When Did You Get Old?

[Ksyrup]

Interesting article/theory. Look at the list below and determine the first song you can't remember the melody of - that's when you got old.

Reader Mike Carniello sent me a list several years ago of top summer songs of each year going back.

He maintained that by "using this list, you can pinpoint exactly when middle age kicked in" by identifying the first song on the list for which you can't kind of hum the melody. His choice to list the most popular song in August struck me as apt, as August tends to be the idlest, most radio listenin' month.

I expanded and updated his list, and invite you to take the test:


August 1958 -- "Poor Little Fool" --Ricky Nelson
August 1959 --"A Big Hunk o' Love" --Elvis Presley
August 1960 -- "It's Now or Never" -- Elvis Presley
August 1961 --"Tossin' and Turnin'" -- Bobby Lewis
August 1962 -- "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" Neil Sedaka
August 1963 -- "Fingertips Pt. 2" Little Stevie Wonder
August 1964 -- "A Hard Day's Night" The Beatles
August 1965 -- "I Got You Babe" Sonny & Cher
August 1966 -- "Summer in the City" -- The Lovin' Spoonful
August 1967 "Light My Fire" -- The Doors
August 1968 -- "People Got to Be Free" The Rascals
August 1969 -- "In the Year 2525" Zager and Evans
August 1970 --- "(They Long to Be) Close to You" -- The Carpenters
August 1971 -- "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" -- Bee Gees
August 1972 -- "Alone Again (Naturally)" -- Gilbert O' Sullivan
August 1973 -- "The Morning After" -- Maureen McGovern
August 1974: "(You're) Having My Baby" -- Paul Anka with Odia Coates
August 1975: "Jive Talkin'" -- the Bee Gees
August 1976: "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" -- Elton John & Kiki Dee
August 1977: "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" --Andy Gibb
August 1978: "Miss You" -- Rolling Stones
August 1979: "My Sharona" -- the Knack
August 1980: "Magic" -- Olivia Newton-John
August 1981-- "Jessie's Girl" -- Rick Springfield
August 1982 -- "Eye Of The Tiger" -- Survivor
August 1983: "Every Breath You Take" -- the Police
August 1984: "Ghostbusters" -- Ray Parker Jr.
August 1985: "The Power of Love" -- Huey Lewis & the News
August 1986: "Papa Don't Preach" -- Madonna
August 1987: "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -- U2
August 1988: "Roll With It" -- Steve Winwood
August 1989: "Right Here Waiting" -- Richard Marx
August 1990: "Vision of Love" -- Mariah Carey
August 1991: "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" --Bryan Adams
August 1992: "Baby Got Back" -- Sir Mix-A-Lot
August 1993: "(I Can't Help) Falling in Love With You --UB40
August 1994: "Stay (I Missed You)" -- Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories
August 1995: "Waterfalls" -- TLC
August 1996: "Macarena" -- Los Del Rio
August 1997: "I'll Be Missing You" -- Puff Daddy & Faith Evans
August 1998: "The Boy Is Mine" -- Brandy & Monica
August 1999: "Genie in a Bottle" -- Christina Aguilera
August 2000: "It's Gonna Be Me" -- 'N Sync
August 2001: "Bootylicious" -- Destiny's Child
August 2002: "Hot In Herre" -- Nelly
August 2003: "Crazy In Love -- Beyonce featuring Jay-Z
August 2004: "Confessions Part II" -- Usher
August 2005: "We Belong Together" -- Mariah Carey
August 2006: "Promiscuous" -- Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland
August 2007: "Big Girls Don't Cry" -- Fergie
August 2008: "Leavin'" -- Jesse McCartney
---
It worked for me, identifying 1988, the year I turned 30.

Does it work for you?

(Commenter Steve below points out that "the flaw in this method is that it omits the influence of having kids. When kids get to middle school age, that's when they start liking pop music and wanting the car radio on when you're driving them to their endless soccer games, ballet classes, etc." This is very true, but the idea is that there will be a fairly sharp dividing line...yes, there may be one or two songs you didn't avoid -- "Macarena," to wit) and then a middle-school rebound effect. But disregard those)

Take the musical test -- when did you get old? | Change of Subject


My first inclination was to go with that Mariah Carey song from 1990, but I know all the songs for several years before and after it, so I'm throwing it out. For me, I guess it is August 1995 (I was 24 then). Starting with that Lisa Loeb song the year before - which I remember being popular and seeing the video a ton, but couldn't hum the melody if my life depended on it - the only song I know from August 1995 until present is The Macarena. In fact, I'm fairly certain I've never even heard a single one of those songs, let alone remember the melodies to them.

