A new year always means at least one thing: everyone and everything is getting older. That also applies to the art that we may have loved, or perhaps just lingers in our collective memory. Thankfully, there are plenty of obvious benchmarks, from the turn of the century to Wilford Brimley’s age in Cocoon, to keep us writhing in agony; meanwhile, less obvious are the pop songs that have seemed to exist forever, whether or not we were old enough to hear them when they first debuted.
1997 Flashback: 25 Songs Turning 25 In 2022
A new year always means at least one thing: everyone and everything is getting older. That also applies to the art that we may have loved, or perhaps just lingers in our collective memory. Thankfully, there are plenty of obvious benchmarks, from the turn of the century to Wilford Brimley’s age in Cocoon, to keep us writhing in agony; meanwhile, less obvious are the pop songs that have seemed to exist forever, whether or not we were old enough to hear them when they first debuted.
10. HANSON // “MMMBOP”
At approximately the same time that boy bands were making a comeback and dominating the pop charts, this sibling trio merged the DIY aesthetic of grunge and the sunny harmonies of forebears from the Beach Boys to the Jackson Five. Credit for its success actually goes to cult producers and Beastie Boys and Beck collaborators the Dust Brothers, who sped up the song for the group’s major-label debut, creating an earworm guaranteed to drive anyone over the age of 14 absolutely (if perhaps cheerfully) mad.