the farm town of Gilbert: Country. According to Billboard, the top song in 1993 was I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston, and in 1994 the top song was The Sign by Ace of Base. The most popular music genres now are “hip hop, rap, R&B, and pop” (Wikipedia). According to Spotify the most streamed artists currently are “Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, and Drake”. In 2022 the top song was As It Was by Harry Styles, and in 2023 both Kill Bill by SZA and Flowers by Miley Cyrus have been highly streamed (Spotify).

IMDb showed that popular movies that were released in 1993 were Jurassic Park and Dazed and Confused. In 1994 The Lion King, Pulp Fiction, and Forrest Gump were released. During those two years, the most popular movie genres were “action, thriller, and horror” (IMDb). In recent years, the most viewed movies were Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of the Water, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Boxofficemojo.com). Statista.com stated that during the past two years, the most popular movie genres were adventure and action. 

TV wise, Wikipedia said the top shows that were released in 1993 were Boy Meets World, The X-Files, and Frasier. In 1994 the popular shows were Friends, Seinfeld, ER, and Murder, She Wrote. IMDb noted that recently the most popularly rated TV shows are Euphoria, Stranger Things, You, and Outer Banks.

Even though 30 years have passed since these trends were in full swing, many Hawks today have similar interests as those who came before them.