Close your eyes and think about how awkward middle school dances were. Now open your eyes, look in the mirror, and notice the grin you have on your face due to laughing at how embarrassing you were on that dance floor. Doing the Stanky Leg, hitting that Soulja Boy, or even doing the Cotton-Eyed Joe, you thought you were killing that dance floor. In reality, you were probably the most un-coordinated middle schooler there was. Please, imagine what dance move you'd be killin' if each one of these songs came on at one of your middle school dances.
1. "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani
You know you thought you were the man for saying 'shit' during the B-A-N-A-N-A-S part.
2. "Yeah!" by Usher
For my town, it was "Peace Up H-Town!"
3. "1, 2 Step" by Ciara
Once the "This beat is..." line came over the speakers, everyone got hyped up. None of us knew how to do the 1, 2 Step, but we sure as hell pretended we did.
4. "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" by Soulja Boy Tell'Em
We all knew this dance better than our multiplication tables. We'd practice this day and night to be able to crank it the best. YOOOOOOOOU
5. "Buy U A Drank" by T-Pain
Honestly, no one understood T-Pain, but this song was one that made you feel like you knew what alcohol was at age 13.6. "Cyclone" by Baby Bash
This picture shows just how we all thought the dance the Cyclone really went...all we did was spin.
7. "Swing" by Savage
In hopes that the hottest eighth grade boy would see, we shook our butts from side to side when the artist sung "Swiiiiiing!"
8. "Blame It" by Jamie Foxx
Unfortunately, we couldn't blame our horrible dancing on alcohol at age 13, but we sure as hell sang the words like we could. Also, ask us if we knew what shots were back then, because we definitely did not.
9. "Bartender" by T-Pain
Something seems a little strange that mostly all the songs played at a middle school dance revolved around the topic of alcohol. This shows how we danced to Bartender because once again, we had no clue what the hell half the lyrics meant.
10. "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha
Ke$ha was our generation's go-to party song queen. Once we heard "Tryna get a little bit tiiiiipsy" we all jumped to the ceiling.
11. "Let it Rock" by Kevin Rudolf
Most underrated song of our middle school days, and it was definitely one of the boys' favorites to dance to on the floor.
12. "Umbrella" by Rihanna
Taking down the tempo a bit, Rihanna definitely made everyone scream the word "umbrella" at the top of their lungs in the middle school gym.
13. "Kiss Kiss" by Chris Brown
This is where the break-dancing moves came out and where knowing the sped-up parts made you look like a legend.
14. "When I Grow Up" by the Pussycat Dolls
When the boys would laugh thinking "groupies" was actually "boobies."
15. "Fire Burnin'" by Sean Kingston
Somebody call 9-1-1, we definitely were not burnin' up that dance floor (at least not in a very good looking way.)
16. "Love Lockdown" by Kanye West
This song made everyone in my grade know who Kanye West was. With the tune being a heartbeat, all of us would be thrusting our chests to the ceiling. How embarrassing.
17. "She Wolf" by Shakira
Once Shakira did that weird breathing, the whole floor started to shake. You can't even say you didn't move your body in the weirdest ways just because she did in her music video.
18. "Fall for You" by Secondhand Serenade
Ah, the slow song of the night. It's about time you grab that crush of yours and awkwardly spread yourselves apart, holding onto each other but not daring to look into each others' eyes. How. Awkward.
19. "Party like a Rockstar" by Shop Boy
T-T-T-Totally dude.
20. "Baby" by Justin Bieber
The most dreadful song of the night for the boys, but the best part of the night for the girls. Justin Bieber became a teenage heartthrob when we were in middle school, and to this day you remember every word to every song from "My World."
These songs definitely spark some unfortunate memories for me and my middle school days and I'm sure while listening to these songs they do the same for you. Ah, but how we'd kill to go back to being young again just for a day...then again, with the dance moves we had, would we really?
