My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark: Music Nostalgia Part 3

And this brings us to 2007.  (Confused?  You can catch up here and here.)  (Also, I'm sorry about the title; I had to continue with the previously unintentional Fall Out Boy theme.)  If you'll recall, we left off in the gymnasium, where I was bitching out of every activity that could cause me to sweat, accompanied by various Nelly songs.  2007 was my favorite year of high school; when I'm feeling all nostalgic and sad about being almost a quarter-century old, this is the year I always remember most.  I was taking easy classes (photography and graphic design?  Hell yes!), staying skinny while eating whatever the hell I wanted (thanks to cheerleading, dance, and a 17-year-old metabolism), and my friends and I would walk around our small town at night, screaming and laughing and doing Beavis and Butthead impressions.  It was the year I started sharing my writing and singing with other people besides my current boyfriend, the year I thought I was super trendy and wore tights and high heels all the damn time, the year I ruined my My Chemical Romance cd by playing it too much in my purple van.  (Sing-screaming "Teenagers scare!  The living shit out of me!" on my way to school.)  Sigh.  Okay.  We need to move on here or I might cry.  (All videos from YouTube)

2007:  Here (In Your Arms) - Hellogoodbye

My friends and I loved this song before it was cool.  (I know all the hipsters say that about everything, but really.  We did.)  We had a choreographed dance to it and everything, and even though most of that dance involved pumping our arms up and down like the Numa Numa guy, we did it all the time, usually in the aforementioned purple van I drove around.  This song puts me right back there, driving slowly past our crushes' houses with the radio cranked, hoping they would hear us and come out.  They usually didn't, but when they did, they would just follow us around in their car until we all got bored.  We would listen to this song to get us pumped up before cheering at a football game (also the Ying Yang Twins) and after coming out of the restaurant on Main Street, fingers greasy and smelling like french fries.  I just can't listen to this song and be in a bad mood; it's impossible.

2008:  I Kissed a Girl - Katy Perry

I first heard this song when I visited my sister for a weekend; we had never heard of Katy Perry before, but that weekend, we heard I Kissed a Girl probably about ten times on the radio.  "What the hell is this?" we laughed, listening to the lyrics about the taste of the girl's cherry Chapstick.  That night, we went to a movie in the park (why don't more towns have this?!) - The Wizard of Oz - and I learned that Angie had always thought Professor Marvel was saying, "That's all; the crystal's gone doc," instead of "dark."  "What does that mean, when he says 'the crystal's gone doc'?" she asked me.  "Does that mean like it's broken, like it needs to go to the doctor?"  I just stared at her.  My sister is like twelve years older than me, and since childhood, she had thought the crystal went 'doc'.  Good Lord.  BUT ANYWAY.  That weekend, we were hoping to hear that song every time we changed the station, not knowing how sick of it we would eventually get.  Until, of course, they sang it on that amazing episode of Glee and I fell in love with it all over again!

2009:  Poker Face - Lady Gaga

I first heard of Lady Gaga on Perez Hilton, when he posted her song 'Just Dance.'  I thought it was meh.  Then my sister burned me a cd with a few of her songs on it, and I didn't get it.  "It just sounds like shitty dance music," I thought, "and why the hell does she keep saying 'cherry cherry boom boom'?!"  Then I started hanging out with a group of "cool" people (this was my first year of college) and finally understood the Legacy of Gaga.  (A legacy that would peak when I went to her concert (in like the fifth row!!) a year later, and that would end after 'Judas.'  Sigh.)  They would play it in the car on our way to eat at Cancun, sing it in choir practice, ALL THE TIME poker face and "muh muh muh mah."  One night, we all went to a party in someone's apartment, where the birthday boy got absolutely shitfaced and went around the room making people spank his bare butt.  My then-boyfriend (who sucked) left me there, though I was only acquaintances with most of the people there, and the birthday boy then proceeded to vomit every-fuckin-where.  (Have I mentioned I have a very strange phobia involving vomit?)  With Poker Face, of course, playing in the background.  That's when I decided, yeah, drinking's not for me, and I called someone to come pick me up.  :)  I'm so lame.

2010:  Your Love is My Drug - Ke$ha

2010, my second year of college, was simultaneously the best and most difficult year of college.  I listened to this song all the damn time - on the way to dance team practice, on an airplane on the way to go on a Caribbean cruise for show choir, and mostly after leaving the disgusting dorms after a late night.  What I remember most is when I was laying out at a local pool, and this song came on the radio.  I hummed along and waited for the last line, which I for some reason thought was hilarious.  A preteen girl walked by in time to the music and said to her friend, in unison with Ke$ha, "I like your beard!"  And that's when I realized I have the taste of a 13-year-old, and I was ashamed.

2011:  Forget You - Cee-Lo Green

When my niece Audrey was very little, this was the first song she ever loved.  (The edited version!)  She would sing along with the music video, even moving her hands to mimic the back-up singers.  I can't hear the song now without hearing her little voice singing, "Whyyyyy!  Whyyyy!" and copying Cee-Lo's little 'ah's and 'uh's in between verses.  Now she prefers Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball, anything Michael Jackson (though she prefers 'Beat It'), and, unfortunately, Gorilla by Bruno Mars, though her dad has taught her to say "you and me, baby, throwin' poop like gorillas," which, I think we can all agree, is at least better than the actual words.  (Say what you will about my brother's parenting, but my niece is the coolest and most well-behaved four-year-old there is.)

2012:  Rack City - Tyga (this song is filthy; you have been warned!)

This was the year Jared and I got married, and though the songs that could be used to better (and more appropriately) describe our relationship and wedding would be Tim McGraw's My Best Friend, Blake Shelton's Honeybee, and Chris Brown's Forever, this one is what we listened to the most.  We also liked to jam to Hey by Blake Shelton (the twangier we sang it, the better), Dance (Ass) with Nicki Minaj, and Amazing by T.I.  We would make up dances and rap along as well as we could, and people would stare at us when they drove by, probably impressed with our gangsta dancing skillz.  It's too bad that the DJ didn't think it appropriate to dance to Rack City for our first dance, because we would've killed it.

2013:  Wrecking Ball - Miley Cyrus

I know.  I know.  I was as skeptical as everyone else, and I rolled my eyes just as hard as you did at the tongue-thrusting, pelvis-grinding performance heard round the world.  But I love Bangerz.  I love it.  It's in my car's cd player as we speak, and I have a Miley Cyrus station on Pandora that I listen to quite frequently.  And as I said before, this is currently Audrey's favorite song (hopefully she hasn't seen the video), and whenever I ask her what her favorite song is, she yells happily, "Wecking Ball!"  She has also named one of the Barbies at my mom's house "Miley Cywus," which I should probably find horrifying, but I just think it's cute.  PLUS, Miley has THREE adorable rescue dogs, so I approve!  :)  Hatas gon' hate!

Well, we've come to the end!  I hope you've enjoyed my nostalgic, musical journey!  :)  I sure have!  Thanks for reading.

xoxochelsea