Picture this: it’s 2009, you’re straightening your side bangs and applying heavy black eyeliner. Paramore is blasting in the background, and you’re feeling sufficiently misunderstood and angsty.
Now it’s 2019. You probably still straighten your hair and wear eyeliner, but most likely to a much less intense degree. Maybe you’re blasting some Drake, or maybe you’re still blasting Paramore because they definitely still slap and their latest album is dope. You still kind of feel misunderstood and angsty, but, like, in a more manageable adult way.
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Urban Dictionary
So what do you do when you’re in your twenties and feeling angsty, but you’re also too old for these emotions? You do what any twenty-something does when in doubt: you throw a party of course!
You may ask yourself how this idea came about. As is usual in my friends’ groupchat, we were reminiscing about the good old days. My friends were really in their feels, singing along to angsty throwbacks, getting sentimental and feeling a tad melancholy. We were thinking about how, now that we’re adults, we don’t really get to claim “teen angst” anymore and how it sucks that we don’t really have a name for what we feel.
We were reminiscing about music and clothing and saying how fun it would be if we had a night where we played all those throwbacks, dressed up all pop punk again and generally made fun of our emotional teen selves. And then we thought, well why not? People host themed parties all the time: Great Gatsby, 50’s, masquerades … Why not a late-2000s angst party?
It started out as a bit of a joke, but then our other friends seemed really into the idea and we realized this was something people were sincerely interested in. During the stress of papers, work and relationships it can be fun to take a break and reminisce about the past — and even poke fun at ourselves.
It turned into a big thing, with people sending in song requests and talking about what they were going to wear. Half the fun was leading up to the party, with everyone posting their favourite throwback songs and old pictures of themselves in band tees and side bangs. My roommates and I even went on a shopping trip to none other than Hot Topic to really get into the vibe. Cue the “Rawr XD” flashbacks.
Fast forward to the night of: angsty music blasting, everyone wearing way too much eyeliner, some faux side bangs going on and lots of black clothing. We still had the usual party activities going on, but there was a lot more bursting into song and lots of reminiscing about our teen years.
The fun thing about angst is that it hits at different ages for different people: some at 13, some at 16, some of us still now! Angst is subjective, and we saw that at our party with some people repping All Time Low, some repping Nirvana and some repping Lana Del Rey. I took a nice mix between the ages of 13 and 17 and went for half pre-teen angst, half Tumblr-phase angst. It was special.
Whether it’s a teen angst party, or a Hannah Montana tribute night, throwback parties are always lots of fun. I would definitely recommend throwing one as it can be a lot of fun to get together with your friends and listen to some old faves and reminisce (a.k.a. make fun of your past self).