Sovereign's Postmodern Nostalgia · Sunday December 3, 2006
“Yo those were the days I will never forget. Yeah, yeah. Yo those were the days I could never regret.”
In her song “Those Were The Days,” which evokes similar feelings to Coolio’s awesomely catchy I Remember, Lady Sovereign waxes nostalgic for the innocent days of her London youth. Topics include buying ice pops, playing Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis, shooting hoops, having her beloved community centre replaced by an Asda (England’s Wal Mart), listening to jungle tapes, writing graffiti, etc.
It’s interesting to contrast the lyrics of Sovereign’s “Those Were The Days” with the lyrics from a 1968 Mary Hopkins song of the same name. They both reference nostalgic feelings for a lost youth (I find Lady Sovereign’s song to be more interesting and witty), but Lady Sovereign is just 20 years old. She is reminiscing fondly of the late 1990s/early 2000s in this song. Does anybody else see the weirdness in speaking of Mortal Kombat in terms of “days I could never forget/regret”? And the song is packed full of brand references: McDonalds, ASDA, Sega, Adidas, Safeway…our histories are becoming inextricably intertwined with branding. Not so sure this is a good thing.
Anyway, I’m simply a cantankerous old 26-year-old with a reference point of just a few years earlier. WHO REMEMBERS BBSing?
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