[Mustang]

According to that, when I was 26.

[Fonzie]

Evidently I became old when I turned 20.

Is that even technically possible? Can one be "old" before being able to drink legally?

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Mustang

According to that, when I was 26.

Same here, though there were a couple of songs before then that I didn't know...

[lungs]

Ignoring the musical aspect, I got old when I couldn't polish off a bottle of Old Thompson Whiskey in one sitting without pissing myself.

[MikeVic]

Uhh, August 1988 when I was four.

[BigDawg]

August 1989: "Right Here Waiting" -- Richard Marx


26 years old

[hoopsguy]

32 years old - sounds about right. Usher did me in.

[path12]

I don't know any of those after Macarena. I was 34 then.

[JonInMiddleGA]

LOL, I'll be damned if that ain't pretty good.

I recognize, and only that in the vaguest sense, only one song from 2000-2008.
Meaning I was 32 to hit middle age by this test.

There are a couple of strays I don't know earlier than that but that seems to be where it suddenly becomes "WTF is that"

[Gary Gorski]

I'm going to vote for "kind of" old right now at 30. I know who Jesse McCartney is and I might recognize "Leavin" if I heard it but I honestly couldn't hum the melody

[sterlingice]

Apparently, I got old in 1994 at the age of... 14?

SI

[sabotai]

Woohoo, I ain't old yet!

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

32 years old - sounds about right. Usher did me in.

Same, but I bet I can instantly recognize it and I can do ones following that. "Leavin" by Jesse McCartney is the first one that really makes me shake my head though. I thought he was near pure Disney anyway. I mean, I went to youtube to even hear the song and an ad for some Disney album came up. I don't care if it was number one for August. Disney crap is disqualified, or at least let it be Hannah Montana. I would probably fail that as well, but at least there's a chance of getting it right.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I guess I got old in 1958 when I was -18.

I suppose I don't quite get this.

[SackAttack]

The problem I see is that it's mostly rock/pop on there. Which is fine if those're your musical influences, but I was a guy who was mostly country/oldies from the time I can remember actively seeking music until my freshman year of college.

Even then, the rock music I've been exposed to since would probably fall into the 'oldies' group now, where they wouldn't have when I was 14.

So...I guess since I've never been a 'hard rock hallelujah' kinda guy, I've always been an old fart. Oops.

[Schmidty]

This list is stupid. I don't recognize a lot of these songs. Perhaps that's because I haven't listened to Casey Kasem or watched MTV since like 1990.

I'm still not old, and all of those shits that actually listen to pop and think that that's all there is are douchebags.

[stevew]

I think that you should probably start with the year you turn 18 and go from there.

I get a bit hazy at 98, but after another listen, "The Boy Is Mine" by Brandy/Monica really didn't have very much of a hummable chorus in the first place.

I'm fine thru 2001, get maybe stumped by "Bootylicious" just cause every Beyonce song is oversung and they start to overlap each other. I dunno if that counts. I hate beyonce, so whatever.

I know everything from that point though.

[Karlifornia]

I became old at 22, as I have no recollection of that Nelly song.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

32 years old - sounds about right. Usher did me in.

Darn, you missed out. It was a great song about the girl you're fucking on the side getting knocked up, and trying to explain to your main girlfriend how she's still the one you want to be with even though the other girl is having your baby.

a pop classic, dare I say.

[Dutch]

August 1998: "The Boy Is Mine" -- Brandy & Monica
August 1999: "Genie in a Bottle" -- Christina Aguilera
August 2000: "It's Gonna Be Me" -- 'N Sync
August 2001: "Bootylicious" -- Destiny's Child
August 2002: "Hot In Herre" -- Nelly
August 2003: "Crazy In Love -- Beyonce featuring Jay-Z
August 2004: "Confessions Part II" -- Usher
August 2005: "We Belong Together" -- Mariah Carey
August 2006: "Promiscuous" -- Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland
August 2007: "Big Girls Don't Cry" -- Fergie
August 2008: "Leavin'" -- Jesse McCartney

I know I was old at this point, because outside of "Hot in Here" I can't even remember any of these songs by their title much less hum them.

