Here comes another wacky music post.
The date: July 6, 1999. Destiny's Child releases "The Writing's on the Wall," the album will push them into superstar status. It featured such singles as "Bills, Bills, Bills" and the mega-hit, "Say My Name." Of course, one of the other singles off the album was "Bugaboo," a song detailing some of the more popular technologies of the day.
Needless to say, I was listening to the radio on my way home from work today, when "Bugaboo" came through the speakers. Sadly, hearing this song was actually refreshing, probably because I haven't heard it in about 9.5 years. As I was grooving to the bass-infused beat, I realized how ridiculous the chorus sounded. Let's break it down, line by line.
"You make me wanna throw my pager out the window..."
To be honest, I think pagers were out of style for everyone whose profession wasn't drug dealing by 1999. Even so, the ladies of DC felt the need to mention them in this song. Go ahead girls, throw your pagers out the window. No one uses them any more.
"...tell MCI to cut the phone calls..."
MCI, once the thorn in AT&T's side that sent them into a tailspin for the better part of the 2000s, was all the rage in 1999. Of course, their chairman, Bernie Ebbers, was overstating their revenues during this time and taking out personal loans from the company, but hey, who's counting? MCI is now a shell of its former self, and has been consumed by telecom giant, Verizon.
"...have AOL make my e-mails stop..."
I had AOL back in 1995, along with the rest of America. Then cable modems were introduced to the world, and people began to wise up and realize they didn't need to spend $24.95 for a dumb voice that said "You've Got Mail!" (although it did inspire that wonderful Tom Hanks movie). After a failed merger with Time Warner, AOL has now reformed as AOL LLC, and is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Do you know anyone who uses AOL anymore? If you do, are they over the age of 55? I thought so.
It's amazing how quickly things change when it comes to technology, especially when the accounting scandal era and tech bubble bursting is shoved in the middle of your time period. In 10 years, "Three Quarters Left" will re-visit this post and see how far technology has come.
In the meantime, I leave you with the 2009 version of Bugaboo:
"You make me wanna throw my iPhone out the window..."
"...tell Verizon to cut the phone calls..."
"...have HotMail make my e-mails stop..."
Well, some of us are still stuck in 1999.
- Kaps
Song of the Day: Talib Kweli - Stand to the Side
4 comments:
I would have to say that instead of hotmail, you should have used gmail
The HotMail was a subtle and poor attempt at humor, saying that HotMail was used in 1999. I know that no one uses HotMail anymore.
yo u never cease to amaze me I like reading ur blog..most of the time it is the highlight of my day
It's comments like those that keep me motivated to write when I'm tired late at night. Thanks, G.
Post a Comment