8 Comments

Something this piece shocked me into realizing is that "I Want It that Way" came out in 1999. If asked, I would have pegged it as much earlier. I associate it -- completely incorrectly, it turns out -- with .. junior high dances? BUT BY 1999 I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL! Very odd.

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That happened to me with “Thong Song” by Sisquo. I thought I distinctly remembered it from high school, only to look it up and realize it came out years after I graduated.

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I had this thing where, when I was a teenager, I had a very bitter attitude towards anything marketed toward teenage girls because it all seemed vapid and patronizing. Because of this, I don’t have a very strong awareness of the teen pop culture of my actual teens (the early 90’s). BUT, in my late 20’s, I started working for a teen media company and entered my “21 Jumpstreet” era where I started dressing like a teenager, got completely immersed in the teen pop culture of the late 90’s/early 00’s and had a 19 year old boyfriend. I was obsessed with *NSYNC (I’ll never forget the five seconds I got to flirt with Joey Fatone at a meet and greet). Anyway, I guess my point is that it’s way more fun to be a teenager when you’re 28.

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Why is this not yet a movie??

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Exactly this! I despised boy bands, Britney Spears, even the Spice Girls. Instead, I listened to 60‘s pop and folk and indie music, like R.E.M. and (later) Hole, Nirvana, Pearl Jam. Only as an adult did I allow myself to appreciate some of Britney Spears songs, and I find the Spice Girls okay - but I never went into a revival phase like you did. That sounds fun!

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man, VERY relatable -- this song WAS essentially my pop culture baptism, but i had an almost identical experience to you a few years prior, when a group of girls who went to the local public school asked me which spice girl i wanted to be and i had never heard of them

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do you remember sending each other mix cds… those were the days

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boy, i sure do!!! and i'll send you another one anytime you want ✨💿🔥

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