Probably shouldn't have gone there...

I was in the middle of the kids' requested nightly reading of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy tonight when, as tends to happen when three kids plus one adult are all squished in one bed, things got a little rambunctious. I was trying to get Brian to stop fake-slapping Erin when she shouted a perfectly timed, "Can't touch this!" that gave me a giggling fit. "Okay, MC Hammer," I told her, "calm down and I'll keep reading." The boys laughed at that and asked why in the world I called her MC Hammer, and in a state of shock, I headed to my laptop to give them a musical education courtesy of youtube.

I explained MC Hammer was the person responsible for the song Erin referenced, and Chris exclaimed, "Oh, I think I remember seeing something about a McHammer guy!" "Not McHammer!" I shrieked--"Em. Cee. Not Mc! He wasn't Scottish!!"

Youtube provided a grainy quality video of "You Can't Touch This" that had my kids in a laughing fit within three seconds, providing commentary like "what in the world is he wearing, a blanket?" and "look at how he dances--jiggly jiggly oh, jiggly jiggly oh!" I tried to explain that THIS was rap, circa when I was their age. Brian face-palmed.

After that we looked up the top ten songs of 1990, viewed some Madonna, and ridiculed Sinead O'Conner and LL Cool J before stumbling upon the terrifically horrific Deee-Light. Then I remembered that Supersonic song all the girls went around singing when I was in elementary school, where we didn't remember any of the words except that the S is for Super and the U is for Unique...(you're welcome ;)

The kids were pretty much horrified that THAT is what music videos consisted of when I was young, and what got lots of airplay on the radio. Erin patted my shoulder. "I feel so sorry for you," she sympathized. "How did you survive?" At some point they started making obligatory "you're really old" comments that I showed obligatory annoyance about, so Brian offered an apology.

"I'm sorry for making fun of your culture."

:/

I was going to explain that soon after this regrettable era in music I discovered The Cure and Guns N Roses, and soon after that, punk rock...but found it much easier to just send them all to bed instead. ;)