FT5: WTF? Songs I Found in my iTunes
During 1989 I received my first CD player. Since that day, I’ve collected music vigorously, but only recently has that seem to have gotten a little bit out of hand. Some friends know I have stuff, so they want to borrow it, or they want a burned copy. Other times, people want me to make a mix for some purpose or another, so I gladly oblige. It recently hit me that there are some mysterious tunes lying around in my iTunes library that I really rather wish weren’t there, or that I am going to pretend like I downloaded for a friend and lay no claim to whatsoever. Do you have those too? It can’t be just me.
DISCLAIMER: This is all pretty heavy on the 90s, but let’s face it, as a child of that period, I think my nostalgic moments led me back to rediscovering the inner me of middle school, and how much I would like to kick that guy in the face for ever subjecting himself to music like this.
5. Technotronic – Pump Up the Jam
I really wish that I could completely dismiss the presence of this song in my collection, but the truth is that I actually picked up the cassette single at Target back in the day. I’m trying to think how it made it onto my library, and the only reason I can think of is that at some point I felt a little bit nostalgic for sixth grade dances. Other than that I have no excuse for this song being in my possession, but I’m keeping it there just in case. You never know when you needed to get the party going on the dance floor.
4. Wreckx-N-Effect – Rump Shaker
So after compiling this list, I realized that at some point in my collection I must have downloaded a NOW Hits CD from the early nineties because there is a definitive theme to this type of music. It was disposable music played on basic radio stations your mom could stand playing for you while you were in the car on the way to soccer practice. If you missed this video, you missed something seriously worthwhile; it’s all scantily clad women shaking their rumps, oddly enough. Odder still, I think I know the words to this song.
3. Montell Jordan – This Is How We Do It
Please, don’t even pretend like you haven’t listened to this song at some point in your lifetime. You can probably recite at least half the words, which isn’t entirely due to the simplicity of the chorus. I know for a fact that I started off a dance party off with this jam only because I thought it would be the most hilarious thing in the world. Apparently, everyone really liked it because they definitely had there own story about the first time they heard Montell Jordan. Tell us yours.
2. Tag Team – Whoomp There It Is
No more lies or pretense. I know all the words to this song all the way through. It some how made its way into my hands before I realized that this sort of music was crap, but regardless, I went back at some point in time and made sure I had myself a copy of this jam by Tag Team. It’s at the re-discovery of this song in my iTunes that I realize there were probably two distinct periods of listening to music, and I hope that the current stage began immediately after I got through listening to “Whoomp There It Is.”
1. Deee – Lite – Groove Is in the Heart
Finding this in the catalogue was really what set me thinking of this week’s Top 5. I never really got into this song in the first place, and the fact that I would subject my library to its presence really does bring into question what I thought were fairly impeccable tastes. There is that one moment in the middle where the gentleman jumps out and makes weird noises, and I can specifically remember his face from the video with the tie-dye background. Funnier still is that the legendary Q-Tip is wrapping in the song too. Who would of thought someone from Tribe Called Quest would be part of this ridiculous song? Worse, who would have found it on my iTunes?
Now, it’s a given that most people know these songs, but I thought I managed my library better than this. I’m grateful that my search didn’t lead me across the path of Brittney Spears or anything damaging to my credibility, but I would like to apologize to Boyz II Men for leaving them out of this. You guys deserved a spot on this list, and I just might have to come download something right now to make sure I’m better prepared. What do you have lying around in your library that probably shouldn’t be there? Do tell.
You be trippin fool, this playlist is tha BOMB! Homeslice, lemme get a mixtape.
I’m with Jon.
Dance party. Big Nate’s house. MIDNIGHT.
sometimes we share a little too much..One day I feel so close to you guys, then it takes a post to want me to punch you in the nuts and forget I ever met you. All out of love…my friends.
You’re not alone and there’s no shame in it! A life well lived has a soundtrack that spans the decades. Very often it’s more about the evocative power of the tune than its perceived shelf life. People that can’t have fun revisiting their life’s soundtrack are boring.
I am so excited for the Wreckx-N-Effect/Technotronic South By show that I have hardly been able to sleep.
Jon-
We’ll be spinning nothing but 90s hits at our party in between bands. It’ll be mostly stuff like Boyz II Men and Warren G. Be sure to stop by.
I realize I’m late to this party, but I’d like to point out that there’s a pretty good chance that gentleman making strange noises in the middle of the Dee Lite video is none other than Bootsy Collins. Dig.
I would have titled this Top 5, “Songs I should be ashamed of still liking, but I’m not” (except for Dee-Lite. Viva la 90s