Psychological studies have indicated (or suggested) that you can change a memory merely by accessing it. It is possible that my current memory of being 6 years old, for instance, is not just my exeperience of that time but my experience plus my remembering it when I was 10, plus my remembering it when I was 20, 30, etc.
One of the best ways to become nostalgic for a place or time is to listen to the music that corresponds to it, but the above suggests that ironically you don't remember the 80s (for instance) best by the big 80s hits because you've been hearing those hits ever since. What you would ideally want is a great song that was everywhere at that time but that hasn't made it into constant hit rotation (by you, the radio, or anywhere else). It's a tall order. I can't think of any.
But failing that, the next best thing is a moderate hit or a song that was never a hit, that was very much of its time but you haven't heard even a single time since then.
The above music video is very enjoyable and I suppose it's because it somewhat fits the criteria. It's also just an earworm. On its face, it's a simple song, perhaps even a braindead simple song. But what I like about it is that it's very slyly constantly changing all the time - new elements are introduced, new instruments, additional melodies. Not that being braindead simple is necessarily a bad thing anyway, that's one of the distinguishing features of the 90s.
I expect the young people in Current Year, will react completely differently to the lyrics. Back when the song was released, a phone was just for phone calls.
Oh, and one more thing, if you're like me and you're wondering what happened to the "I miss the rising action... but it rocks" part, you're thinking of this. Very tricky.
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