Well, pop culture is a big definer for a time period in my opinion, and Gothic fiction was a bit of pet hobby of mine. So..

The first Gothic novels were published in the mid-1700s, and the genre exploded. And with that explosion of popularity came a lot of repetitive derivative works, trying to capture that supernatural vibe. This is furthered because we have penny presses like Penny Dreadful shoot out, which are really cheaply published serial literature. Some of these were just reprints of previously published works.

However, the more memorable works of Gothic fiction are really from the 1800s. In the early 1800s, we can start getting published works that are parodies of Gothic literature. An example of a famous parody work would be Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abby (published 1818, written 1799-1800), which is hilarious by the way.

Frankenstein, 1818, a novel about reanimating the dead by Mary Shelly
The Vampyre, 1819, first published vampire short story by John Polidori.

At this same time period there is a lot of Gothic fiction with an Orientalism theme. I can't think of good example right now, but the villains will be from the East, the Orient, Africa. Scarabs will be mentioned or they own a monkey and do some magic. The occult is a massive topic of interest. Not all Gothic fiction is defined by this, as this sort of fixation on the "other" seems to just stretch into a lot of the genre at the same time, but a lot of the early 1800s from what I can remember had this. A lot of Chinese goods were being imported at the time. Remember, the massive trade imbalance was a main reason behind push to sell opium to China and the Opium Wars (1st: 1839-42; 2nd: 1856-60).

By the 1830s Edgar Allen Poe is publishing some poetry and his first short stories, but his more famous works that you read in high school show up later, like "The Pit and the Pendulum", published in 1842, and The Raven published in 1845. His work really pushed forward the horror and suspense element of the Gothic genre.

Poe sadly dies, and the Bronte sisters are in the publishing Gothic literature scene, publishing in 1847 Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Emily's Wurthering Heights and Anne's much less famously known Cathy.

By 1872 we have sexy vampires in Joseph Le Fanu's Carmilla. If I remember correctly this is the first sexualized usage of vampires, but it's been awhile, so don't quote me there. However, it was over twenty years before Dracula (1897), which was heavily inspired by this novella.

Therefore, by the 1880s the Gothic genre was not only well established, but it wasn't considered with as much mockery as it had been in the early 1800s in its parodies. It became a vehicle for discussing a lot of social issues and urban fears. (Especially that previously mention Orient fear, in my opinion.) And even though Charles Dickens isn't really known as a Gothic author, his works were inspired by that kind of gloom. Think Great Expectations (1861). So not only did Gothic literature really develop, it infected other literary genres of the time. Cool stuff, right?

The Gothic genre starts to die off by the end of the century, turning in the 20th century pulp magazines with Lovecraft. A lot of the fiction of the 1800s really helped create dark fantasy, horror, etc.

Although I couldn't divide it all up smoothly into decades, I hope this made sense. (;

The 1890s were variably referred to as "the mauve decade," "the naughty nineties," and "the gay nineties" (but this last term wasn't coined until the 1920s).

The Gilded Age also referred to the 1870s through the 1890s. Mark Twain originally used it to denote an era of social problems which were thinly veiled by wealth.

In the early 1800´s there was a radical change of fashion and lifestyle for men. The high breeches, stockings and tricorne hats one associates with the era of the French and American revolutions disappeared with the genesis of modern fashion which emphasised modesty in clothing, eloquence in speech and the most refined manners and hygiene. This was the birth of the "dandy" culture which still thrives and is very much predominant today. I´m sure someone more rehearsed with this material will provide much better content than I.

One important issue I would like to point out here is that the 20th century was a period of globalization not matched by anything before it. Hence, in the 20th century "movements" like flower power or the "roaring twenties" would actually be a thing in large parts of the world (mostly the western world, I guess). But for the 19th century and earlier, this wouldn't be really the case with different countries having wildly different experiences. For instance the westerward expansion of the US and pioneer culture would be a big part of the 19th century American experience, but for Africa, India and China it would be a period when they came under western domination. Whereas for South America it was time when it broke free from Europe politically. Japan experienced the Meiji restoration in the later part of the 19th century.

In German-speaking Europe, the decades between 1815 (The Congress of Vienna) and 1848 (the year of the great Liberal revolutions in Europe) are known as Vormärz in political history, and Biedermeier in art history, respectively.

