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Compare [[Wham! Episode]], [[From Clones to Genre]], [[Follow the Leader]]. Good chance of being a [[Trope Maker]] or [[Trope Codifier]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== [[Anime]] ==
* The [[Harem Genre]] was invented by ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'', but was ''re''-invented in [[The Nineties]] by ''[[Love Hina]]'', which set new rules for the genre: namely, an [[Unlucky Everydude]] male protagonist who lives with a bunch of girls (the violent [[Tsundere]], the [[Bottle Fairy]], [[The Ojou]] with the [[Hime Cut]], the [[Shrinking Violet]] and the Exotic Foreign Girl) who all fall in love with him simply because he's a nice and sensitive guy, with the gaps in the plot smoothed over with dollops of fanservice. Almost every harem series since has followed its lead. Haters of this cannot forgive Ken Akamatsu.
** Akamatsu can rest easy knowing that actual credit for re-inventing the genre goes to ''[[Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki]]'', which refined and popularized the "harem anime" formula a full six years earlier. ''Love Hina'' was one of the first to apply the formula to a pure comedy with no fantastic elements, though.<ref>Well, no fantastic elements aside from Motoko's chi-enhanced swordplay, Suu's [[Clarke's Third Law|Clarkean]] technology and red-moon [[Transformation Sequence]], a flying turtle... Okay, forget we said "no fantastic elements".</ref>
* It was [[Men Don't Cry|
* The original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' basically revamped [[Humongous Mecha]] genre, single-handedly invented most [[Real Robot]] plot devices, and, along the way, ushered the [[Otaku]] subculture into existence (though to be fair, other shows helped it in the latter).
* ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' marked the shift from fantasy to sci-fi in the Digimon series.
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* ''[[Akira]]''. Before it came out, it was distressingly common to see anime films and shows targeted toward older audiences horribly [[Macekre]]d so they could fit into the [[Animation Age Ghetto]]. After it came out, people in the West finally got the idea that anime movies didn't have to be targeted towards kids at all.
** Ironically, ''Akira'' was released by Macek's Streamline Pictures studio.
* Originally, the [[Magical Girl]] genre was about cute girls using magical powers to help friends' social lives, meet boys, or make it big as [[Idol Singer]]s. However, after Naoko Takeuchi mixed [[Magical Girl]] and [[Sentai]] in equal proportions to create ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', "Magical Girl" became all but synonymous with [[Magical Girl Warrior]].
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* [[Alan Moore]] starts writing [[Swamp Thing]]. From one writer no one in America had heard of on a dying thrid-string title at DC we eventually got the whole of [[Vertigo Comics]], Marvel's Max Imprint and not a few smaller publishing houses (Avatar, for example).
* [[Chris Claremont]] starts writing the [[X-Men]]. [[Marvel Comics]] had been soap operas before that point, but Claremont's writing made the soap truly operatic in scope. Mainstream modern superhero comics, including the deconstructions of [[Alan Moore]] and others, were changed forever by the popularity of Claremont's writing style. (Yes, Byrne's art had something to do with it too, but Claremont stayed on the title a lot longer and had a lot more influence.)
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* "A Fragment out of Time" published in ''Spockanalia'' (a ''[[Star Trek]]'' fanzine running through the seventies) was the first known [[Slash Fic]] to hit wide distribution. Virtually ''every'' [[Yaoi Fangirl]] can thank the unknown fanfic writer.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Heaven's Gate (film)|Heavens Gate]]'', although not for the same reasons as most of the other examples: it was so bad, it [[Genre Killer|killed]] the [[The Western|Hollywood Western]], [[Creator Killer|United Artists as an independent studio, and director Michael Cimino's career]]. It and other high-profile flops (''One From the Heart'', ''Sorcerer'') also killed the [[New Hollywood|auteur period]] in Hollywood.
* [[Wes Craven]] made ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]]'' in an effort to kill the [[Slasher
** Before that, ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]]'' did the same thing, basically starting the modern slasher genre. Two years later, ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the 13 th]]'' turned the slasher flick into a [[Horror]] staple by focusing on the exploitation part of it.
