We still love house parties We just don't show them off like 2010

There was a time, between the late 2000s and early 2010s, when artists and music video directors had an unparalleled passion for house parties. I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas, released in 2009, immortalizes this feeling in 4 minutes and 51 seconds: «Jump off the sofa and let'd get it on» became the motto of a generation ready for anything, even destroying a living room in the name of partying. The same goes for Beauty And a Beat by Justin Bieber ft. Nicki Minaj, one of the most iconic anthems of the era also thanks to a video clip portraying close-ups of young Bieber moving across a Californian mansion while hundreds of people have fun diving into the pool and playing beer pong, and again for Last Friday Night by Katy Perry, released in 2011. TGIF and so on.

Gen Z and Millennials prefer DJ sets at home

Today, thanks to a myriad of factors that we will explore together, house parties are back. According to a new report from AlphaTheta, the company behind Pioneer DJ, Gen Z and Millennials love home DJ sets. According to the study, which interviewed 2500 people in the UK, Spain and France, one third of the two generations say that the best set they’ve ever heard was during a house party, while more than a quarter say they played for the first time at a friend’s house. Not bad for a generation (Gen Z) that is supposed to be the most sober and conservative ever when it comes to going out.

How social media changed the way we party

To understand the return of house parties in 2025, we need to compare this period with that of I Gotta Feeling, Beauty And a Beat and Last Friday Night. With social networks just entering people’s lives - primarily Facebook - organizing parties became a simple and quick affair: all you had to do was share the invitation online and wait for your friends to spread the word. Moreover, all smartphones already had integrated selfie cameras, making it even easier for guests to document the event and share it instantly on their profiles, perhaps with hashtags that today would be considered cringe like #bestpartyever or, indeed, #lastfridaynight. In just over ten years, social media has evolved and changed, but the recipe remains the same - only now TikTok has replaced Facebook, videos have replaced selfies, and viral audio clips have replaced hashtags.

Partying with friends costs less

Alongside the evolution of the digital social network, there is another detail, perhaps the most important when comparing past and present: the economic crisis. For a young person who has just entered the workforce and is facing a high cost of living, partying at home is the best solution to have fun without draining savings. In bars or clubs, drinks now cost 15 euros each and shots 6, and you often have to pay an entrance fee easily over 20 euros (adding it all up, going to a club costs at least 60 euros for a responsible drinker). At a friend’s or acquaintance’s house, this isn’t a problem: just show up with a bottle and the desire to have fun. The console is often brought from home by the aspiring DJ who, as the AlphaTeta report explains, usually has talent.

We’re tired of content

The last detail that makes house parties trendy again - and which may have emerged later compared to the social changes of the 2010s - is the cult of the private event. Although exclusivity has always been a plus, whether for a dinner, a fashion show or a club, the ubiquity of cameras and the contemporary obsession with content and virality are discouraging people from having fun in public: with the fear that someone might film you and post the video online, it’s hard to let go. Much better to stay among friends, at home, with no rules and no strangers holding cameras. And apparently, the DJs at home are even better.