First it was Alexander McQueen’s bumster pants in 1996 and then Rose McGowan’s dress at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards that shifted focus to the butt. But it’s 2014 that will go down as the year of the booty or All About That Bass, the Meghan Trainor hit. Yes, this was the
ace-of-base year.

 January 2: 

Jen Selter’s belfies (butt selfies) gave the American fitness model a large following on Instagram instantly, currently commanding five million! “When I was growing up, everyone wanted to look like skinny, bony girls. Over time, butts have become a thing,” she recently told The New York Times. A full, pert behind, she said, “shows hard work”.

 January 29: 

Miley Cyrus twerked with the very best on her MTV Unplugged outing –– Madonna. They danced to a mash-up of Don’t Tell Me and We Can’t Stop, which involved spanking and twerking.

 January 30: 

Shakira and Rihanna premiered their music video for Can’t Remember To Forget You in which they caress each other’s butts. Shakira told t2: “Working with Rihanna was utopia. We’re both Caribbean girls and share amazing chemistry with each other.”

 February 14: 

An early peek that 2014 would be the year of the butt was given by Sports Illustrated’s 50th anniversary swimsuit issue in which Nina Agdal, Lily Aldridge and Chrissy Teigen got cheeky with the camera. 

February 25:  

Videos from Beyonce’s self-titled 2013 album were officially released this year. Queen Bey strips and canoodles in the backseat of a car with her man Jay Z while singing: “Driver roll up the partition please/ I don’t need you seeing Yonce on her knees.”

 June 3: 

“Growing up I didn’t have a lot of access to fashion. But, as far as I could remember, fashion has always been my defence mechanism. Even as a child I remember thinking: ‘She can beat me, but she cannot beat my outfit’,” said Rihanna while accepting the Fashion Icon Award at the annual Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Awards in New York, wearing a flesh-coloured thong and a sheer dress made with 216,000 Swarovski crystals. Look back with wonder!

July 24: 

The first crack at breaking the Internet was by Nicki Minaj in a pink sports bra and thong, promoting the artwork for her album Anaconda. And when the video to the title track released on August 19 –– butt jiggle, butt wiggle, and a butt-licious lap dance for rapper Drake –– the virtual world almost collapsed!

August 18: 

Taylor Swift took a dig at fellow singers and trends by twerking awkwardly in Shake It Off. While promoting the video she said people who would relate with the song are those who don’t “really feel cool with themselves because other people make them feel like they don’t fit in”.

August 20: 

Marvel released the cover for Spider-Woman #1 which has her in the ass-up Anaconda pose on a rooftop. Twitter erupted and Marvel representatives said it was just an alternate cover.

August 24: 

While Nicki Minaj showed some impossible butt moves, Beyonce gave a flawless 15-minute performance of songs from her latest album in a sparkly leotard and the word ‘feminism’ flashed on a big screen. And then there was the Bang Bang trio of Ariana Grande, Jessie J, and Nicki.... Just enough ammunition for BuzzFeed to crack: “The 2014 VMAs were officially sponsored by Butts.”

August 25: 

Sofia Vergara was put on a rotating pedestal and while she showed off her curves, the president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Bruce Rosenblum made his annual speech at the Emmy Awards. She defended the sexist move on Entertainment Weekly: “I think it’s absolutely the opposite. It means that somebody can be hot and also be funny and make fun of herself.”

September 17: 

Lady Gaga was clearly inspired by Sandro Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus when she arrived in Athens in just a seashell-bra and thong and was carried by two men to her SUV waiting outside the airport. Butt seriously.

September 18:

Jennifer Lopez, the original booty girl, slapped on some oil and danced with Iggy Azalea to what else but the song Booty: “Throw up your hands if you love a big booty,” they sing. The influence she has had on the booty culture has been highlighted by comedian Tina Fey in her book Bossypants: “The first real change in women’s body image came when JLo turned it butt-style.”

November 11:
 

Just when the world thought Kim Kardashian had shown enough, the winter issue of Paper featured her glazed naked butt and the headline: “Break the Internet”. Another image showed her popping open a bottle of champagne while balancing a glass on her bottom. In the other two images she bared all. Biggest joke? It came from the woman herself on Twitter: “And they say I didn’t have a talent... try balancing a champagne glass on your ass LOL #BreakTheInternet #PaperMagazine.”

December 10: 

Whoever said reality and royalty stars can’t co-exist?! Pippa Middleton, who was unofficially given the rear-of-the-year crown in 2011, wrote in an article in The Spectator: “The ‘Rear of 2014’ award undoubtedly goes to Kim Kardashian, after her posterior exploded all over the Internet last month. I must say that mine — though it has enjoyed fleeting fame — is not comparable.” Kim overlooked the satirical tone when she told E! News: “She (Pippa) has an amazing booty. She’s beautiful, so that’s cool.”

BUM BUM BOLE BEATS

Engine ki seeti: Sonam Kapoor shakes it up to the whistles of a train in Khoobsurat.

Shake your bootiya: Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur and Dimple Kapadia become puppets inside a doll house and shake their, well, booty in Finding Fanny.

Butt patlo: All that remains of the film O Teri is this song and Salman Khan’s appearance in the title track.

Shake that booty: Even with this song and Sunny Leone in it, nobody remembers the film Balwinder Singh Famous Ho Gaya.