“I like us better when we’re wasted” (Tiesto, 2014). “Poppin’ bottles in the ice, like a blizzard. When we drink, we do it right, gettin’ slizzered” (Far East Movement, 2010). “We’re gonna drink until we throw up” (Tai Cruz ft. Flo Rida, 2011).
Ah, the music of my youth. Say what you like, but it really does have a strong sense of itself; a certain… unifying message. Back in the early 2010s, when I was in sixth-form, so much of the chart music centred around this rallying cry to get absolutely hammered.
I was 16, discovering booze and boys, and going to my first “gatherings”, where six to eight boys and girls would dance, grind, and vomit in someone’s living room (do they still do this?). I was going to clubs for the first time, in platform heels and bodycon, soundtracked by songs with the ethos that you should “dance like it’s the last night of your life”. It was about living for tonight, raising your glasses up, and, of course, doing shots, shots, shots, shots, shots shots (“everyboodddyyyy”).
So, attending BST at Hyde Park last Friday to see the 2010s rapper Pitbull, along with support acts Tinie Tempah and Kesha, was nothing short of a homecoming. It’s hard to convey the magnitude of the euphoria that came with screaming, “Let’s forget about tomorrow because tonight, we’re drinking from the bottle” with Tinie Tempah. As I chanted Pitbull’s “Don’t Stop the Party”, I was a woman possessed, heeding his gospel. “I will never stop the party, I promise, Pitbull!” My spirit – long dormant from the drudgery of adult everyday life – finally stirred. It felt like a life force rose up within me, a communion with the great party overlords reminding me what true fun, freedom and happiness feels like.