* ''[[Die Hard]]'' did this for the action movie. Sure, there were smart thrillers beforehand -- ''[[Die Hard]]'' itself could be seen as something of a remake of ''[[North Sea Hijack]]''—but after it came out, there were far fewer action films that featured invincible, unstoppable heroes (Schwarzenegger, Stallone) whose plots depended entirely on [[Ass Pull]]ing solutions out of thin air than there were before. Plus, not many films rewrite the rules for the genre so heavily that an [[Die Hard on an X|entire subgenre]] forms around them.
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* While we're still on the subject of comic book movies, the notorious ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'' has been described as the moment when Hollywood realized that they couldn't just churn out crappy adaptations and expect the "built-in" fanboy audience to eat them up. Rather, they had to start treating their properties with at least a modicum of respect.
* ''[[Psycho]]'' and ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'' are, along with the ditching of the [[Hays Code]] and its replacement by the MPAA, widely credited for helping to turn the [[Horror]] genre from "stories that are a bit spooky and feature the odd death" to "stories where [[Anyone Can Die]], deaths are bloody and brutal, and sometimes even [[The Bad Guy Wins]]."
** Each of those films also helped to launch their own sub-genres of horror -- ''Psycho'' is considered to be the [[Ur Example]] of the [[Slasher
* ''[[Shrek]]'' ushered in a period of [[Deconstruction]] for fairy tales, resulting in [[Fractured Fairy Tale]]s such as ''[[Enchanted]]'', ''[[Happily N'Ever After]]'', and ''[[Hoodwinked]]''. The genre has recently begun [[Reconstruction]], with ''[[The Tale of Despereaux]]'', ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' and ''[[Tangled]]''.
** Shrek is also blamed by fans of traditional animation for [[Genre Killer|ending the dominance of traditional animation]] and about the rise of [[All CGI Cartoons]] laden with [[Shout-Out|pop cultural references]] that would become dated within months, an over-reliance on [[Toilet Humor]], overuse of [[Parental Bonus]] and [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]] to the point where it gets annoying, and gratuitous celebrity casting. Granted, [[Looney Tunes|Warner Bros.]] had done pop cultural references [[Older Than They Think|back in the]] [[Golden Age of Animation]]; [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]] often cast big name celebrities in their films since ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', and pretty much EVERY animation studio has slipped crap past the radar in their films, but Shrek and [[Shark Tale|similar]] [[Madagascar|movies]] are the culmination of these trends, for better or for worse.
* ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'' showed that not only can animation be entertaining and longer than 5 minutes, but that the audience can be emotionally connected with animated characters.
* The ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]]'' film series arguably did this for the entire [[Summer Blockbuster]]. At least, in [[Moviebob]]'s [https://web.archive.org/web/20140301064431/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/3688-Harry-Potter-and-the-Deathly-Hallows-Part-II opinion:]
{{quote|[''[[Harry Potter]]'' is] a film series that, for better or worse, seems to have kicked off and excelled at every major trend in modern movie-making for the last decade. Things like the boom in the [[Fantasy]] genre, to the reliance on [[Derivative Works|recognized franchise names]], to the idea of [[Marvel Cinematic Universe|long-running cinematic continuity]], can all be traced back to this one game-changing production. Like it or not, the entire scope of movies are now living in the world that ''[[Harry Potter]]'' created.}}
** The ''Potter'' films most clearly sparked a trend towards more faithful and straightforward adaptations of novels, particularly fantasy novels aimed at children and/or young adults. The prior trend of combing seperate installments of a novel series into one film was killed in favor of adapting each novel individually in the hopes of creating a money-spinning movie franchise. When the live-action ''[[Chronicles of Narnia]]'' movies were first planned, [[Executive Meddling]] was aimed at relocating the story to America. But after the success of the first ''Potter'' film, the executives suddenly didn't have a problem with keeping the British setting of the novels.
