I think the title of the song is Watch Out Here I Come.

Ahh, ’80s music. I think the thing is that these people won’t know what the really cool contemporary music is until they start getting exposed to it in college. Because the really good popular ’90s and beyond music is stuff like grunge, that doesnt necessarily make for a good dance party. (I guess they could do punk or ska, but what the hell)

By and large, though, I think the fact that kids these days listen to 80’s music has something to do with the fact that mainstream music hasn’t come out with much of any worth since the 80s. (I mean there’s some, Outkast comes to mind, but that’s about it). Popular media, be it music, movies, television, or whatever, is getting increasingly homogeneous, and youth, even those who are buying Britney Spears albums by the bucketful, are able to recognise that nothing mainstream today can compare to what there used to be.

Why aren’t they listening to music from their own time?

Because you can’t dance to it. Not in a fun, goofy, bouncy way, anyway.

Digital media, in particular computers and peer-to-peer networks, make it easier for older music to retain its force. A kid is browsing Limewire, sees some song title that catches her eye, and downloads it. The song turns out to be 20+ years old, but now the kid has been exposed to it, and has the resources to find more like it. All of this from the comfort of your living room.

I notice this, too: it’s de rigeur these days. I’ve been to a bunch of weddings lately (though not nearly as many as you, Ampersand!) and it always gets played and always gets a big response.

I was at a wedding in Missouri last weekend, for a couple who were each 21, as were their friends, and it was a rural area and most everybody was heavy into country western music and the DJ was playing Shania Twain, Toby Keith, etc.

But still, the opening BAH-bah-bah of YMCA came on and everyone hollered and everyone under the age of, oh, 50 or so was immediately out on the dance floor ready to spell with their arms.

Am I the only one who finds it ironic in these days of SSM battles that a gay anthem is turning out to be the must-play song at hetero weddings?

B) You’re going to remember the hits and forget the misses, as usual. Much as you see purple cars all over the place once you’ve thought, huh, a purple car, you remember the music you remember and tend to block out the music you don’t.

C) Sampling and mashups demand and encourage a certain familiarity with the pop culture canon.

Nonetheless, D) Given the internet—MP3 blogs and P2P, specifically—I now listen to more new music than ever before. Far more. I’m crushing out on bands again, for the first time in years. (Man, have you heard the Dresden Dolls? Regina Spektor? The Mountain Goats? The Magnetic Fields?)

My prediction for the future: in addition to “YMCA” dominating the dance floors, I’ll lay money that the “Macarana” will be a big wedding hit.

Obviously, these kids were conceptually more in tune with my crowd than with your crowd, even if they were musically in tune with your crowd.

Given the dominant musical styles of the 80’s, it makes sense that it is drama-nerds who now have reactionary musical tastes, while in the eighties it was mostly the stoners who had reactionary musical tastes. But it definitely isn’t a new thing to have reactionary musical tastes while in highschool.

Do modern day stoners still have reactionary musical tastes or do they listen to trip-hop and trance and such not?

Was that a modern dance version of it or the original? There’s been an ’80s revival going on in the techno/trance/house world. I have revved up versions of some ’80s hits on my dance cd’s, including some by Cindy Lauper. I also have a modern version of you spin me on one of my cd’s. I can’t sit still if it’s playing.

A lot of those songs are party hits anyway because they’re catchy. Every dj I’ve seen at SF con parties plays a lot of Queen and Village People, especially YMCA (complete with arm motions). “Shout” is practically required at these dances.

The only trip-hop I listen to is Lamb, but I’m open for other good suggestions.

Speaking of ska, I’m surprised they didn’t play “House of Fun” or “One Step Beyond.” Or did they?

Well, I’d say that anyone who doesn’t get upset either A) doesn’t have a problem with homosexuality or B) doesn’t know what the song is about.

Now, I’m not saying anyone should be upset about what the song is about. But, let’s face, homosexuality can upset a hell of a lot of people.

The chorus will make any given song sink or swim, regardless of the content of the verses (consider the way that the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” was widely mistaken for a love song—the stalker bits are almost entirely relegated to the verses). The chorus of “YMCA”?

It’s fun to stay at the YMCA. I want to stay at the YMCA. Everybody stay at the YMCA.

Nothing explicit there, thus nothing offensive. Perhaps your experience is different from mine, but I’ve never encountered someone who boycotted or disliked “YMCA” based on its lyrical content. I’ve seen people dislike the song because the Village People were gay, but not because of anything they found in the song—and these people, I should add, are pretty rare; I’ve watched hardcore homophobes dance to “YMCA.”

So, I’d say that most of the people who boogie to that song—probably including most of the people at the weddings Amp referred to—fall into your category B: they don’t know what they’re dancing to, but damn is it catchy. And it has a cute dance, wouldn’t you know?

Britain’s The Asian Dub Foundation has both great (well heavily political) lyrics and a very “danceable” rythm.

(PDP, would The Coup change your opinion about recent hip-hop?).