So at 27 I either became old or pop music really started to suck.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

LOL, I'll be damned if that ain't pretty good.

I recognize, and only that in the vaguest sense, only one song from 2000-2008.
Meaning I was 32 to hit middle age by this test.

There are a couple of strays I don't know earlier than that but that seems to be where it suddenly becomes "WTF is that"

I'm with Jon, except that I was 21 .

Originally Posted by Schmidty

This list is stupid. I don't recognize a lot of these songs. Perhaps that's because I haven't listened to Casey Kasem or watched MTV since like 1990.

I'm still not old, and all of those shits that actually listen to pop and think that that's all there is are douchebags.

Um, Schmidty, I think you just proved the point of this exercise.

[JAG]

I don't know a song from Aug. '97-'08 except 'Crazy in love' because it was played over and over and over again on a dance music channel my toddler liked (that line about having kids was pretty good!) So age 22 was when I got old.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

This list is stupid. I don't recognize a lot of these songs. Perhaps that's because I haven't listened to Casey Kasem or watched MTV since like 1990.

I'm still not old, and all of those shits that actually listen to pop and think that that's all there is are douchebags.

I still listen to Casey Kasem. American Top 40: The 80's every Saturday morning that I'm at the computer. They play most of a random old episode from the 80's every week. http://radiotime.com/options/p_15428...-_The_80s.aspx

Anyway, mine was 2000, when I was 23. Although 1997 would have done me in if "I'll Be Missin' You" weren't a ripoff of "Every Breath You Take" and 1998 probably should count as having done me in, since I'm only assuming that "The Boy Is Mine" is a ripoff of "The Girl Is Mine."

[Ksyrup]

Should have realized a Puffy song was just a rip of another, more popular song. The Black Sinatra, indeed!

And yeah, Schmidty, you did prove the point of this exercise. Regardless of what you think of these songs/artists, that's what was big among young people at the time. If you don't know it, then you were likely no longer impressionable and following trends, and no longer "young." I mean, I listened to nothing but hard rock and metal through most of the 80s and into the 90s, but I was still in tune with what was popular back then to know all of the songs on the list through about 1994.

I'm familiar with Jesse McCartney but not that particular song. He had a bigger hit, I thought, a few years back that I can't recall. But with my oldest daughter turning 10 this year, I'm close to the hitting the "middle school rebound effect" the guy mentions. For instance, there's no way I'd ever know who the hell Taylor Swift is if not for my girls.

[Ksyrup]

And for the record, my non-music way of knowing when I got old is when I'd walk through the mall with some of my law school buddies and we'd see some hot chicks, and they'd see us looking at them and react aas if we were dirty old men. And that was about the same age (24-25) as I identified by this test.

[clemsonfan]

2001 when I was 25.

[Mustang]

Although, seems like there is a pretty wide variety of music and artists from the start to around 1997 and then it is just all the same type.

Then again, might be all the same type because I'm getting old.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Although, seems like there is a pretty wide variety of music and artists from the start to around 1997 and then it is just all the same type.

Then again, might be all the same type because I'm getting old.

Very true. On the board I got this from, the discussion has turned to the fact that R&B/hip hop/rap absolutely dominates from about 1995 on. Throwing out the Macarena, the only pure pop I see is Jesse McCartney, Christina Aguilera, and N'Sync. And nothing even coming near pop/rock. Pre-1995, although there are far fewer black artists (particularly before 1984), there is at least a nice mix of styles/genres.

This kinda dovetails into another discussion on that board about how Michael Jackson might be the last pop artist to transcend genres/fanbases as far as popularity. Everything these days is so pigeon-holed into a specific genre, and fans of one rarely venture across to other genres, that we may never see someone with that kind of widespread popularity again. In fact, if you look at the mid-80s, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and MJ were huge among nearly all music fans. I don't think you'll ever see something like that again.

