In fifth grade, I used to steal my mom’s iPod shuffle so that I could listen to music on the long bus ride home. Unfortunately, it was loaded exclusively with my mom’s favorite '80s songs, like “Time After Time” and “Manic Monday.” I desperately wished to be listening to “Bring Me To Life” like all the cool middle school kids with iPod Nanos were, instead of “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”
By the time I was a cool middle school kid, I got more than I ever could have dreamed of back then: custom Pandora stations on my iPod Touch playing everything from Ke$ha to Owl City to Hot Chelle Rae.
Campus radio station WXYC understands my nostalgic attachment to the 2000s. On Friday at Cat’s Cradle, the station is hosting its semi-annual WXYC 2000’s Dance in honor of the decade’s immeasurable contributions to pop culture and music history.
WXYC production room director Ashley Choo-Hen, one of the seven DJs of the dance, loves the music of the 2000s. “It’s music that I grew up listening to,” she said. “That’s our generation’s music, and it’s really nostalgic to hear old Rihanna being played, or Hilary Duff.”
WXYC’s social media manager, sophomore Michael Quint, agreed with Choo-Hen.
“The songs that I listened to in middle school — you know, angsty ones — it would be just kind of ridiculous if I listened to them now,” Quint said. “But (at the 2000s dance), everyone’s dancing together, and the unity of nostalgia is pretty cool.”
It seems that the same sense of nostalgia is what attracts the dance attendees. Mckinnon Brown, station manager for WXYC, said the 2000s are a highly relevant decade for college students now.
“Usually it’s pretty crowded,” Brown said of the event. “I think the 2000s dance has a little bit bigger of a crowd than the '90s dance, because a lot of people aren’t as familiar with the '90s at this point.”
Brown also pointed out the fun in being able to sing along to the familiar music.