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* ''[[Blade Runner]]'' was a disappointment in a crowded summer box office when it came out. Repeated showings on cable and its release on video not only made it one of the first films to develop a strong cult following that way, but introduced the first entirely new way of visualizing the future in sci-fi films since ''[[Metropolis]]'' a half-century earlier. Not only did its wet streets reflecting neon signs at night get copied widely in other films, commercials and music videos during the 1980s, it arguably influenced the look of urban space in the ''actual real-world future'' ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/59303791@N00/2518314792/ See Times Square, ca. 2008]).
* The ''[[Alien]]'' series firmly established in futuristic stories, any major female character is expected to pull their weight in the face of danger or combat like Ellen Ripley.
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' wasn't the first fantasy novel, but it set up most of the devices of modern fantasy.
** And of what Tolkien didn't start, [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]] probably did with ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''. Not surprisingly, the authors were friends.
** Terry Brooks was the first
* [[John W. Campbell]], a popular science fiction writer and magazine editor, is generally credited by Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and other science fiction writers as being responsible for nurturing their talents and for bringing higher standard of storytelling to the science fiction genre, which had previously consisted mostly of [[utopia]]n literature, stories of aliens and fantastic gadgets, and [[space Western]]s. Genre historians often date the beginning of science fiction's Golden Age as being 1938, the year Campbell assumed editorship of ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'' magazine.
* ''[[Neuromancer]]'' more or less ''created'' the [[Cyberpunk]] sub-genre of [[Sci Fi]].
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* ''[[Moll Flanders]]'' changed the novel forever. Defoe's realism made it unlike anything which had gone before; his plot was completely original, in an age of reworking classic plots; and his narrator was something new and very interesting.
* [[H.P. Lovecraft]] went from simple stories of the macabre and ghost stories to [[Cosmic Horror]], which changed the face of the horror genre forever.
* Robert Jordan's ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' brought the end to the era where epic fantasy = trilogy by showing that very long series can be very profitable.
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' is largely responsible for moving contemporary fantasy to the gritty end of the [[Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty]].
* ''[[Star Trek: The
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
▲* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'', despite it not doing spectacularly well in the ratings, spawned numerous short-lived imitators (a few coming from [[Gene Roddenberry]], ''Trek'''s creator) in comic books and television. During the '70's it served as ''the'' template for [[Science Fiction]] television in America (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the world) until the advent of ''[[Star Wars]]'', though the clones tended to only last for a season or two. Even the original ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'' and other works influenced by ''[[Star Wars]]'' showed its influence. Its impact lasted as late as the '90s, though more in the form of television reacting ''against'' the series.
** ''[[Star Trek]]'''s influence, however, would go on to shape far more than science fiction as a genre; not only is it the [[Trope Codifier]] (and [[Trope Namer]]) for the [[Power Trio]], but things like automatic doors, Kindle, iPods, bluetooth, cell phones and laptops were all first conceived for ''[[Star Trek]]''. Its impact even goes beyond pop culture and technology; Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to work in space, was inspired to become an astronaut after seeing Lieutenant Uhura on television as a little girl.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' had a similar status in the [[United Kingdom]]. It, too, spawned numerous homages, ranging from the long-running but much-mocked ''[[The Tomorrow People]]'' to the dark and cerebral ''[[Sapphire and Steel]]'', as well as many other less well-known examples. Similariy, the 2005 revival is credited with restoring Saturday night family dramas to British television as others began to capitalize on its success.
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' and ''[[Star Wars]]'' were (and still are) considered the bastions of American [[Science Fiction]], both being notable for their 'optimistic' views. ''[[Babylon 5]]'' and ''[[Star Trek:
* In turn, ''[[Babylon 5]]'' can arguably be credited for the current boom in [[Story Arc|serialized storytelling]] on TV.
* ''[[Lost]]'' popularized the idea of shows built around long-term [[Myth Arc|myth arcs]] that [[Mind Screw|jerk the viewer's mind around]], as well as bringing sprawling, [[Soap Opera]]-style storylines into TV sci-fi. While it has its antecedents (''[[The X-Files]]'', the aforementioned ''B5''), the boom in such programming after ''LOST'''s success shows why the trope is called the ''[[Noughties Drama Series]]'' [[Noughties Drama Series|Drama Series]].
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* ''[[Seinfeld]]'' changed the the way [[Sitcom]] characters and stories are portrayed so completely that the original series seems [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|derivative]] in the new context it created.
