Mind: Blown

So when I was in middle school, I was relatively innocent. Ok, Ok, I was super innocent. The internet had not picked up the way it has now, there was no Myspace, Facebook, tumblr, etc. to corrupt young minds. All we had was AIM, and that was really just our primeval mode of texting: you can only talk to people whose screennames you have in your buddy list, so the type of things you see is limited by the type of friends you attract. In other words, it was easier to stay innocent longer, even if you were an internet nerd of the times.

Moving on with the story. When I was in sixth grade, my best friend and I went to go see the movie Josie and the Pussycats. You know, the one with Rachel Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson, and Tara Reid? My BFF and I LOVED it. We got it on tape (at that point, there was just one tiny DVD section in Blockbuster, kinda like Blu-Ray today) and watched it over and over and learned the songs and lines and sang along and it was GREAT. Seriously, some of their songs were pretty good, and can still measure up to today's pop music. In the movie, there was a boy band, "DuJour" (har har) that was a direct parody of 'NSync, and maybe a little BSB (Backstreet Boys, for you youngins. Gawd, I am old). The movie starts out with them on their tour jet singing their hit single, and it sounds JUST LIKE a lot of the boyband songs that were popular in the late '90s-early 2000s.

Then there was another one, I think they put it in the credits or something, that was also pretty good. It's called Back Door Lover. Yes, I know. Seriously? Seriously. But the thing is, I was 12, and had NO FREAKING IDEA what they were really singing about. I was just picturing a boy-next-door kind of situation, and happily sang along with the cheerful music and lyrics. The metaphor was cleverly disguised and surrounded by an otherwise typical pop song, but it was still there. I just recently watched this movie again for the first time since, oh, 2003, and was absolutely dumbfounded at what I was hearing. Actually, the whole movie is filled with jokes that only make sense to adults, which i've always loved anyway. Then when you grow up, it's like watching the movie all over again!

More storytime: By the time I hit eighth grade, the skater craze was in full swing. We were at the heart of this craze in my middle school. I had mad crushes on boys with shaggy haircuts and baggy jeans and Etnies/DC/Element (just to name a few) shoes, shirts, & backpacks. This was also about the time Avril Lavigne got popular. She sang about skaters and had ironed flat hair, another novelty at the time. Seriously, her hair was unnaturally straight. So anyway, I got my first CHI iron and her first CD for my 14th birthday. (side note: to my very curly hair--i really am sorry that i heat-damaged the shit out of you during my early teen years. But that was forever ago and I barely ever blowdry or straighten you anymore. So can we please stop with the breakage and split ends and frizz? Treating damaged hair is expeeeensive.)

I loved that CD. I listened to it all the time and I probably definitely still know all the words. Just now I put my iTunes on Genius, and an Avril song came on. It's called "Things I'll Never Say" and it was one of my favorites at the time (ok fine, still is). But just now, singing along, I realized that she did it too. Tricky, tricky. The lyrics are such:

If I could say what I want to say/ I'd say I wanna blow you/ Away, be with you every night/ Am I squeezing you too tight?/ If I could say what I want to see/ I want to see you go down/ On one knee/ "Marry me today?"/ Guess I'm wishing my life away/ With these things I'll never say

Written out, they look pretty innocuous. However, I noticed JUST NOW as I was singing that there is a very obvious and intentional pause in "I wanna blow you...away" and in "I wanna see you go down...on one knee." And to think I was singing this in front of my parents, blissfully unaware of what I was really saying. I hope they got a kick out of it, anyway.

So what I'm wondering is, what other cherished media from my childhood have secrets like these? Really great examples are Britney's single from a couple years ago If U Seek Amy, and the sex in disney movies, and now these two have come to light. Has anyone else noticed anything, from way back when? Or even from now?