A couple of weeks ago, I went to my high school reunion. I have no desire to tell you how old I am so we’ll refer to it as the __th year reunion. If you’ve read many of my weekly posts, you know I occasionally (read: every week) like to rail on the state of pop music and zing the likes of Lady Ga(g) Ga(g), Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers.
I like to think that I know good music when I hear it, and of course make fun of bad music because it’s fun. Fast forward to high school reunion ’09 or as I like to call it – “The Day Bad Music Reigned Supreme”. Let’s just say that when the dj fires up “Pony” by Ginuwine, the night is heading downhill quickly.
What does this mean? We all like bad music at some point in our lives. And we all like to think the songs we heard and listened to over and over and over again back in high school were great and meaningful and world changing. I mean “Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm” by Crash Test Dummies should be the song they play in the background for all those starving kid commercials right? It’s a DEEP song!! Maybe not.
I remember listening to music in high school and being just blown away at all the different songs, artists and genres that were out there. Now? Well, here’s a sampling of what the dj was spinnin’ at my __th year reunion and you be the judge:
“No Scrubs” – TLC
“….Baby, One More Time” – Brittney
“Livin’ La Vida Loca” – Ricky Martin
“Bailamos” – Enrique
“Steal My Sunshine” – Len
Plus the immortal classics:
“Baby Got Back” – Sir Mix a Lot
“Shook Me All Night Long” – AC/DC
“Enter Sandman” – Metallica
Moral of the story? It’s ok to like bad music when you are in high school, and maybe even when you’re done with high school, too. Except the Crash Test Dummies – they’re still alright by me.
I guess this means I shouldn’t make fun of Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers any more huh? Well, at least not ‘til next week.
So, fearless readers, care to admit what popular high school songs you loved then, but are REALLY bad now?
This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2009.
There’s always been bad music, money music, pop music.
But at somepoint, it’s brought back to reality and artists write their own songs, play their instruments and earn their stripes by playing lousy gigs driving in a van. Problem: we’ve had 15 or so years of disposable pop dominating airwaves and an entire generation that can’t tell the difference. If you can sing karokee, you can be America’s next idol. Music went wrong when Cobain died, Matchbox 20 was considered an alternative band and Mickey Mouse club kids started selling sex appeal as recording artists. Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert can give me a break. Input Bjork and Boy George at any point here for truly pushing the envelope in their time. Integrity is dead.
Awesome blog Jason…keep ’em coming!!!
What a testament to AC/DC that they are on the playlist for 1985 *and* for your year!!!
Melissa – nope, not 1985 – a little later than that. Nice try though! 🙂
AC/DC was on *my* playlist in 1985!
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