* For better or worse, ''[[Lizzie McGuire]]'' and ''[[That's So Raven]]'' invented the modern-day [[Idol Singer]]-centric tween sitcom.
== [[Music]] ==
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* [[Black Sabbath]]'s first album for heavy metal. If a heavy metal band says they're not influenced by them, they're lying.
* Venom may have been the trope namers, but it was [[Mayhem]]'s album ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' that really defined what [[Black Metal]] would come to be known as.
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* [[ECW]] brought hardcore wrestling to North America, made luchadores popular in the United States, and made professional wrestling [[Darker and Edgier]] at a time when the two biggest promotions, the [[
* The [[
* Similarly, at and before Wrestlemania X-Seven, the [[Attitude Era]] ended. Vince purchased WCW, the company's chief rival, and at Wrestlemania, one of the greatest PPV's in history, Austin faced The Rock for the WWF Championship, unbelievably, Stone Cold turned heel in his hometown and sided with McMahon to beat Rock. The central feuds of the Attitude Era, both in real-life and kayfabe, had ended within a week of each other.
== Sports ==▼
* This has happened multiple times in [[Baseball]].▼
** In the 1920s, Babe Ruth popularized the idea of the home run, shifting much of the game's offensive focus from baserunning speed to long-ball power.▼
** Jackie Robinson's breaking down the color line was this for more than just the sports world. Not only did it create interest in successful Negro League players, it was also an early turning point in white America's acceptance of the idea that [[Civil Rights Movement|black people weren't so different from them]].▼
** The airing of Major League Baseball games on television in [[The Fifties]] destroyed most of the minor leagues, who couldn't compete with the bigger games being shown on TV.▼
** The move of the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers to, respectively, [[San Francisco]] and [[Los Angeles]] in 1957 will probably never be forgiven by [[Big Applesauce|New York]] sports fans, but it helped popularize baseball outside the East Coast and the Midwest and led to a surge of teams moving to sunny Southern and Western cities, securing the sport's national viability for the rest of the century. It also effectively destroyed the Pacific Coast League (which was, until then, seen as a growing rival to Major League Baseball), pushing it down into the minors and securing MLB's position as the dominant baseball league in the US.▼
** Maury Wills helped repopularize the stolen base in the early 1960s.▼
** Rollie Fingers was central to the idea of the dedicated relief pitcher/closer in the 1970s, paving the way for the modern game's reliance on the bullpen.▼
** The 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox, one of the most exciting matchups in sports history, was the moment at which television finally understood how to broadcast baseball. Carlton Fisk's iconic home run in Game 6 provided a catalyst in getting camera operators to focus most of their attention on the players themselves. It's no coincidence that, after the '75 World Series, a new lucrative TV deal involving not just [[NBC]], but [[ABC]] was made.▼
** The early success of Hideo Nomo paved the way for Major League Baseball's interest in Japanese players.▼
* In [[Australian Rules Football]], the 1970 VFL Grand Final is often seen as the point at which a major shift in the game occurred. Carlton, 44 points down at half time, came back to defeat Collingwood after a rousing half-time speech by coach Ron Barassi in which he exhorted the players to handball - and ever since then, the handball has been a much more prominent feature of the game, sometimes more common in a match than kicking the ball.▼
* Several players have shifted the way Ice Hockey gets played. Highlights include:▼
** Bobby Orr popularizing the concept of defensemen supporting offensive plays▼
** Patrick Roy is credited for popularizing the butterfly goaltending style▼
** Wayne Gretzky for his use of the behind-the-net goal setup.▼
* In [[American Football]], initially field goal kickers kicked the ball towards the goal posts straight on, the results being that most field goals didn't have much distance and their accuracy was iffy at best (60% or so). Then Pete Gogolak and others introduced the angled, soccer-style kick for field goals, increasing distance and accuracy and immediately improving the viability of field goals tremendously. As of today the soccer-style kick is used professionally almost exclusively.▼
