Imagine walking in on a few thuggish gangsta' cousins and their friends and catching them singing along with The Gap's Talk To The Moose ad.There is only one thing one can be caught doing by an adult more embarrassing than this - but that's another post.
One kid tried to justify their like of the ad by explaining that the song contained "Black beats".
Well, he may have been correct - but the commercial featured a beat known to anyone who's attended a high school football game.
"How funky is your chicken...?
(How funky is your chicken?)
How loose is your goose...?
(How loose is your goose?)
So c'mon all you (insert school mascot here)...
(So c'mon all you (insert school mascot here))...
and shake your caboose!
(and shake your caboose)"
Sound familiar?
Even Gwen Stefani used a similar beat in her Pharrell produced track Hollaback Girl.
As did Nelly Furtado in her Timberland produced track Promiscuous.
But the oldest of these cheerleader inspired songs has got to be that of Toni Basil's Mickey.Back in the day, one of my friends tried to say that the song "sounded Black" as his excuse for liking the song too.
But another friend pointed out that the words would have been changed from;
"Oh Mickey you're so fine..."
to,
"Oh Mickey you be fine..."
We settled on it just being a catchy tune.
Why were these boys embarrassed?
Why were these boys embarrassed?
I have no idea.
It is a catchy tune.
("How cute are these boots...?" - I'll probably be picking up some outfits from The Gap for my nieces tomorrow because of this ad.)
2 comments:
why? easy, because so much of young male culture, youth in general of all races, is based on posturing. One spends all their time trying to craft an image pirated off whatever pop outlet they like (mtv, vh1, bet, etc), and passing it off as who they really are... constantly vying for legitimacy.
Nothing worse than having your cover blown by a litle honesty.
Trying to retain their assumed status?
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