Nostalgia and Dirty Music: Boy Bands Were Pervy?!?!?

Sorry I've been out for so long, folks! Lots has been happening, and I've been going nonstop here lately!

I came to a startling realization today. I was scanning through the radio channels today, and found myself disgusted and annoyed by today’s selection of music. If it was pop, it was about sex. If it was country, it was about booze. If it was rap, it just wasn’t fit for anyone to listen to. I remember thinking, “I feel for today’s youth. Our music wasn’t this bad!”

And then I switched over to my phone’s playlist.

My taste in music varies from rock (Halestorm, Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace), to pop (Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Panic at the Disco), to gospel (Lauren Daigle, Crowder, Big Daddy Weave), and so on and so forth. However, in the pop category, I also have some nostalgic hits that I keep as a sort of guilty pleasure. I have N’Sync, Hanson, and Backstreet Boys, which were all very popular through my pre-teen and teen years.  My walls were plastered with the posters pulled from Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, Bop, and other countless waste of money magazines. My first CD was Hanson’s “Middle of Nowhere”, and I had each and every cd made by the boy bands popular back then. Hearing Justin Timberlake, back when he had the ramen noodle hair singing the first few seconds of "I Want You Back" makes me all warm and fuzzy. 

Back when I could daydream about Lance Bass before he broke my heart and came out to the world, solidifying the fact that he was NOT in fact going to be my future husband (hahaha), it all takes me back to an easier time. 

These songs and albums are my adolescence, as sad as that may sound.

As I’m flipping through some of these older songs, I was startled when I really started listening to the lyrics. Backstreet Boys, “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” is catchy as hell, and that was my jam, but I never realized how many preteen and teen girls caught the line “Am I sexual?” said I don’t know how many times through the song. N’Sync’s “Digital Get Down” actually made me blush. 

I don’t remember it being that big a deal as a teen, because I think I always just imagined bumping into one of the guys in a chatroom by pure luck and serendipity and having this awesome conversation. I’m PRETTY sure the song does not in fact mean that. “I get so excited when I’m watching, girl. I can’t wait to see you touch your body, girl. It’s just me and you, so we can do what we gotta do.” 

❤❤❤❤❤❤

These lyrics were every bit as dirty as the ones put out today! I can’t remember any of Hanson’s lyrics being sexually suggestive. I’m pretty sure they were just adorable.

I don’t know if maybe I’ve just gotten older and have really started looking deeper into things, versus the way I looked at things as a child. I just know that today’s youth scares the living hell out of me. And the music is only part of it!