Dating Myself

Yesterday, I walked to Arby's for lunch (love those Loaded Potato Bites!!) and was greeted by New Edition's "Cool it Now." A flash of memory hit me square between the eyes -- me at my grandmother's house in the red-shag carpeted bedroom where I slept when I spent the night each Friday and New Edition blasted as loud as she'd allow. As I waited for those bites, I sang along in my head. Surprisingly, I remembered all the words to the song. That immediately made me question today's young adults.

When I first heard New Edition, I was in late middle school, seventh or eighth grade, I think. New Edition, my friends, was before Bobby Brown was Bobby Brown. Way before. Lots of great 90s groups came from New Edition. Okay, two, three, if you count Bobby Brown. But, if I put them -- or any other song/group/tv show I enjoyed in my teens -- into a YA novel, would they have to be Googled before the reader understood who they were?

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Not sure why, since I'm not writing a YA (not writing period, but that's an entirely other blog entry). How iconic does someone or something have to be before it's universally known?

An friend and I were discussing Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber a couple of years ago. Ms. Schreiber noted a few what I considered out-dated pop culture references, things a high schooler like the main character probably wouldn't know. I can only remember Cary Grant now. My friend argued that she knew who Cary Grant was when she was in high school; I said I didn't doubt it because she is highly intelligent and spot-on in pop culture. I too knew who Cary Grant was (I once helped a friend write a paper about Paula Abdul, and she wondered how I knew so much about Miss Paula. That too is a blog for anther time.) Which begs the question, if I mentioned The Smurfs or, better yet, The Snorks, would today's teen know WTF that was?

I can see if you made your character -- a high schooler today -- an 80s or 90s pop culture fan. That would be part of their personality and quirky behavior. Dating yourself as a writer is something to think about, especially given how quickly trends change. Something to think about certainly.