They are commonly seen as periods of political quietism (due to an ever-present system of censorship and oppression of dissent) and simmering tensions, but they were also a period of economic upheaval. The First Industrial Revolution took place during that time period, and some areas (particularly the Prussian-ruled Rhineland provinces and Austrian-ruled Bohemia) were rapidly industrializing and starting to eclipse the traditional economic centres of pre-industrial eras, but were also attracting a growing industrial labor class that would have an increasing influence on politics in the decades to come.

In America the 1800's and 1810's were a great national binge, where Alcohol consumption reached its highest per capita levels in our history. And the per capita consumption -understates- how much adult free men drank, because much of the population was enslaved, half was female and a large portion was children, and all those groups drank less than adult free men. The original temperance movement was a response to this national binge.

Sources - Howe, What hath God Wrought Larkin, the Reshaping of Everyday Life

I'd like to point out that the decades from the 20th century aren't all that different from each other. The main differences are technology and pop culture. Both were radically different from decade to decade (pop culture is the most wide spread and accessible window into the past). Underlying values and culture, however, mostly stayed the same or changed as slowly as it usually does.

Obviously I'm simplifying - I feel like it sounds like I'm suggesting that technological change has a minor effect on people's lives. I am not. What I am suggesting is that the "theme" of each decade is just an illusion caused by how we perceive the past (or the impression that pop-culture relics give us).

That last decade of the 1800s had variable names, Fin de siècle, Turn of the Century, The Mauve Decade, Gay 90s (coined later), and was encompassed by the longer Gilded Age as well.

Two interesting art movements out of the this period were Art Nouveau AKA "Modern Style" which reached its peak around this time and The Arts and Crafts movement in Europe and the US (~1880-1910) which eventually emerged in Japan (~1910-20) was a pro-artisan, anti-industrial movement that praised craftsmanship and honored old forms of folk art, nature and Medieval revival. Think back-to-land hipsters.

Art Nouveau emerged out of this movement and was similarly pro-nature and using nature inspired designs and curves, pro-simplicity, anti-industrial/manufacturing but sometimes at odds with Arts and Crafts over the cultural touchstone of shitty folk art designs. "Industrial production was, at that point, widespread, and yet the decorative arts were increasingly dominated by poorly made objects imitating earlier periods. The practitioners of Art Nouveau sought to revive good workmanship, raise the status of craft, and produce genuinely modern design....The academic system, which dominated art education from the 17th to the 19th century, underpinned the widespread belief that media such as painting and sculpture were superior to crafts such as furniture design and silver-smithing. The consequence, many believed, was the neglect of good craftsmanship."

ETA: Pictures

In America, a musical revolution happened in the last half of the 1890s, with the commercialization of the syncopated music style called "ragtime."

Compare this 1864 song, "Beautiful Dreamer" by Stephen Foster against the first piece published with the word "Rag" in the title, WH Krell's 1897 "Mississippi Rag". Perhaps the most famous ragtime piano piece is Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag".

Ragtime leverages the use of accented melody notes on weak beats, which imparts a powerful forward drive into the music. The effect was so startling to listeners at the time that some feared that listening to the music could cause heart palpitations.

All popular music today features extensive use of syncopation.

In the first couple of decades of the 20th century, ragtime morphed into novelty, stride, blues, and other early jazz forms, which in turn led to more recent genres like rock.

I'm not sure how to put this any other way, but time simply moves faster these days. Culture fluctuates so rapidly in our modern world that we can see a very distinct shift every decade, and even quicker sometimes. In the past, events and changes in culture moved at a slower pace. That could be why there aren't as easy categorizations for the 19th century as there appear to be for the 20th.

Below are two big changes I haven't seen mentioned yet, which may not seem obvious, but affected American culture in a big way in the 19th century.

• The Second and Third Great Awakening took place in America all throughout the 1800's; this was a Protestant revival of traditional religious values and was a reaction against the scientific and skeptical nature of the Enlightenment in the previous century.

• Synthetic dyes were invented in the late 1850's and were in popular use by the 1860's. The introduction of hues such as mauve, fuchsia, and safrin revolutionized the fashion world. In 1859, there was a ball in Washington which was the highlight of the social season; it was a farewell party for the British ambassador and his wife, Mrs. Napier. Mrs. Napier made quite a splash when she appeared at the ball in pure white. As all of the other ladies were wearing dresses with the newly popular bright synthetic dyes in garish styles, she stood out from them with her daring simplicity. (source: A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War)

(As someone who researches this extensively)

The decades of 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s saw an explosion in popular culture (fiction, news, even early illustrated magazines) about imperialism, particularly in Africa.

