I was not a cool kid.
While my sisters and peers were in love with Devon Sawa and JTT, I was crushing on Matthew Modine in Cutthroat Island and Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. While they were listening to Mariah Carey and Blink 182 on Fly 92, I was calling in to B 95.5, the adult contemporary station, in hopes of hearing George Benson’s “Turn Your Love Around.”
When I discovered The Smiths and Siouxsie & The Banshees in high school, then Tom Waits in college, I could finally feel cool. Sure, it was a hipster-goth kind of cool, eschewing the flair-leg jeans and trucker
hats of the early-2000s for Doc Martens and cabby caps. I discovered a lot of incredible music during this time period, aided by some awesome mix CDs from great people.