The summer between sixth and seventh grade, my mom and I moved down south to join my dad, who had already settled into his new assignment ahead of us. I saw the move as my chance at reinvention. An opportunity to shed my well-established reputation as a bookish, awkward dork and start anew. In my mind, I saw myself walking into my new school that fall stylish and confident, charming my classmates with my sharp wit and cool demeanor.

Of course, that didn’t happen. Not even close. But I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to try.

Up until this point in my life, I’d listened only to what my parents liked — having lived solely with my mother for the previous four months, at the time this involved a lot of Wilson Phillips, B-52s, and other adult contemporary tunes. But a key part of my reinvention efforts was music — if I wanted to fit in with my peers, I had to listen to what they were listening to. So one day not long after we’d moved, I plugged in my purple plastic radio and scanned the band until I found what I was looking for: Y97.

And even though I had yet to learn that my inherent dorkiness would never change, my relationship with music would never again be the same.

So this is my tribute to Y97, and to 1992: the year of my musical awakening. And just in time, too, or I would have missed out on the golden age of songs about big butts and jumping.

House of Pain — Jump Around
Kris Kross — Jump
Sir Mix-A-Lot — Baby Got Back
Wreckx-N-Effect — Rump haker
Positive K — I Got A Man

 

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For more Mixtape Master madness, peep the playlists on these blogs:

Ashley | Angie | Tyler | Lizzie | Dana | Jolynn | Lisa | Josie | Kerry | Holley | Stephanie | Ms. Bunny | Sarah | Heather | Jen

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