[Flasch186]

<-----28

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

This list is stupid. I don't recognize a lot of these songs. Perhaps that's because I haven't listened to Casey Kasem or watched MTV since like 1990.

I'm still not old, and all of those shits that actually listen to pop and think that that's all there is are douchebags.

...up hill, BOTH WAYS! ... too darn LOUD ... get off my lawn!

[Coffee Warlord]

Apparently I got old at like age 9.

[Buccaneer]

32 (after 1991), which makes sense knowing how much I listened to 80s music and almost none after that.

[SteveMax58]

Outliers aside (The Boy is Mine???WTF???)...28 yrs old in 2004.

[Kodos]

August 1998: "The Boy Is Mine" -- Brandy & Monica

No idea about anything including this song and the years to follow. So 27 I guess.

[I. J. Reilly]

August 1998: "The Boy Is Mine" -- Brandy & Monica

This is made up, right? I'm pretty sure this song never existed; which means I'm still young, so I got that going for me.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Seriously, how does this work? What year am I supposed to start from? The year I was born? Please explain this exercise to me. I'm not very bright. I'm not going to let this go.

[cuervo72]

August 1995: "Waterfalls" -- TLC

At 22 then, summer after graduating from college.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Seriously, how does this work? What year am I supposed to start from? The year I was born? Please explain this exercise to me. I'm not very bright. I'm not going to let this go.

Yeah I started from the year I was born, but it didn't work well.

[Ksyrup]

Start from when you became musically aware or certainly by junior high/high school age. I can go from 1975 to 1995 and know each song. I do not want to have Paul Anka's baby, no matter how good that song might be.

[path12]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Start from when you became musically aware or certainly by junior high/high school age. I can go from 1975 to 1995 and know each song. I do not want to have Paul Anka's baby, no matter how good that song might be.

I've got a pretty good memory of everything from 1969 until whenever I mentioned before. So that's from 7 to 34.

[Sun Tzu]

Who the hell is Beyonce?

[Sun Tzu]

Dola

This reminds me of something that happened to my wife a couple years back. She was in the car with one of our cousins who was 14/15 years old at the time. UB40 came on the radio...Red Red Wine of course. The kid recognized the song immediately and then turned to her and said "oh I love Bob Marley!"

sigh

[Matthean]

Since this tripped up a number of you...

YouTube - Brandy - The Boy Is Mine featuring Monica (1998)

I remember it because I though Monica was rather attractive.

[DanGarion]

Well according to this then I either got old in 1997 (at 21) or 1998 (22) or 2000 (24). Or maybe I just have better taste in music then the shit this list has on it the last 12 years?

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Or maybe I just have better taste in music then the shit this list has on it the last 12 years?

I was tempted to make the same observation, but objectively, I don't have much good to say about the entries for 1984, 1986, 1989, 1991, and 1992, either. And a few of the others are pushing it, too, but I'll admit that I liked several of those songs way back then. So I think it probably has more to do with getting old and the popularity of certain genres than the songs being any good.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I was tempted to make the same observation, but objectively, I don't have much good to say about the entries for 1984, 1986, 1989, 1991, and 1992, either. And a few of the others are pushing it, too, but I'll admit that I liked several of those songs way back then. So I think it probably has more to do with getting old and the popularity of certain genres than the songs being any good.

Well if I went with the last song on the list that I liked it looks like it would be 1994 the year I graduated. Mmmmm Lisa Loeb, yum.

[Karlifornia]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Well according to this then I either got old in 1997 (at 21) or 1998 (22) or 2000 (24). Or maybe I just have better taste in music then the shit this list has on it the last 12 years?

Yup. You're putting the nails into your own coffin with a statement like this.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Karlifornia

Yup. You're putting the nails into your own coffin with a statement like this.

So what you are trying to say, is once people get taste they are old? Once they stop following the herd and beating their own drum?

[JediKooter]

25 for me. I probably would have heard of the songs, at the very least, had MTV or some other 'music' channel actually had music on them for the songs listed from 2008 thru 1997. And the only reason I heard of the Macarena is because they played that all the time at baseball games.

Music died around 96ish, but, I'm still livin'!!!