Nostalgia?

So I'm sitting here on my couch, going through my iTunes wondering a) why I have so much classical music on there and b) why it's so hard to make the perfect playlist for working out, and it hits me. My iTunes has hardly changed since high school. And you know what? Those songs that I listened to in high school, all the Nickelback and Eminem and Kelly Clarkson... those are still my favorite songs to work out to, because they make me feel happy. Yes - happy. And let's be honest, that has a lot more to do with the way I felt when I first listened to them than how awesome the songs are. 

A few weeks ago I was at a wedding of a friend from high school, and do you know what song the DJ at the dance played to get people out on the floor acting like complete fools? 'Shake Your Tailfeather', a song that was popular when we were in junior high. And, of course, 'Baby Got Back'. *shudders* I still know all the words to that one. Anyways, the point is that we don't like these songs based on their merit - we like them because they made us laugh when we were slightly more immature than we are now, or because that boy or girl we had a crush on liked them, or because they remind us of when we were young and carefree. 

That's why I have every Backstreet Boys album on my iTunes. It's not because I think the songs are musically inspiring or because I'm working on my street cred (ha). I have albums 'The Backstreet Boys' through 'This Is Us' because they make me happy, they make me smile, they remind me of a time in my life when that was legitimately about all I wanted to listen to, and I love singing along to them.

But this raises a few questions for me. Do I like Nickelback? Do I like them enough to defend my enjoyment of their music as un-ironic? Or do I just like them because they released two CDs when I was in high school and I bought both of them? Maybe the secret to selling music (or books or movies, for that matter) isn't about talent or money or even good editing. Maybe it's all about catching people at a vulnerable and impressionable time in their lives and creating lifelong fans. 

That would explain the Justin Bieber phenomenon, now that I think about it. Oh no... that also means that he's NEVER GOING AWAY. 

Had to end that paragraph after only two sentences - sorry to anyone who looks to me as their English grammar inspiration, but seriously. I can't continue with that train of thought. It's horrifying.

Anyways, I think what I was trying to say is that I am now questioning my own judgement about everything I like, trying to decide if I like it because someone told me I should (unlikely, I hated almost everything I was forced to read in high school), or if it's because someone told me I SHOULDN'T like it (I was a teenager not that long ago, it's possible), or other, more subtle and psychological reasons. Hmm. Or I could use my powers of self-analysis for something more important.....

Nah.