Bowling For Soup’s “1985” has the potential to be a great song. It certainly has promising subject matter: a housewife and mother who pines nostalgically for 1985, a time when the universe radiated possibility. It’s a song about the death of youth and the toxic allure of nostalgia. On behalf of the protagonist, the lead singer sensitively croons, “I hate time, make it stop,” an evocative line undercut by the glib jokiness of what follows: “When did Motley Crüe become classic rock?” That’s the song in nutshell, a potentially fascinating look at nostalgia and our nation’s obsession with youth reduced to a bunch of stock one-liners about MTV not playing videos and Ozzy Osbourne being a reality show star.
via Volume 17 (November, 2004) | Music | THEN That’s What They Called Music! | The A.V. Club.