** And the place kick (straight on) replaced the drop kick, where the kicker dropped it like a punter and let it hit the ground before kicking it. The last time it was used was by Doug Flutie as an homage.▼
* Certain single games and/or series have breathed life into otherwise stagnant or dying leagues. The 1979 NCAA basketball championship between Larry Bird's Indiana State team and Magic Johnson's Michigan State team breathed new life into college basketball. Five years later, the 1984 NBA Finals between Bird's Boston Celtics and Magic's Los Angeles Lakers helped spark a revival in the NBA, which had languished in popularity before the pair entered the league.▼
** The New York Jets' upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III arguably lent the American Football League credibility against the more established National Football League. It helped that Jets' quarterback Joe Namath's "guarantee" that the Jets would win added to the pregame hype (unheard of in the previous two games). The Kansas City Chiefs' win over the Minnesota Vikings the following season proved that it wasn't a one shot, fluke deal for the AFL leading up to the eventual merger in 1970.▼
* The High Jump was revolutionized by Dick Fosbury in 1968. It's weird as heck to watch someone do a Fosbury Flop (It involves turning around at the point of the jump and going BACKWARDS over the bar), but it manages to allow jumpers to jump as much as 25% higher than they would be able to jumping straight forwards over the bar.▼
* The 2005 fight between Forrest Griffin and Stephen Bonnar on the undercard of the The Ultimate Fighter finale, the first ever live-televised MMA event. Their legendary, back-and-forth brawl over a UFC contract made instant fans almost overnight, and it's been documented that ratings spiked during the fight as fans were frantically calling other people to point them to this fight. UFC president Dana White credits this fight as perhaps the most landmark moment in MMA history, and the turning point that launched it to such great, mainstream heights.▼
* In [[The Beautiful Game|Soccer]], the 1953 match between England and Hungary is widely regarded as being the point when the modern game came into being. The Hungarians playing a then unknown tactical style totally outclassed the English, who until that point had never been defeated at home by a team from outside the British Isles. In the aftermath the old English formations and tactics vanished entirely, and the continental tactics, training and equipment became the standard around the world.▼
== [[Theatre]] ==
* ''[[Oklahoma!]]'' changed the musical theatre genre from fluffy entertainment into legitimate theatre.
** Well, ''[[Oklahoma!]]'' gave musical theatre the format of the use of song, dialogue, and dance, but it was ''[[Show Boat]]'' that first made musical theatre into legitimate theatre.
*** ''[[Oklahoma!]]'' was not the first musical to use song, dialogue, and dance - those three things were in every musical. What ''[[Oklahoma!]]'' did was integrate those three elements in a mature and realistic fashion (well, as realistic as breaking into song ever can be.)
* [[Aeschylus]] did this for drama -- [[Older Than Feudalism|2500 years ago]]—when he made drama using contemporary, rather than mythical, themes.
** [[Euripides]] reinvented theater again, by focusing more on the characters and their motivations, adding larger casts, and making the dramatic aspects much less subdued.
* [[Cirque Du Soleil]] accomplished this trope twice over:
** Starting with its 1987 tour ''[[Le Cirque Reinvente]]'', Cirque did a lot to raise circus out of the kiddie entertainment ghetto it had fallen into in North America. Now, not only are there many successful "contemporary circus" troupes/companies that play to a wide variety of audiences, but [[The Mockbuster|blatant imitators]] of Cirque's style (which was derived from European and Asian circuses) have sprung up.
** Their first Las Vegas resident show, ''[[Mystere]]'', helped change that city's entertainment scene. Siegfried and Roy's magic show at the Mirage had opened four years prior and was also a big game changer after years of increasingly stale showgirl revues, but ''Mystere'' was actually taken seriously as theater, to the point that [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]]'s theater critic named it one of the best shows of 1994. While it would lead to many acclaimed sister productions in the city, other Vegas casino-hotels imported such productions as Blue Man Group, ''Jersey Boys'', and ''[[The Lion King]]'', often with huge success, resulting in a much more diverse range of entertainment for tourists.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the field of video games, ''[[Super Mario Bros.]].'' defined the 2D platformer, as well as ensuring the resurrection of the video game home console in the United States after [[The Great Video Game Crash of 1983]].
