I was getting my hair cut by a young lady at the local barber shop.
Her: What day is it today?
Me: Um, Thursday.
Her: Wow, it’s almost the end of the week — it’s almost the end of the month, even! And next month I turn 21! I can’t believe it!
Me: Sneaks up on you, huh?
Her: It’s crazy! I mean, how can I be 21?! How can it already be 2003?!
Me: Uh-huh.
Her: I mean, do you remember when that song came out, that “1999” song by that guy?
Me: Prince?
Her: Yeah. Do you remember when that song first came out, how they played it, like, all the time? And then New Year’s came and it was the year 2000 and they totally stopped playing it? I mean, that seems like yesterday.
Me: When 1999 first came out?
Her: Yeah. Do you remember that? A few years ago?
The haircut cost 20 bucks, but the feeling old was free.
Yeah, weren’t we in junior high when that came out?
And somewhere there is someone groaning just like I did when a friend told me he listened to NIN’s Pretty Hate Machine in high school. (After which rant my husband pointed out that he did, too.)
I was in like early elementary school when that song came out. It came out before Purple Rain in 1984, when I was 10…so damn…damn, I’m old.
july 1987 when that was released. i was a high school junior in the peak of my goth stage. for some reason, we found prince to be very goth. hind sighting, can’t see why now.
I don’t get it. What song are we talking about?
at least i didn’t pay 20$ for the hair cut, because i do feel old as hell now…
A friend of mine has a phrase for people like her:
“Weilding their stupidity like a weapon.”
the mind boggles.
by the way, love the blog.
oh god. that’s like the time when a friend was telling me about the dance class she was teaching to gen y girls. they were doing a routine to a george michael song and the girls only knew him in reference to a duet he did with elton john a while back.
21 year-olds make my head hurt.
“It must have been so cool to live in 80’s…Did you guys totally love that song TaintedLove?”
I started hanging out with a 23 year-old, and honestly had to start watching MTV to understand half of her references.
Was talking movies once with the college intern. He’d had a Bond rental fest over the weekend.
“Connery was the best Bond,” I said.
He blinked at me. “CONNERY was BOND?”
I had to kill him. It was just better for everyone concerned.
Well, the “album” 1999 came out in 1982!!! I am from Mpls, and have worked at the former symbol’s artist shack several times in the past. In fact we once hugged, but that is an odd story in itself. I was in the last year(s) of college when Prince’s 1999 came out. Prince was well known in the twin towns long before that release. In fact, in the years prior, some often referred to him as the “lil rude boy” I believe his ties with Minnesota have faded as of late. He has moved and several months ago he had his house torn down. (Still vain after all these years) When that song came out…..you might as well said “in the future” cuz that is how long 1999 seemed away.
As far as Bond goes, I had my children see Sean Connery play the role before any of the other posers. They now think of Sean Connery as the one true James Bond. I love the influence of fatherhood.
I wrote a post about this phenomenon just the other day. I’m still looking for someone who has a cure for people who don’t remember the 80’s….anyone? Anyone?
I feel so old now. 80’s songs are my age test for guys. Ever heard of Wham! ? Andrew Ridgley? Frankie Goes to Hollywood? hmm. I can’t go out with someone that doesn’t remember the 80’s in it’s glory.
MTV’s Kennedy was assassinated?!?!
Hell, I’m only 25 and it makes me feel old. I’ve got teenage cousins who don’t understand what to do with a rotary dial telephone, and have yet to meet a person younger than me that saw Breakfast Club…
i am 22. i remember 1999 in its original form, although i was knee-high to a knee at the time. not all early twentysomethings are idiots. just most of them. do not feel old. feel superior.
Ow. When I catch up with that whippersnapper, I’m gonna hit her with my walker.
We were babysitting…reading a Barney book…the book mentioned playing a record…she said, “What’s a record?”
“What’s a record?” According to my 14-year-old niece (when she was a little younger), it’s one of those big black CDs with a little hole in the middle.
Do you guys remember when Queen totally copied the bass line from that awesome Vanilla Ice song . . . or when Queen released that song Bohemian Rhapsody on the Wayne’s World sound track?
I was telling the Blondage about this post, and she said “I don’t get it. How did talking about a song that came out 4 years ago make someone feel old?”
I’m single now, and looking.
Overheard on a (doomed) blind date:
“You mean Paul McCartney was in a band?”
You let someone like that near your head with scissors?
They should be so lucky as to not remember the 80s. Or the early 90s.
… not all early twentysomethings are idiots. just most of them.
Same thing is true of us geezers: most of us are idiots. It’s Sturgeon’s law: 90% of everything is crap.
… the book mentioned playing a record … she said, “What’s a record?”
Just wait: it won’t be 10 more years before all kinds of “music that spins” — “45s”, LPs, CDs, DVDs — are completely obsolete.
My very first job (at 16, in 1969, which makes me 0x32 now) involved hooking UCLA’s host (Host #1 on the ARPAnet) to its IMP. That doesn’t make me feel old. But having my _younger_ brother die of a heart attack — that did.
Yeah. Just try to be funny after that one.
DOWN WITH THE 80’S!! LONG LIVE THE GLORIOUS ERA OF THE CLINTON!!!
But are typical Prince songs and the Clinton years really so dissimilar?
I told my twelve-year-old nephew about how cutting-edge we all felt as we sat around our 9″ color TV playing “Pong.”
I am now, in his eyes, a fossil.
By the way, here’s the cure for anyone who doesn’t remember the 80s: tell them we all had really great jobs and lots of money and unprotected sex, and you never will.
Serves them right. ;)
Consider how those of us born in the 70’s feel about the 70’s. Okay. Now, the 80’s are like the 70’s to those born in the 80’s.
And now you’re even older…
i am 22…..
I’m thirteen. I now feel very, very young.
20 bucks for a haircut ? Get yourself another barber.
Had a girl tell me once that the only Allman Brother she knew was Donny. Had to send her home to Momma.
Forget the 80s! If you remember anything from the 90s you’re old already!
A quiz on the radio:
Presenter: “In what year did Kurt Cobain commit suicide?”
Contestant: “Who?”
My wife and i sometimes find ourselves ragging on the kids today and their ‘culture’. but then i think, when i was 13 buying D&D’s Rio, some 20-30 something was smirking at me and me teeny bop record.
“they were doing a routine to a george michael song and the girls only knew him in reference to a duet he did with elton john a while back.”
That reminds me of a 19-year old coworker who was bragging that she had programmed Limp Bizkit’s “Faith” as the ringtone on her cell phone, three or so years ago. The look on her face when I told her it was a remake was priceless.
And I felt old last night, when I heard Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science” in a shampoo commercial. (SO wrong!)
A late post, but I can’t help it. Old often sucks, but at least now I can listen to Tocata & Fugue in D minor without someone going, “Whoa! Roller ball!”
Limp Bizkits ‘Faith’ was a remake??!! My world is shattered…
Uh, yeah, whatever.
Can anyone name me an original song that Boyzone did? Its part of a bet