New Kids on the Block is the earliest one I can think of like that, where like within a week they were everywhere. And Kris Kross.
Coming in at #2 for 1997 we have.... a song I HAVE ZERO MEMORY OF!!! That's incredibly rare for a top 10 song in the 80's or 90's let alone for a song in number 2.
I was all about Jewel's first album back then. I saw the premiere of Who Will Save Your Soul (I think it was the last video played one night on MTV's 120 Minutes) and the next day asked my local record shop to order the album but they couldn't find it in their system. I eventually got it and loved the album, but today when I hear it I can only think "Karen! Karen! Karen!"
I saw the premiere of Who Will Save Your Soul (I think it was the last video played one night on MTV's 120 Minutes)
I think you're right.
What bands do you first remember bursting onto the popular zeitgeist?
When I was 10y.o. I heard Whip It by Devo and totally loved it. (1979? 1980?) Then it got so much radio play that I started to hate it. MTV too.
Years and years later, I consider Devo to be one of my most favorite bands.
edit:
A few years later, I heard Brass Monkey by the Beastie Boys. (1985?) I mostly heard the 808 from the song blasting out from boom cars as my friends and I were skateboarding.
Similar reaction to Whip It. Loved it. Then hated it because I literally could not unhear it. Years later, Beastie Boys are one of my all time favorite bands.
It was the lead single from the first Journey album in 10 years was probably enough to get it into the top 100.
The band Hanson is named after their last name, Hanson. Beck’s last name is also Hanson. Mike D. of the Beastie Boys married Beck’s sister, who directed the video for Mmm Bop. Nepotism. You gotta love it.
There is an electronic artist named Tobacco who’s first album was produced by Beck. It’s rumored that he’s Beck's nephew. It’s also been rumored that Tobacco is really Beck, but I think that’s been confirmed to be untrue.
Maybe you'll find this cover version slightly more palpable to your taste.
Or maybe not.
I wonder if there are any other near-universal aspects of the human experience that have yet to have had a song written about them.
The high of getting a new job maybe? That's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head.
Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's off to work we go!
jrralls wrote:I wonder if there are any other near-universal aspects of the human experience that have yet to have had a song written about them.
The high of getting a new job maybe? That's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head.
Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's off to work we go!
I like the way you walk
I like the way you talk
I know, right? Maybe if white cops stop shooting innocent people of color in the back we can get some more of those happy, upbeat rap anthems.
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I used to be a UPS package delivery guy. I would often listen to music loudly while I did my deliveries. I had several “Friday” playlists that I’d put together. I would blast these playlists extra loudly to help me get through that last workday of the week.
One Friday I had a large delivery for a surgery center. On my way back to the truck I overheard a very grumpy octogenarian white man exclaim, “I don’t understand why people still want to get jiggy with it.”
This was the song that was playing:
Know all these songs lately and most of the lyrics. Good times.
Yeah, that's true. The first question that comes to mind is "how much from 2004 sounds as dated in 2018 as the soundtrack to The Wedding Singer?" It's not the number of years, it's what happened in between. There was no major divide in music--or our popular conception of it looking back, which is actually the important thing anyway--that can compare with Nirvana vs. hair metal or the effect of MTV or the rise of hippy 'folk' music.
How can you remake the music of 2004 nostalgically when 2004 was the year proto-hipsters started not-totally-ironically listening to, like, Ashlee Simpson's album?
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