** And then another Mario game, ''[[Super Mario 64]]'', set the standard for 3D platformers for years to come, and was the first 3D platformer to successfully use a joystick.
** Yet another Mario game, ''[[New Super Mario Bros.]]'', proved with its high and unexpected popularity that looking to gaming's past is not a sign of creative stagnation. Hence, the massive influx of retro-flavored games afterward, including Nintendo's own ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]''.
** ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Sands of Time'' made platforming "realistic" with its use of [[Le Parkour|parkour]], and set the stage for, among other things, the ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' reboot and ''[[Uncharted]]''.
** Back in 1989, the first [[Prince of Persia]] did the exact same thing, with its realistic platforming and fighting.
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* You have ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]]'' to thank for [[Dating Sim]] girls who actually have personalities beyond "living love doll".
* ...and ''[[Kanon]]'' to thank for giving the ''male protagonist'' a personality, as well as (and the two are connected) making [[Porn with Plot]] [[Eroge]] just as marketable as [[Porn Without Plot]] games (though the developers had previously done ''ONE -kagayaku kisetsu e-, Moon.,'' and ''Dousei'' before forming [[Key Visual Arts|their own studio]], none of these games had the impact that ''Kanon'' had).
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The Disney version of ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' was a surprise sensation in 1989, revitalizing interest in animated features. For years afterward, its musical fantasy structure was the default setting for Western animated features. It was eventually overtaken by the [[Pixar]] CGI boom, but arguably no CGI film has had the kind of positive impact on the entire genre that ''Mermaid'' did.
* Speaking of ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'', it spawned the entire [[All CGI Cartoon|CG boom in animation]], which eventually took over Western animated film.
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' struck a huge blow against the [[Animation Age Ghetto]], proving that animated shows based around adult humor can be successful.
* ''[[The Dover Boys]]'' is a double turning point for American animation. It marks the point were [[Warner Bros]]'s animators stopped aping [[Disney]] and started experimenting with much more stylized action. It also marks the point when [[Chuck Jones]] went from the junior director who did the ''Sniffles the Mouse'' cartoons to a major innovator.
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* ''[[Doug]]'' started a trend for many [[Slice of Life]] shows in the 1990s.
▲== Real Life ==
* The Great San Francisco Earthquake for [[California]]. Before the quake, [[San Francisco]] was the largest city on the West Coast, and [[Los Angeles]]' population was less than a million, nowhere near the second largest city in the United States. The quake and the Hollywood boom were instrumental in shifting the population southward.
* The Hurricane of 1900 that struck Galveston, Texas sent it into a long decline while turning [[Greater Houston|Houston]] into a booming port town. NASA and oil would finish the job.
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* The American Revolution decisively changed international politics forever. It was the first modern democracy, and thus the Trope Maker for much of what we now think of as Western democracy. It directly or indirectly inspired revolutions for nearly a century and a half (from 1776 to 1918) - in particular the anti-monarchist nature of most of these revolts. It arguably represents the point at which guerilla warfare and firearms first met. And finally, it was the first time that an imperial European power was defeated by a non-European one.
* The US Constitution's Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, both of which were first drafted in 1789, are the [[Trope Codifier]]s for the modern concepts of liberal democracy and human rights.
▲=== Sports ===
▲** In the 1920s, Babe Ruth popularized the idea of the home run, shifting much of the game's offensive focus from baserunning speed to long-ball power.
▲** Jackie Robinson's breaking down the color line was this for more than just the sports world. Not only did it create interest in successful Negro League players, it was also an early turning point in white America's acceptance of the idea that [[Civil Rights Movement|black people weren't so different from them]].
▲** The airing of Major League Baseball games on television in [[The Fifties]] destroyed most of the minor leagues, who couldn't compete with the bigger games being shown on TV.
▲** The move of the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers to, respectively, [[San Francisco]] and [[Los Angeles]] in 1957 will probably never be forgiven by [[Big Applesauce|New York]] sports fans, but it helped popularize baseball outside the East Coast and the Midwest and led to a surge of teams moving to sunny Southern and Western cities, securing the sport's national viability for the rest of the century. It also effectively destroyed the Pacific Coast League (which was, until then, seen as a growing rival to Major League Baseball), pushing it down into the minors and securing MLB's position as the dominant baseball league in the US.