Noted landmarks: late 1850s explorer/missionary David Livingstone becomes hugely famous in England and on the continent, kicks of this culture of exploration/adventure in Africa

1871 media hound/explorer H.M. Stanley publishes (in newspapers) how he "found" the "missing" Livingstone, coining the most popular phrase of the late 19th and early 20th. c.: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume"?

1884 gold rush in southern Africa; Berlin Conference; Scramble for Africa

1885 Rider Haggard publishes "King Solomon's Mines" (the basis for Indian Jones, etc. etc.)

1883 Colonial exposition in Amsterdam sets off a string of colonial and imperial exhibitions (a major entertainment of the 19th c.), with the 1886 Colonial and Empire Exhibition in UK; and the 1896 Colonial exhibition in Berlin

1885: Death of Gordon becomes a media sensation (Gordon is "avenged" in 1898 at Omdurman)

1880s: traveling "people shows" of Dahomey Amazons, Sudanese, etc. in all European cities

1890s: lots of imperial-themed advertisements (for soap, etc.) in Britain, France, and Germany; journalists in England and Germany writing about the "Africa craze"

1899: Kipling urges the US to "Take Up the White Man's Burden" in an (in)famous poem

The Primitivism in modern art circles in the 1920s is in actually drawing from this earlier era of imperialist-adventure-heroic Africa-obsession.

EDIT: formatting

I started my Kronology with 20th C decadization, but I got better. The more detail I put in, the farther back I went, the more I realized that decadization is sloppy shorthand, useful but misleading. So while the 20th C can be "loosely quantified," I don't like it. Less so for the 1800s. Simply, due to circumstances, some cultural phases take 7 years and some take 15 to work through.

Starting inside EUROPEAN EXPANSION PERIOD - 343 YEARS

Only beginning years are given, and # of years an era lasts.

REVOLUTIONARY AGE - 13 YEARS (politics kind of rules this, but you will find the fashion changes, too)

Estates General Phase - 7 Years

1789

Directoire Phase - 6 Years

1796

NAPOLEONIC AGE - 14 YEARS (politically centered choices)

Aggressive Phase - 8 Years

1802 Consul for life

Defensive Phase - 6 Years

1810 Peninsular War begins

ROMANTIC AGE - 14 YEARS (based on literature and art, politics and trauma)

Reactionary Phase - 9 Years

1816 Year Without A Summer; Napoleon pau

Rebellious Phase - 5 Years

1824 Death of Byron

TECHNOLOGICAL PERIOD - 167 YEARS

TRANSPORTATION EPOCH - 82 YEARS

SENTIMENTAL AGE - 12 YEARS (art, fashion, & societal reaction)

1830

CRINOLINE AGE - 9 YEARS (railroads & crinolines & steam, oh my!)

1842

ROUND HOOP AGE - 10 YEARS (fashion & technology)

1851

LONG HOOP AGE - 9 YEARS (fashion & technology; yeah, wars happen ...)

1861

FIRST BUSTLE AGE - 11 YEARS

1870

SECOND BUSTLE AGE - 8 YEARS

1881

HOURGLASS AGE - 9 YEARS (again, a fashion marker)

1889

RAGTIME AGE - 14 YEARS (music leaps up as a marker for the first time, with fashion as a sub-marker; before, musical styles were not distinctive for decades at a time)

Pouter Pigeon Phase - 6 Years

1898

Neo-Empire Phase - 8 Years

1904

As you can see, a lot of this is based on, and named for, women's fashion changes, but only if they coincide with other elements. Still, they tend to be excellent markers. In the 20th C, popular music takes over as the marker in broadcast technology. At the end of the 1900s, technology shifts do, and I never try to parse anything newer than 20 years ago.

SOURCES: waaay too many books with annals of events, starting with Encyclopedia Americana 1959, Reader's Digest Almanac 1968, The World Almanac for 1944-48, Boucher's 20,000 Years of Fashion, Norah Waugh's books, The Cultural Atlas series to extend this outside of Europe. Let's just say my annals, printed out, took something like eight 3" binders. I composited, I read, I analysed, I shifted things around for a few years. If you would like to see the detail, I can post some pages elsewhere.