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I'm 41. I just asked 6 friends who are my contemporaries and each of them knew this song well. It was also, of course, extremely popular, as the link points out

I'm 41. I just asked 6 friends who are my contemporaries and each of them knew this song well. It was also, of course, extremely popular, as the link points out. Can you introspect a bit about what may be unusual about you so that you were never exposed to this song?

VyseofArcadia 4y ago
For starters, at 35 I am a bit younger than you. That's certainly a factor, but I still should have been exposed. For radio play, I was living in rural Alabama at the time. Wouldn't shock me if the local station never played it because someone's church had some kind of issue with it. (Famously my mother once called in to request a Billy Idol song and was refused because the DJ claimed that Idol was a satanist.) For the music video, my dad was the unrelenting Master of the Remote Control, and he didn't care for music videos (although he loved rock music. I have his record collection. Go figure.) My brother and I did get to watch stuff, but my brother is younger still. At the time, we would have been watching programs suitable for both of us, which was mostly cartoons, as he was the right age range and I wasn't quite too old. I definitely had friends and classmates who were watching music videos and talking about them at school. I remember that much, but don't remember any details. I probably tuned them out since I wasn't paying attention to music videos anyway.
- pavon 4y ago
  Early forties, grew up in NM, never heard the song until today. I wasn't personally into hip hop but I seemed to have been exposed to most of the other hip hop songs on the Billboard top 100 in 1999 when the song peaked.
- kcarter80 4y ago
  Thanks for replying!
fezfight 4y ago
I'm 40 and I've never heard it, nor have the 4 people sitting around me. We were all in Ontario when this song was apparently popular. We were all massively into music at the time.
- kcarter80 4y ago
  > We were all massively into music at the time. There was something consistent and unusual about your lack of exposure to this song.
  - fezfight 4y ago
    We grew up in the burbs. Everyone was into music. Just never heard this song. Not all songs go everywhere, eh. For example, as a Canadian, most Americans I met at the time had never heard of the once most popular band in Canada - The Tragically Hip.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

VyseofArcadia 4y ago

For starters, at 35 I am a bit younger than you. That's certainly a factor, but I still should have been exposed. For radio play, I was living in rural Alabama at the time. Wouldn't shock me if the local station never played it because someone's church had some kind of issue with it. (Famously my mother once called in to request a Billy Idol song and was refused because the DJ claimed that Idol was a satanist.) For the music video, my dad was the unrelenting Master of the Remote Control, and he didn't care for music videos (although he loved rock music. I have his record collection. Go figure.) My brother and I did get to watch stuff, but my brother is younger still. At the time, we would have been watching programs suitable for both of us, which was mostly cartoons, as he was the right age range and I wasn't quite too old. I definitely had friends and classmates who were watching music videos and talking about them at school. I remember that much, but don't remember any details. I probably tuned them out since I wasn't paying attention to music videos anyway.

pavon 4y ago
Early forties, grew up in NM, never heard the song until today. I wasn't personally into hip hop but I seemed to have been exposed to most of the other hip hop songs on the Billboard top 100 in 1999 when the song peaked.
kcarter80 4y ago
Thanks for replying!

fezfight 4y ago

I'm 40 and I've never heard it, nor have the 4 people sitting around me. We were all in Ontario when this song was apparently popular. We were all massively into music at the time.

kcarter80 4y ago
> We were all massively into music at the time. There was something consistent and unusual about your lack of exposure to this song.
- fezfight 4y ago
  We grew up in the burbs. Everyone was into music. Just never heard this song. Not all songs go everywhere, eh. For example, as a Canadian, most Americans I met at the time had never heard of the once most popular band in Canada - The Tragically Hip.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]