“Nineteen Somethin’”
Mark Wills
Written by Chris DuBois and David Lee
Radio & Records
#1 (6 weeks)
January 10 – February 7 and February 21, 2003
Billboard
#1 (6 weeks)
January 11 – February 15, 2003
Nostalgia for its own sake doesn’t do it for me.
This laundry list of Generation X pop culture references reduces two full decades to the shallowness of a Vh1 episode of I Love the 80’s.
That would be fine if it also had the same level of self-awareness and self-deprecating humor as that quite entertaining documentary series had.
But the tone is all over the place because the songwriters shoehorned a tragedy into each verse in a ham-fisted attempt to add substance to this silly song. This would be a much better record if it dropped Elvis and the Challenger references and added some retro sound effects.
Also, Pac Man came out in the 80s. If you’re going to make my childhood as dry as an old history textbook, you can at least get the dates right.
The bottom won’t fall out for a bit, but it’s starting to give.
“Nineteen Somethin’” gets a C.
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I called this song the “Ready Player One” song. Much like that book and movie, it’s a clumsy mix of superficial pop culture references for the sake of references and failed attempts at drama.
In contrast to you, I eat up nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. Not in the “life was so much simpler back then and where have all the good Aaron Spelling TV shows gone?!” sense, although growing up in rural America and watching it decay deeper with each decade, I get the instinct for so many to romanticize the past. My relationship with nostalgia is more of a photo album sense where certain memories make me smile and others make me cringe, but it’s usually a fun journey. Even though it was before my time, the Statler Brothers’ “Do You Remember These” is a textbook example of this sort of thing done well.
“19-Something” is a textbook example of this sort of thing done…okay. There’s nothing clever or particularly insightful about randomly rattling off a dozen nostalgic touchstones in a list and calling it a song, but I actually appreciate the effort to bring in a somber anecdote in both verses to show that a trip down memory lane won’t–and shouldn’t–go in an emotional straight line. Add in the punchy tempo where we come as close as we ever will to imagine Mark Wills breaking a sweat in one of his singles, and I’m willing to give this one a pass. And if ever I feel inclined to wrinkle my nose at the borderline clunkiness of “19-Something”, it’s helpful to remind myself the two truly dreadful nostalgic odes coming up in the near future on this list.
Lastly, I’m eternally grateful for “19-Something’s” success as it helped earn some (but not enough) radio play for the follow-up single “When You Think of Me”, which I’ve always considered extremely powerful and easily the best single of Mark Wills’ career. It was one of my favorite songs of 2003.
Grade: B-
Like Mark, I don’t dislike this song. I agree that it’s not great, but it’s catchy at least.
“B”. It’s a good song. Nothing more, nothing less.
Definitely in my top 10 songs of that decade. Just a fun nice song with memories of days past.