"Hey, I just met you..."

The weirdest thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago when my parents decided to give me a $15 iTunes card. (Yes, I still use iTunes and not Spotify.) Given that I have a tendency to blow through spending money on music within 60 seconds, I ran out of ideas for what kind of music I wanted to purchase. Then, I started to think about songs I used to like but I had forgotten about them. Given that I had FORGOTTEN them, I needed to actually research some decade-old classics. I didn't find much back in the Naughties (2000's) but upon searching music from the earlier parts of the 2010's, I came across some interesting sounds: pop songs pre-2015.

Now, the thing you have to understand here is my opinion on pop music nowadays. It was last year (2016) when I found myself listening to the radio a little less. It's not that there was never anything good on the radio—there were definitely some standouts—but it was during that year when I discovered how similar all the songs on the radio were—they all had this almost identical electronic sound, almost to a point where I couldn't tell if it was pop or dance or electronic or some other genre. Now, all of those genres are fine—I don't hate any of them or anything—but 2016 music just felt like this huge mess where tons of artists I had never even heard took over the radio and were singing/playing the same sounds, the same styles, and I just couldn't stand it anymore. We had plenty of hits come out from that year and even some new favorite artists of mine, but more and more that year I found myself turning off the radio when a new pop song came on and what's even worse is that I find myself continuing that trend this year.

Enter the Weird Thing

After looking across a list of songs labeled "Top 10 Pop Songs From the 2010's," it felt like a wall came crashing down in my brain, and I thought, "Damn, these are good!" On that list, I found CeeLo Green's "Forget You," Adele's "Rolling in the Deep," Katy Perry's "California Gurls," among others. I was just in awe! All of these artists brought me back to when I was just a kid taking a half-hour bus ride to school every day and listening to my iPod—when I thought pop was good and fun. It brought me back to when we all danced to PSY's "Gangnam Style" at my mom's 40th birthday, when my grandmother and I jammed to Adele's "21" album for a 5-hour road trip, when my uncle had a party celebrating his new home and he accidentally played the EXPLICIT version of "Forget You," also known as "F*** You", and when I thought bands like Maroon 5, Fun, Owl City, OneRepublic, and Bruno Mars were the greatest in the world (don't get me wrong, some more than others still are).

It was all just so overwhelming. These were the days before I had ever heard of Indie, didn't want to listen to metal, was afraid of grunge, wasn't old enough to know what emo was, thought Radiohead was stupid or (I'm sorry to say) had never listened to "Bohemian Rhapsody" or wanted to listen to it (and I called myself a Queen fan). This little nostalgia trip was nice...

UNTIL...

I came across ONE more pop song that really pushed me over the edge, and it took me a little time to figure out why (hence this very article). The song was Carly Rae Jepson's "Call Me Maybe." After scrolling through countless songs and artists that defined my time as an early teen I was stopped HERE. I gave the song a listen. I thought nothing was wrong with it. I remembered when this song was very popular, but I couldn't bring myself to purchase it. I tried playing the song again but 5 seconds into the song playing, I SHUT IT OFF! I felt like I couldn't stand that song another minute! BUT WHY?! I didn't really hate the song at all. I remember enjoying it, actually. I didn't understand why every time I heard the opening lyrics my skin crawled.

I thought about it for a while, even wondering how I really thought about all of the other early 2010's songs I had just downloaded. I finally came to a sort of realization inside that infectious 2011 hit: yes, Carly Rae's song was a hit all right and I remember loving it, BUT I also remember that radio stations everywhere WOULD NOT STOP PLAYING THIS SONG. This song was everywhere at the time. It was unavoidable. It was an earworm. The lyrics were catchy, the music video was good, and people everywhere were probably singing it in the shower. Pretty soon the song went from being popular because it was good, to being popular because it was ABSOLUTELY ANNOYING—and it's not even the song's fault, necessarily. It just got so overplayed it went from possible-classic status to never-want-to-hear-this-again status. And thus my nostalgia trip came to a close.

"...and this is crazy..."

It took one bad memory about one song to make me realize the dark side of nostalgia. Sometimes we can long for the past so much that we forget to live in the present. And sometimes when we do look back and miss those days, I bet there were plenty of things we DON'T MISS.

I MISS just enjoying music rather than comparing newer songs to older songs and wishing for the old. I DON'T MISS feeling like a garbage outcast when I was around my classmates and my best friend was the teacher.

I MISS when everyone on my bus got out their Nintendo DS handhelds and we all played Mario Kart with each other. I DON'T MISS the impending fear I got from teachers when they talked about how hard high school, college, and your entire future is going to be impossible and that it'll be a miracle if you can get anywhere in life.

I MISS my best friends, the two that came to ULM with me, the No Art Club, the Drama Club, the nicest teachers, even the former Seniors who graduated before us. I DON'T MISS the 'Dylan Touch,' the rumors, and how some of my other classmates treated my like I didn't belong (but that's another story).

I bet the same could be said about any other times. Not just certain decades, but all of time itself. We'll have our reasons for wanting to go back to when things were better in a way, but we'll also have those reasons for why those "forgotten songs" were forgotten to begin with. But it's okay to think about the past as long as you get around to moving on from it. Go make a better present so that can become the better past in the future, and keep moving forward.

Well, that's about everything. Hopefully I wrapped everything up in a neat little bow for you there in the end. Uhh...what else? Uhh...I guess brush your teeth, read a book every now and again, get some running in. I know firsthand that some good exercise is beneficial to life in and after college. Oh yeah! And always remember:

"...but here's my number!

So Call Me Maybe!"

Well, let me know what you thought!

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Thanks for checking out my article, and I'll talk to you all later!