A few months ago, I heard something weird(er than usual) from the kids on the school bus.
Too shocked to actually say anything, I turned around and gave them a long stare which simply received a nonchalant "what?" So, still mortified, I just turned back around and continued to try and ignore them while conflicting thoughts raced through my head.
And then I remembered the 90's.
I thought about the kind of pop music we'd hear all the time. A medley of the likes of Vengaboys, Aqua, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Boyzone, Spice Girls, 5ive, 98 Degrees, etc. in all their colourful mediocrity and annoyingly infectious glory. (I still remember the first English music video I ever saw: Hit Me Baby One More Time. I still remember how old I was, whose house I saw it in, and that flash of recognition once the music started.)
Of course we sang these songs all the time, without knowing what they meant. For example, the song Genie in a Bottle has very different implications when you're 10 and when you're 20.
Another popular song, especially for dance contests in school, was Vengaboys's Boom Boom Boom. The chorus goes something like this:
Boom boom boom boom\ I want you in my room\ Let's spend the night together\ Together in my room
8-year-old brain interpretation:
*Another misunderstood Vengaboys song. As I realized only a few months ago, it's "going to Ibiza", not "going to eat pizza". Learn how to pronounce 'Ibiza', Vengaboys!
Adult (I say 'adult' optimistically) brain:
Often, we sang without even knowing the lyrics. This is from an actual conversation I had with a friend in my class.
We were very creative when it came to making up strange lyrics that sounded like the originals.
It was "pour some Dom Perignon and hit the lights out", but how in the world are pre-teens supposed to know that? Besides, if we'd known the actual lyrics, I bet our discussions would have revolved around who Dom Perignon was and how you could possibly pour... okay, never mind. Let's just move on to the next line.
At an age where love is such a vague, abstract concept, and when a phrase involves the word, you naturally assume it's... something like this?
Not that it mattered much. All we really cared about was singing it exactly like Blue did, especially the high Lee Ryan parts.