▲** Maury Wills helped repopularize the stolen base in the early 1960s.
▲** Rollie Fingers was central to the idea of the dedicated relief pitcher/closer in the 1970s, paving the way for the modern game's reliance on the bullpen.
▲** The 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox, one of the most exciting matchups in sports history, was the moment at which television finally understood how to broadcast baseball. Carlton Fisk's iconic home run in Game 6 provided a catalyst in getting camera operators to focus most of their attention on the players themselves. It's no coincidence that, after the '75 World Series, a new lucrative TV deal involving not just [[NBC]], but [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] was made.
▲** The early success of Hideo Nomo paved the way for Major League Baseball's interest in Japanese players.
▲* In [[Australian Rules Football]], the 1970 VFL Grand Final is often seen as the point at which a major shift in the game occurred. Carlton, 44 points down at half time, came back to defeat Collingwood after a rousing half-time speech by coach Ron Barassi in which he exhorted the players to handball - and ever since then, the handball has been a much more prominent feature of the game, sometimes more common in a match than kicking the ball.
▲* Several players have shifted the way Ice Hockey gets played. Highlights include:
▲** Bobby Orr popularizing the concept of defensemen supporting offensive plays
▲** Patrick Roy is credited for popularizing the butterfly goaltending style
▲** Wayne Gretzky for his use of the behind-the-net goal setup.
▲* In [[American Football]], initially field goal kickers kicked the ball towards the goal posts straight on, the results being that most field goals didn't have much distance and their accuracy was iffy at best (60% or so). Then Pete Gogolak and others introduced the angled, soccer-style kick for field goals, increasing distance and accuracy and immediately improving the viability of field goals tremendously. As of today the soccer-style kick is used professionally almost exclusively.
▲** And the place kick (straight on) replaced the drop kick, where the kicker dropped it like a punter and let it hit the ground before kicking it. The last time it was used was by Doug Flutie as an homage.
▲* Certain single games and/or series have breathed life into otherwise stagnant or dying leagues. The 1979 NCAA basketball championship between Larry Bird's Indiana State team and Magic Johnson's Michigan State team breathed new life into college basketball. Five years later, the 1984 NBA Finals between Bird's Boston Celtics and Magic's Los Angeles Lakers helped spark a revival in the NBA, which had languished in popularity before the pair entered the league.
▲** The New York Jets' upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III arguably lent the American Football League credibility against the more established National Football League. It helped that Jets' quarterback Joe Namath's "guarantee" that the Jets would win added to the pregame hype (unheard of in the previous two games). The Kansas City Chiefs' win over the Minnesota Vikings the following season proved that it wasn't a one shot, fluke deal for the AFL leading up to the eventual merger in 1970.
▲* The High Jump was revolutionized by Dick Fosbury in 1968. It's weird as heck to watch someone do a Fosbury Flop (It involves turning around at the point of the jump and going BACKWARDS over the bar), but it manages to allow jumpers to jump as much as 25% higher than they would be able to jumping straight forwards over the bar.
▲* The 2005 fight between Forrest Griffin and Stephen Bonnar on the undercard of the The Ultimate Fighter finale, the first ever live-televised MMA event. Their legendary, back-and-forth brawl over a UFC contract made instant fans almost overnight, and it's been documented that ratings spiked during the fight as fans were frantically calling other people to point them to this fight. UFC president Dana White credits this fight as perhaps the most landmark moment in MMA history, and the turning point that launched it to such great, mainstream heights.
▲* In [[The Beautiful Game|Soccer]], the 1953 match between England and Hungary is widely regarded as being the point when the modern game came into being. The Hungarians playing a then unknown tactical style totally outclassed the English, who until that point had never been defeated at home by a team from outside the British Isles. In the aftermath the old English formations and tactics vanished entirely, and the continental tactics, training and equipment became the standard around the world.
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[[Category:Audience Reactions]]
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▲[[Category:Genre Turning Point]]
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