You know what I realized today? In 2007, I was a sophomore-junior in high school and the freshmen were in 7th through 8th grade! Sigh I’m depressed, almost enough to stop using my anti-aging creme and embrace aging full on.
Before you know it, I’m going to be driving around in a mini-van blasting Ne-Yo’s “Miss Independent” and my kids are going to be like, “Mommmm! What are you listening tooooo?” To which I’ll reply that I was reliving the glory days of my youth when I spent Friday nights at the ice skating rink, looking for boys, and inevitably getting an asthma attack because some 13 year olds where smoking in the bathroom.
Maybe I’m just feeling nostalgic in my old age, but 2007 was a great year for Top 40 music. Music was much simpler then, Justin Bieber’s mom was still just a woman with a kid who sings decently and a dream, Katy Perry was still just the girl from the Gym Class Heroes “Cupids Chokehold” video, and Taylor Swift had just hit the scene as a sweet, virginal 16 year old.
This afternoon, I wiped out my “2007… the year I became alive” playlist (Yes,I actually made a playlist when I was 15 that said this) and decided to relive the good old days. But why keep this good news to myself? So I decided to figure out your weekend playlist for you. You can get ready for the club while thinking about your first boyfriend. Enjoy!
Cyclone–Baby Bash featuring T-Pain
My memory of this song will forever be attached to the junior homecoming dance when a rather promiscuous classmate of mine was dirty dancing in a dress that was so short, I saw her hooha a couple times. The guy she was dancing with wasn’t even cute and a real jerk! But boy, she really DID move her body like a cyclone! In all my clubbing days I have never seen any one dance at her level.
For a long time, when this song came on the radio (which felt like every other song), I had to turn it off immediately or risk throwing up a little bit in my mouth (actually). I can say now, that I am able to listen to this track without this response and kind of enjoy it. It’s perfect for sexy time with your boyfriend (or girlfriend or whatever)!
Summer Love--Justin Timberlake
Say what you want about JT, but he can make some damn good music and his voice, omg, if someone sang to me like that every night I don’t even know what I would do. FutureSex/Love Sounds has to be the most accurate name for an album ever. Jessica Biel is one lucky woman…
This is a picture of me and my Dad on a family vacation in 2007. My friend/current roommate left the comment, “OMG before I read the caption I was gonna say, ooh Ali’s holding hands with a guy. Lmfao.”
Beautiful Girls– Sean Kingston
This song was always really confusing for me because it sounded really happy, but it was about a guy contemplating suicide because some chick wasn’t into him (definitely not happy). Still a good song though.
No Air–Jordan Sparks with Chris Brown
I would be lying if I said I still didn’t cry when I heard this song. I have probably listened to it over 1,000 times and have never gotten sick of it. During the Spring Band/Choir trip junior year, my platonic friend Chris, my gay husband Javon and I listened to this song on repeat the entire trip.
I love everything about this song, the beats, the background music, everything. I might be alone here, but I feel like this song so accurately depicts the feeling you get when you first start seeing someone you really, really like. Which for myself (and I’m sure many others) happened for the first time while they were in high school.
Also, I created this really elaborate fantasy in my head where one day Adam Brody (aka Seth) from The O.C. knocked on my door and asked me to marry him while this was playing in the background. I’m not giving up hope!
This is me and plantonic guy friend Chris on said Band/Choir trip
Big Girls Don’t Cry-Fergie
This is the song we listened to after the person who made us feel all giddy when we heard “No Air” broke-up/cheated/was an absolute jerk to us. Ladies, am I right or am I right? Come to think of it, I think I need to listen to it right now.
The Great Escape– Boys Like Girls
A lot of people are probably going to judge me for this pick, but I don’t care. I know this song basically played in Hollister 24/7, but this is a great song! Also, it was great for a 15 year old who just wanted to escape their current, suffocating life situation. High school is hard!
Famous Last Words-My Chemical Romance
Like a lot of people, I went through a punk/emo pop period (musically only, I still rocked pink ruffly clothing and lip gloss daily). I know, My Chemical Romance is like ughhh now, but The Black Parade was a solid album and there is a lot of really great tracks on there. My favorite was “Famous Last Words.” It felt like such a journey, it took a lot out of me to listen to the whole thing completely. I suggest you listen to it on a day when the bus is particularly slow.
Hey There Deliah–Plain White T’s
I don’t really like this song because it is about a stalker, but I feel like you can’t talk about music from 2007 and not include it. Plus, I still think those parody videos are pretty funny.
Here is a really embarrassing video of myself in 2007 learning how to do the Crank That, Soujia Boy dance. That one did NOT make the list.
Umbrella-Rihanna
It’s hard to remember all of Rihanna’s top hits because she’s had so many (fun fact: Rihanna has had 12 #1 singles, which ties her with Madonna and the Supremes for the fourth-most #1s ever!). Personally, I think that Umbrella is one of the more memorable ones. I’m still bummed though that the music video for this song didn’t include Rihanna performing the tap routine from Singing In The Rain….
Don’t Cha-The PussyCat Dolls
Don’t tell me you never sexy danced in front of the mirror in your bedroom to this song!? I confess, that was me about 10 minutes ago and for about 2/3 of my junior year of high school. God, I LOVE The PussyCat Dolls!!. I don’t even care that Nicole was the only one actually singing (see Behind the Music: Nicole Scherzinger for more info. Look I found a link on the Internet).
I was a somewhat repressed teenager so dancing to their songs was such a release for me. This was the kind of music that was made for a chair-dancing exercise class. I’m really hoping that some group will come among and pick up the reins from where PCD left off. The world needs Burlesque dancing “singers”…
There ya have it! My 10 favorite pop songs from 2007. Did I miss any? Do you have a serious issue with any of the songs I picked? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter, @alipannoni.
Also, thank you to Facebook Timeline for finding all these really embarrassing images/video very easily. I can’t wait till my future children find them!